Abraham never got into any sort of rhythm against Ward, and similar to his bout against Carl Froch, appeared to be spent both physically and mentally by the end of the fight. Abraham never really pressed the action against Ward, content to throw wild haymakers and even pulling punches during the championship rounds. Ward, on the other hand, looked sharp and executed nice ring generalship with crisp jabs, shots to the stomach and combinations while staying out of harm’s way. Kudos to referee Luis Pabon of Puerto Rico for keeping the match from becoming a dirty one. Pabon kept the fighters separated and gave strong verbal warnings to the fighters when the two shaved heads started acting like third fists or when punches started landed close to the nether-regions of the two fighters..
Abraham and his camp need some wizardry to figure out how to beat quicker-throwing opponents with strong technical skills like Froch and Ward. I scored the bout 119-99 in favor of Ward, giving Abraham a single round (the third). Judges ringside scored the bout 120-110, 118-111 and 118-110.
On the undercard, Chris “The Nightmare” Arreola defeated Nagy “Dominican Dynamite” Aguilera by TKO in the third round of a crowd-pleasing heavyweight bout that featured plenty of action. Both fighters displayed good legs, jabs and combinations, each scoring clean and powerful shots, but Arreola’s power was too explosive for East Coast native Aguilera. Displaying a Herculean ability to withstand Arreola’s bombs to the face and body, Aguilera gamely fought back from near-knockouts but couldn’t offer much in return in the third round. Referee Raul Caiz, Jr. waved off the bout after witnessing too many unanswered shots land on Aguilera, with no complaints from the Dominican Dynamite’s corner.
An impressive outing for Arreola, who has too often showed up for critical bouts—e.g., against Vitali Klitschko (254 lbs.) and Tomasz Adamek (261 lbs.)—in poor shape. The Nightmare looked as trim as he as ever has (“trim” being a relative term), weighing 234 lbs., a weight Arreola hasn’t fought at since he first emerged on the heavyweight scene.
Hopefully, Arreola’s strong performance against Aguilera will put him back on track for a shot of one the heavyweight belts currently held by the Klitschko brothers and David Haye of Great Britain. I had Arreola ahead two rounds to zip at the time of stoppage.
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