Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) fought the fight of his life on Saturday night in losing a 12 round unanimous decision to WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) by a set of scores that were far too wide at the Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Smith deserved a victory or at least a draw out of the fight because he was the one making the fight in many of the rounds. The judges scored the fight 117-111, 117-111 and 118-109
Abraham uncharacteristically went on the attack mode early in the fight in taking the fight to Smith. But after several rounds, Abraham slowed way down and spent much of each round covering up behind his high guard while Smith carefully landed shots to his head and body.
Abraham did a good job in throwing powerful jabs that frequently caught Smith while he was in punching range. But Smith was the one landing many of the cleaner shots. By the 8th, Smith appeared to be in control of the fight. Abraham was taking rounds off and letting Smith control the fight.
In the later rounds, Smith continued to fight well in getting the better of Abraham. The one round where Smith did poorly was in the 12th round. Abraham landed some big shots in that round and appeared to dominate it. But even if Smith had won the 12th, he still would have lost the fight because the judges had Abraham winning by a wide enough margin to where he could have afforded to lose the 12th.
It’s too bad that Smith lost the fight because he’s not going to get a rematch. Abraham’s promoter Kalle Sauerland said he wants to match Abraham up against the winner of Robert Stieglitz vs. Felix Sturm next.
Under the undercard, middleweight Matthew Macklin (30-5, 20 KOs) had to struggle hard to defeat little known Jose Yebes (12-5-1, 5 KOs) by an 8 round majority decision. The judges scored the fight 77-75, 77-75 and 76-76. Macklin was fortunate to get the victory because Yebes fought well enough to deserve a decision in that fight. Macklin was beaten to the punch in many of the rounds, and badly out-worked in the last 5 rounds.
Other action on the card:
Mateusz Masternak RTD 5 Ben Nsafoah
Enrico Koelling TKO 5 Daniel Regi
Stefan Haertel DQ 4 Leo Tchoula
Fouad El Massoudi pts 6 Arman Torosyan
