AA BROKEN DOWN
CHRIS EUBANK JNR booked his place in what could be a career-shaping World Boxing Super Series tournament by virtue of a prolonged, 12-round beating against the ghost of Arthur Abraham.
Both men knew that whoever won here at Wembley Arena would enter the newly-founded WBSS as third seed, with Avni Yildirim waiting in the quarter-finals. And, after dominating his 37-year-old opponent for almost the entirety, Eubank will now meet the undefeated Turk in October, with London the most likely host.
On paper, such a wide victory over Abraham – judges Marcus Mcdonnell and Oliver Brien had it 118-110, while Steve Weisfeld gave Eubank a 120-108 shutout – is highly impressive. But Abraham, now a veteran of 52 bouts, is not the force he once was and his landslide defeat to Gilberto Ramirez in 2016 was already evidence of that. A unanimous decision over Robin Krasniqi in April, however, had suggested that Abraham had something left to offer, but he will surely walk away from the sport after he was battered from pillar to post by Eubank, 10 years his junior.
The Brighton man could even afford to swing and miss wildly with left hooks throughout, although he connected with enough to ensure that it mattered not. He also had very little coming back with which to contend with.
Abraham, behind that trademark high guard, was not at all interested in moving his head and was marked up badly as early as the second round. It was not until the third that he threw anything meaningful himself, although the onetwo-left hook hit nothing but gloves and Eubank laughed in his face. In the fourth, Eubank pushed the Armenian back against the ropes and delivered four right uppercuts in a row, as if to highlight just how easy he was finding things. Abraham shrugged in
‘I HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE OUT THE TOP GUYS AT SUPERMIDDLE’
response but he was already clearly tiring. But there have been few tougher men than Abraham over the past decade and it was showing. Not even Eubank’s kitchen sink would have budged him much further than a couple of steps backwards.
There have been question marks over Eubank’s power, particularly up at super-middleweight, and this display will not have addressed many of them. The favourite hit him with just about every shot in the book at one stage or another but King Arthur never seriously wobbled.
It was also boxed at a fairly slow pace, with Eubank happy to take his time and conserve his energy while Abraham, breathing heavily almost throughout, was unable and unwilling to up the tempo at any point.
Even so, Eubank impressed in many ways and the crowd of around 8,000 seemed to love the action, especially Junior’s showboating, which threatened to descend into farce in the 10th as Abraham responded with some crotchthrusting of his own.
“It will be interesting to see the punch stats,” Eubank said afterwards. “There were a lot, but let me tell you that man has never been down on the canvas and for a good reason. I hit him with every single shot in the book, he was very hurt at some stages, but he hung in there, so a lot of respect for him.”
On the subject of power, he added: “Of course I have the power to take out the top guys at super middleweight, he was close to being out of there. But obviously he is a naturally bigger guy than me, I probably went into the ring weighing around 12 stone, but it is the path I am going down and I am fully prepared.”
Meanwhile, Abraham’s promoter Kalle Sauerland afterwards admitted that he will sit down with the former two-weight world champion to discuss what is next. Retirement must be high up on a very short list.
But for Eubank, the future is increasingly bright. Another successful event on ITV Box Office and a marquee name, even in the circumstances, added to his burgeoning record. Yildirim will provide a very tough test but Eubank is now just one victory away from challenging for the full WBA supermiddleweight title.
Current incumbent George Groves, who was working as a pundit for ITV, faces Jamie Cox in his quarter-final, with the winner due to meet either Eubank or Yildirim in the semi-final early next year.
Eubank said: “You can’t run, you can’t duck, you can’t swerve, you can’t come up with excuses, you have signed a contract and you have to fight me.”