Can someone disagree with me about AA, please?

Well, he has passively stopped 25 of his 31 opponents.

So maybe passive is his thing.

 

I have truly witnessed greatness! :rofl

 

Yes I can

Aside from the obvious what you admit already (chin and heart) which are imho special enough to be mentioned, there would be:

1. He is most surely the hardest hitter in MW and SMW division, with both left and right hand (ask Miranda)

2. He throws enough punches streight down the pipe (ask Taylor) and enough uppercuts (ask Ghevor), and if you look for wide looping punches go watch Miranda not AA

3. Nobody ever dented his defense so war, even Miranda just got lucky, the punch wasn't realy hard and didn't rock AA even a bit, it was just pure luck for Miranda, 1 lucky punch in 1000 and even then he couldn't finish off AA because he still couldn't penetrate his defense, and the few punches he did manage to land AA took in stride even with the broken jaw. If this isn't special...

4. He is a slow starter, but he fights full 12 rounds with the same deadly power, he has KOd lots of people in 10. 11. even 12. round, what more do you want?

5. He has an astounding ring intelligence, how much of this comes from him personally and how much from Ulli Wegner, I cannot tell for sure, I'd say they are a dream team together and nobody until this day came even near to outsmart AA in the ring, by a very large margin, and I can't imagine Direll will fare better then his unlucky predecessors, just wait and watch...

6. You just need to watch his fights, then you will see why AA is great, and if you don't see it then go by yourself a pair of glasses...

7. Forgot to mention, AA is a very nice and pleasent guy (outside of the ring of course) with a good behaviour and a good sense of humor. I still remember the press conference before the Abraham-Miranda II, while Miranda was trashtalking like there's no tomorrow (AA is crazy to step in the ring with him again, Miranda will hunt him down and slaughter him like a pig, ans so on and so on...) AA just told "Boxing is dangerous" and grinned broadly ;-)))

 

All hail the king!!

 

I think the chin of AA is grossly exaggerated sometimes.

In this famous blood battle vs. Miranda, he was asked twice if he wanted to continue and he said NO twice. (He seemed really worried about his health, which is a good thing and shows he has brains too). It was his manager Wilfried Sauerland who kept pushing the doc to let the fight continue anyways. AA then ran away 'til the end of the fight and it was only the typical scandalous German fight-doctoring that saved his title.

AA doesn't like to get hit. He has stated that himself. He's no Antonio Margarito.
In fact, whenever he does get hit, even by a featherfist like Oral, he seems staggered an promptly goes back into the shell.

I'm not saying he has a glass chin or anything, but he's no Jake LaMotta. And he doesn't have to be, because Dirrel surely lacks the power and the determination to knock him out. Dirrel's key to victory is to try to outwork him for at least 6 rounds (and then rely on homecourt advantage).

Abraham has no 100% KO-percentage, he has left weaker, slower, less skilled fighters standing. But I have to admit, I was surprised by his performance against Taylor. Not the KO, by this time Taylor probably passes out by himself twice a day, but that he'd won on points. Never thought that possible.

His defense is such that the only clean shots you can land, outside of countershots, are hooks to the body. But Abraham is not stationary, he uses his footwork very effectively in the shell and it takes a lot of guts to work the body of such a vicious and wild puncher.

I'm still not 100% certain about him. My gut just says that a guy who is so limited in his boxing technique will sooner or later be figured out. We'll see.

 

His awesomeness may no longer be debated. AA now sits high atop my p4p atg list.

 

abraham is the biggest puncher i have seen for years. his ko don't come from only one punch, normaly he gets a half clean shot on his opponent in the same round, and after that they are all staggered and in problems, aa can smell this, and start then with his wild shots to set up a great uppercut or a straight hand.
and his defense style is not only for tire out his opponents, he said himself that he needs normaly a couole of rounds to figure out his opponents, he takes a look at their timing and their moving, so that he can counter effectivly later.
but mark my words aa will knock dirrell out in the first six rounds, cause he wants to show the american audience that he is the new star.

 

Well, he is not great yet, because he is not proven enough to be great. The question is, does he show potential for greatness? I think so.

Sure, his style is not at all flashy. Certain fighters are able to make a very basic or even clumsy looking style extremely effective. I vividly remember how Larry Donald and his trainer chuckled about Vitali Klitschko and thought his stiff style would ne no problem for them. And indeed, Donald looks so much more fluid than Vitali, but in the ring Vitali would beat Donald every single time.

Similarly, Abraham doesn't have much movement, very little footwork, throws basic punches. But his ratio of forearm length to upper body, combined with his raw strength, makes his guard extremely effective. His chin and confidence makes it almost impossible to really hurt or confuse him. He knows very well when to let his hands go and even basic punches can be very effective with the right timing.

So basically, Abraham is a fighter who is hard to hit clean and very hard to hurt, but he can hurt opponents with a single punch. That is a tough assignement to deal with for anyone and may carry him to greatness.

 

Hahaha that's great!

I started a thread recently about boxing's most likable fighters and someone wrote a post about AA that was very interesting and real funny, I wish I weren't so lazy, I'd c/paste it here.

AA's a weird weird guy.

 

Funny!

 

A guy who has his jaw broke in the 4th round who then goes on to beat edison miranda = brilliant.

 

I'm not sold on him being a superstar yet, but he's rightly up there with the best in the division.

In my opinion there are two big tests left for him;

1 - he has to beat an athletic opponent that will be fairly elusive. Dirrell is probably the best example around. Dirrell is quick on his feet and (hopefully) the decision in the Froch fight will encourage him to throw more shots. This is a tough fight for AA. Dirrell wont stand and trade. So it's going to be interesting to see if AA's footwork and stalking that eventually proved succesful against (an older, battle worn) Taylor will be as succesful against the more youthful Dirrell.

2 - we need to see what happens when he lands a punch on a natural SMW. I think this has already been mentioned. His power is insane, but we're yet to see him spark a Kessler/Froch. A natural SMW with a good chin.

If passes both these tests then he could be something very special indeed.

 

He's not the most stylish fighter, if that's what you are looking for. However, he obviously knows how to win and has no clue how to lose. The way he has dispensed of his opponents (on American television anyway) is unmatched. To have that kind of power in the 12th against Taylor, though a bit shot, is unreal. It is also tough to argue that anybody in the sport has a better chin. His punches aren't the straightest, but they are accurate, fast, crisp, and powerful. The guy's a mule! He is yet to face somebody with that awesome combination of size and speed that Dirrell posesses, but he seems to be a guy who can overcome adversity and appears to have a high boxing IQ. I'd say I disagree with the opening statement, no doubt.

 

When Abraham punches with full force even the punches on the guard can stagger his opponent.

 

What bull****. Have you even seen the fight? AA said twice no because he thought it would go to the cards and he would win, when he was told he would lose he wanted to continue. That's on film ffs.
AA ran away? He had Miranda nearly out on his feet in the 10th and landed more and harder punches than him and fought hrough Miranda's dirty tactics (head-butting, low-blowing, holding and hittin, rabbit punching) and won.
You can make an argument that the fight should have been stopped in the 4th, you could also argue Miranda should have been disqualified. Fact is, it went the distance and the better fighter won
Nobody outside the Miranda camp and his fanboys think this was a scandalous fight actually.

And yeah, I just owned you. :good

Staggered? No, he doesn't. He doesn't like to be hit that's for sure but who outside of some Masochists do. He has one of the best defenses nowadays and one of the best chins. That's hard to beat.

Nobody ever stated he is a Jake LaMotta. Many guys tried to outwork AA, more experienced and better fighters failed - and yeah I think that Ghevor for example is a better mw than Dirrell is smw or at least more proven.

Abraham going the rounds with some of those fighters had to do because his trainer wanted him to do. They wanted him to go the full 12, so that he is ready when he has to. And he was badly weight drained towards the end of his time at mw. He looks far healthier and stronger a smw.

:good

He certainly will but no by someone whose only advanage is his speed. I see no one I would favour over him at smw at the moment but he would lose to someone like Hopkins or Calzaghe of a few years ago.