Arthur Abraham

Arthur Abraham
Statistics
Real name	Avetik Abrahamyan
Nickname(s)	King Arthur Abrahammer
Rated at	Middleweight Super Middleweight
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Reach	72 in (183 cm)
Nationality	Armenian German
Born	February 20, 1980 (1980-02-20) Yerevan, Armenia
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	36
Wins	33
Wins by KO	27
Losses	3
Draws	0
No contests	0 Official site

Arthur Abraham (born Avetik Abrahamyan on 20 February 1980 in Yerevan, Armenia) is an Armenian-German professional boxer residing in Berlin, Germany. He was an IBF Middleweight Champion from 2005 to 2009, making ten successful defences of his title. As of the end of 2009, The Ring has ranked Abraham as the 14th best boxer in the world. On 5 March 2010, Abraham was ranked #8 in the world by Yahoo! Sports.

Personal life

Arthur Abraham was born on 20 February 1980, in Yerevan, Armenia to parents Grigor and Sylvia Abrahamyan. His little brother, Alexander, is also a professional boxer and his older brother, Christian, owns a furniture shop. He moved to Germany with his parents and brothers at the age of 15. He became a citizen of Germany in August 2006.

As a teenager, Abraham showed an interest in cycling. He became the North Bavarian and Franconian Youth Champion. However, after watching an exciting Mike Tyson fight, Arthur was inspired by Tyson's intensity and wanted to become a boxing star too.

In 1999, Arthur and his brothers returned to Armenia for military service. After 2002, all the brothers had finished their military service and returned to Germany in 2003.

Arthur has a girlfriend back in Armenia. They're engaged.

Abraham plans on opening a boxing school in Armenia following his future retirement. He will also have foreign language classes for students at the boxing school, such as English and German. "If a boxer knows no foreign language, he cannot have success internationally," Abraham noted.

Amateur career

Abraham boxed as an amateur in Bamberg and later in Nuremberg. He was an International Junior Welterweight German Champion in 1997 and a three time Senior Light Middleweight Armenian Champion in 2000, 2001 and 2002. His final amateur record was 81-3-6 (48 KO).

In 2003, Arthur and Alexander competed alongside promoter and manager Wilfried Sauerland and his head coach Ulli Wegner. Arthur was a sparring partner for IBF and WBA Super Middleweight Champion Sven Ottke, whom was in the preparations of a title defense. Wegner was so impressed that he began to train Arthur personally.

Professional career

Middleweight

Abraham started his professional career on August 16, 2003, after being discovered by HyeFighters. Sauerland-promoted Abraham had many impressive early victories. He defeated Canadian southpaw Ian Gardner (18–1) for the vacant WBA Inter-Continental middleweight title, Hector Velazco (former WBO Champion) and contender Nader Hamdan (36–1).

In July 2005, Abraham defended his WBA Inter-Continental title against the highly regarded Britain Howard Eastman. Eastman had previously only lost to American William Joppy and former undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

IBF Middleweight Champion

On 10 December 2005, in Leipzig, Germany, Abraham won the vacant IBF Middleweight title against Kingsley Ikeke by a 5th round knock-out. The IBF belt had previously been vacated by undisputed champion Jermain Taylor after a bout with Abraham was denied in October that year.

Abraham defended his title on 5 March 2006 with a unanimous decision against Australian Shannan Taylor. Two months later, Abraham won a second title defense against Kofi Jantuah, also on points.

On 23 September 2006, Abraham won a decision against undefeated contender Edison Miranda despite having his jaw broken in two places in round five. Miranda took advantage of this by fighting dirty. Miranda was deducted five points for landing repeated low blows as well as intentionally headbutting Abraham. However, even without the five points deducted, Abraham would have still won the fight (final result: 114:109, 115:109, 116:109). Abraham's jaw was operated on the night after the fight. He had 22 screws inserted into two titanium plates. After the Miranda bout, Arthur was praised for his ability to finish the fight despite his injury.

Abraham defeated Canadian Sébastien Demers by KO in the third round after two minutes and fifty-seven seconds. Abraham was clearly physically superior than his opponent. Arthur won his fifth title defense by defeating fellow Armenian Khoren Gevor by 11th round knockout from a powerful left hook.

On 8 December 2007, Abraham defeated Wayne Elcock to make his sixth title defense by technical knockout in the 5th round.

During two of his matches, Arthur Abraham was accompanied by live performances of the Scorpions and is currently accompanied by the track "Ready For The Fight" by The Young Punx.

On 29 March 2008, Abraham defeated American Elvin Ayala via 12th round KO after connecting with a devastating left hook that sent his opponent crashing to the canvas face first. This was Abraham's 7th successful title defence.

Abraham-Miranda II

On 21 June 2008, the fight took place at a catchweight of 166 lbs. Abraham's IBF middleweight title was not on the line. Abraham immediately backed Miranda up with hard right jabs before backing off himself behind a high, tight guard. A Miranda right hand landed off the gloves of Abraham as he came out more measured than he had the first time around. Abraham set in to work the body but a stray shot brought a low blow warning from the referee. Miranda made the fight throughout the second round as Abraham did little in the way of punching. Thudding body shots landed on Abraham, but Miranda could get little past the gloves upstairs. A low blow landed from Miranda in the final thirty seconds that brought a brief halt to the action; Abraham calmly caught his breath before returning to his defensive posture.

Abraham waved Miranda forward after another barrage of shots bounced off his gloves before landing two body shots and a hard right hand for his best work of the bout. Miranda drew a warning for holding and hitting before another right hand from Abraham buckled his knees. Abraham stepped back rather than following up, choosing to maintain a methodical game plan. The game plan was sound. In the first minute of the fourth round, a perfectly timed right hand-left hook sent Miranda to the floor. Miranda rose, clearly hurt, and this time Abraham would not fail to press the advantage.

Another left hook would drop Miranda along the ropes and Miranda would again rise but his legs were clearly gone and the end was at hand. Abraham would land a final striking right hand for the round's third knockdown as the referee leapt in to halt the action before Miranda could attempt to rise again.

On 8 November 2008, "King Arthur" Abraham (28–0, 22 KOs), 28, defeated Raúl Márquez (41–4–1, 29 KOs), 37, by a 6th round technical knockout, at the Bamberg's Jako Arena, the 8th defense of his IBF middleweight boxing title. He retained his IBF title on 14 March 2009 against Lajuan Simon, his first fight over 12 rounds since his legendary battle against Edison Miranda. The 10th and last defense of his middlweight title took place in Berlin against Turkish-German boxer Mahir Oral. Abraham won this fight by a 10th round technical knockout. Oral's coach threw in the towel after several knockdowns.

Super Six

After failing to secure a match-up with WBO and WBC Champion Kelly Pavlik or WBA Champion Felix Sturm, Arthur announced that he would change his weight class to compete at super middleweight. Abraham participated in the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament for the WBA and WBC super middleweight titles. Fellow participants were: WBA Champion Mikkel Kessler, WBC Champion Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Jermain Taylor.

In his first match of the tournament, Abraham faced Jermain Taylor in 17 October 2009. Arthur was previously supposed to fight Taylor for the undisputed middleweight title, but the fight never fell through. Abraham defeated Taylor via a devastating knockout in the 12th round. Taylor was hospitalized with a severe concussion, suffering short term memory loss, unable to remember details of this bout. Taylor was replaced with veteran Allan Green in the tournament. After being released from the hospital, Taylor released a statement saying that he's doing just fine and wanted to congratulate Abraham on his victory and wish him well in the tournament. Former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson was in attendance and was impressed by Abraham's intensity and determination.

On 27 March 2010, Arthur lost his next fight by disqualification due to hitting Andre Dirrell after he slipped in the 11th round. At the point of the disqualification, the scores were 97–92, 98–91, and 97–92 all in favor of Dirrell. However, Abraham was coming back in the last couple of rounds and could have potentially still won by knockout. Also, various observers of the fight, including former Light Heavyweight Champion Henry Maske and fellow Super Six participants Mikkel Kessler and Allan Green, felt Dirrell exaggerated his reaction after getting hit.

On 27 November 2010, Abraham lost to Carl Froch in his third fight of the tournament, which was also for the vacant WBC super middleweight title. Abraham was dominated from start to finish, losing by a unanimous decision. The scores given by the judges were 119–109, 120–108 and 120–108, which reflected the one-sided nature of the bout.

Abraham qualified for the semifinals, having one win out of three fights. But first, Arthur had a pre-fight with Croatian contender Stjepan Božić. Abraham won by technical knockout in the second round due to an injury in Božić's hand. On 14 May 2011, Abraham faced undefeated American Andre Ward in the Super Six semifinals for the WBA super middleweight title. Abraham lost by unanimous decision.

Return to Middleweight

On 30 October 2011, Abraham announced that he intends to return to the middleweight division in 2012.

In his first comeback fight on 14 January 2012, Abraham defeated Argentinian Pablo Oscar Natalio Farias via technical knockout in round five and won the vacant WBO European Super Middleweight Championship. After Abraham landed several hard combinations that put Farias down three times in the fifth round, referee Manuel Maritxalar stopped the fight.

Boxing accomplishments

Amateur career

International:

• 1997 International Junior Welterweight German Champion
• 2000, 2001 and 2002 Senior Light Middleweight Armenian Champion

Professional career

Major World Titles:

• 2005–2009 IBF Middleweight World Champion (10 defenses)

Regional Titles:

• 2004 WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight Champion (3 defenses)
• 2005 WBF Intercontinental Middleweight Champion
• 2012 WBO European Super Middleweight Champion

Professional boxing record

33 Wins (27 knockouts, 6 decisions), 3 Losses (0 knockouts, 2 decisions, 1 disqualification), 0 Draws
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Date	Location	Notes
N/A	N/A	Piotr Wilczewski	N/A	(12)	31/03/2012	Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany	Defending WBO European Super Middleweight title.
Win	33–3	Pablo Farias	TKO	5 (12)	14/01/2012	Baden-Arena, Offenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Won vacant WBO European Super Middleweight title.
Loss	32–3	Andre Ward	UD	12 (12)	14/05/2011	The Home Depot Center, Carson, California, United States	For WBA Super Middleweight title.
Win	32–2	Stjepan Božić	TKO	2 (10)	12/02/2011	RWE Rhein-Ruhr Sporthalle, Muelheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Božić was unable to continue due to an apparently injured left hand.
Loss	31–2	Carl Froch	UD	12 (12)	27/11/2010	Hartwall Arena, Helsinki, Finland	3rd Round Super Six World Boxing Classic. For vacant WBC Super Middleweight title.
Loss	31–1	Andre Dirrell	DQ	11 (12)	27/03/2010	Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan, United States	2nd Round Super Six World Boxing Classic.
Win	31–0	Jermain Taylor	KO	12 (12)	17/10/2009	O2 World, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany	1st Round Super Six World Boxing Classic.
Win	30–0	Mahir Oral	TKO	10 (12)	27/06/2009	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	29–0	Lajuan Simon	UD	12 (12)	14/03/2009	Ostseehalle, Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	28–0	Raúl Márquez	RTD	6 (12)	08/11/2008	Jako Arena, Bayern, Bamberg, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	27–0	Edison Miranda	TKO	4 (12)	21/06/2008	Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida, United States	Catch weight of 166 pounds.
Win	26–0	Elvin Ayala	KO	12 (12)	29/03/2008	Sparkassen-Arena, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	25–0	Wayne Elcock	TKO	5 (12)	08/12/2007	St. Jakob Halle, Basel, Switzerland	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	24–0	Khoren Gevor	KO	11 (12)	18/08/2007	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	23–0	Sébastien Demers	KO	3 (12)	26/05/2007	Jako Arena, Bamberg, Bayern, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	22–0	Edison Miranda	UD	12	23/09/2006	Rittal Arena, Wetzlar, Hessen, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	21–0	Kofi Jantuah	UD	12	13/05/2006	Stadthalle, Zwickau, Sachsen, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	20–0	Shannan Taylor	UD	12	04/03/2006	EWE Arena, Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany	Retained IBF Middleweight title.
Win	19–0	Kingsley Ikeke	KO	5 (12)	10/12/2005	Arena Leipzig, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany	Won vacant IBF Middleweight title.
Win	18–0	Luis Daniel Parada	TKO	5 (8)	01/10/2005	EWE Arena, Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Win	17–0	Howard Eastman	UD	12	16/07/2005	Nuremberg Arena, Nuremberg, Bayern, Germany	Retained WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight title.
Win	16–0	Hector Javier Velazco	KO	5 (12)	23/04/2005	Arena Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany	Retained WBA Intercontinental and won WBF Inter-Continental Middleweight titles.
Win	15–0	Ian Gardner	UD	12	12/02/2005	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany	Won vacant WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight title.
Win	14–0	Roberto Mario Vecchio	TKO	6 (8)	20/11/2004	BigBox, Kempten, Bayern, Germany
Win	13–0	Nader Hamdan	TKO	12 (12)	04/09/2004	Grugahalle, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany	Won vacant WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight title.
Win	12–0	Dave Nash	KO	2 (8)	03/07/2004	Stadthalle, Hattersheim am Main, Hessen, Germany
Win	11–0	Mark Flynn	KO	3 (8)	05/06/2004	Chemnitz Arena, Chemnitz, Sachsen, Germany
Win	10–0	Cristian Oscar Zanabria	KO	5 (8)	17/04/2004	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany
Win	9–0	Branko Sobot	TKO	2 (8)	27/03/2004	Bördelandhalle, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany
Win	8–0	Steve Walker	KO	2 (8)	28/02/2004	Mehrzweckhalle, Dresden, Sachsen, Germany
Win	7–0	Gabriel Botos	TKO	2 (6)	31/01/2004	Sportcenter Jumps, Weissensee, Berlin, Germany
Win	6–0	Alexandru Manea	TKO	3 (6)	17/01/2004	Rhein-Mosel-Halle, Koblenz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
Win	5–0	Cezary Piotrowski	KO	4 (6)	13/12/2003	Nuernberg Arena, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany
Win	4–0	Tomas Vican	TKO	2 (6)	22/11/2003	Erdgas Arena, Riesa, Sachsen, Germany
Win	3–0	Sladko Cizicz	TKO	3 (4)	04/10/2003	Stadthalle, Zwickau, Sachsen, Germany
Win	2–0	Petr Rykala	TKO	2 (4)	06/09/2003	Messehalle, Erfurt, Thüringen, Germany
Win	1–0	Frank Kary Roth	TKO	3 (4)	16/08/2003	Nuerburgring race track, Nuerburg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany	Arthur's professional debut.

Outside of boxing

Abraham has gained much popularity in Germany and appears regularly in various formats on German television. On 24 October 2009, he appeared in Cologne, Germany for an exhibition match against entertainer Oliver Pocher in a bouncy, castle-like "ring" and fought with huge, air-cushion-like boxing gloves. On 9 April 2010, Abraham took to the dance show Let's Dance on RTL with partner Nina Uszkureit, but left after the first episode of the show in order to concentrate fully on his boxing career.

In the movie Max Schmeling, he played a supporting role of boxer Richard Vogt, Schmeling´s last opponent. Just as in real life, Ulli Wegner was in his corner.

Awards

• 2009 Berlin Sportsman of the Year
• Child Award 2009
• On 21 September 2008, Abraham and fellow boxer Vic Darchinyan were honored by Armenian President Serge Sargsyan during a 20th anniversary celebration of the nation's independence. Both men were awarded with medals "For the great services for Armenia" of the first degree.

See also

• List of IBF world champions
• Reigning boxing champions

External links

• Official Website
• Professional boxing record for Arthur Abraham from BoxRec

Achievements
Vacant Title last held by Jermain Taylor	IBF Middleweight Champion December 10, 2005 – July 12, 2009 Vacated	Vacant Title next held by Sebastian Sylvester