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After a series of long distance verbal jabs, IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham and mandatory challenger Edison Miranda met for the first time on Tuesday at a public training event in advance of their bitter showdown on Saturday at Rittal Arena in Wetzlar, Germany. Miranda at the VW Center arrived about 20 minutes late, then caught Abraham's eye and ran his finger across his throat. Abraham responded with his own gesture. "He should become grown-up", Abraham said about the unfriendly initial meeting. "Let´s see what the guy with the big mouth says after the fight."


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After a few minutes of shadow boxing, Miranda stated "I´m in Germany for the second time now, but it's the same as it would have been at the first time: I´ll knock him out. Actually Abraham is quite good - but nevertheless the fight won't last long." Abraham cracked the mitts loudly working with trainer Ulli Wegner. "I´ll defend my belt on Saturday, this much is certain," he promised, "doing all the talking is not enough to become a champion."

Lot's of needle to this fight. Could be a good one.

Despite the odds; I think this is a 50-50 fight.

E wrote:Despite the odds; I think this is a 50-50 fight.

Same here. Two relatively limited but strong fighters.

Love the photo.

Except for Eastman, Miranda's record only has journymen.

So how the hell did Miranda get a ranking?

Max Molyneux wrote:Except for Eastman, Miranda's record only has journymen.

So how the hell did Miranda get a ranking?

You could quite easily ask how did Eastman get another shot at a belt.

Max, seriously, please stop your love affair with every British boxer.

Both fighters can bang, thats why its a real 50-50, i'm gunna stick my neck on the line and say Abraham by late TKO.

This is shaping up to be a classic, live on ARD TV sat night @ 10pm.

Miranda could well be the hardest hitting middleweight around, just based on him hurting the rock chinned Eastman like that, but I can see Abraham being far too crafty for him..

AA will bide his time behind that high guard, push back Miranda when he can, and crash home hard punches every chance he gets.

The difference will be who has the better chin - and that's Abraham.

Abraham TKO9

These two characters are precisely what the division needs, two exciting big hitting middleweights with bad intentions. I'd like to see the winner of this fight in with Taylor and I get the impression Taylor is keen to face all his challengers.

I say it now, I think Jermaine is going to end up being a dominant champ. He's going to grow in stature over the next few years, and I think people will be talking about him as a P4P fighter pretty soon. He'll beat Winky this time around and for my money beats either of these guys with something to spare too.

I think Miranda has been acting - and appears in the staredown - as immature.

Abraham is a fighter who needs to be in a big intense event, as when he demolished Ikeke (whom Taylor was steered away from during his rise to the title). Kingsley was a perceived threat to him and AA fought punch perfect.

Technically, Miranda is just what AA needs. He likes to counter crude swings. However, he'd better be prepared to go at a fast pace.


Looks like there is no Taylor-Winky II. WW can be foolish asking for too much. He priced himself out of a Mosley fight around a year or 3 before they actually fought!

If Miranda takes the title back to America, Taylor will jump at the chance

Dunno about Taylor being potentially dominant. He's scraped by thus far and has showed some stamina defiicency. Was that due to him not being relaxed vs defensive masters BH and WW (a possibility)? Maybe, maybe not. if he would fade against a fighter like Miranda - as crude as he is - he would be in trouble.

Max Molyneux wrote:Except for Eastman, Miranda's record only has journymen.

So how the hell did Miranda get a ranking?

Eh?

First man to ever bang Eastman out merits a high ranking IMO. And since title fights are not the exclusive right of Winky Wright i fail to see what the hell your beef is with this exciting match up of punchers?!!?

MightyWarrior wrote:This is shaping up to be a classic, live on ARD TV sat night @ 10pm.

Miranda could well be the hardest hitting middleweight around, just based on him hurting the rock chinned Eastman like that, but I can see Abraham being far too crafty for him..

AA will bide his time behind that high guard, push back Miranda when he can, and crash home hard punches every chance he gets.

The difference will be who has the better chin - and that's Abraham.

Abraham TKO9

Abraham too crafty? You are crazy! Eastman is one of the craftiest boxers around. If he could not allude Miranda's punches, Abraham is dead meat!

Besides the Miranda- Eastman fight was a world title eliminator.

the way they're standing off, Abraham looks so relaxed. Just as Calzaghe did before fighting Lacy.

Aggresive fighters don't do so well in Germany. Not the same kind of atmosphere where they can get fired up. & when they fight someone defensively capable (as Abraham CAN be), you get some subdued efforts.

I think it will be a great fight. Miranda has the strength to grind him down. But does he have the skills?

Pantera wrote:

MightyWarrior wrote:This is shaping up to be a classic, live on ARD TV sat night @ 10pm.

Miranda could well be the hardest hitting middleweight around, just based on him hurting the rock chinned Eastman like that, but I can see Abraham being far too crafty for him..

AA will bide his time behind that high guard, push back Miranda when he can, and crash home hard punches every chance he gets.

The difference will be who has the better chin - and that's Abraham.

Abraham TKO9

Abraham too crafty? You are crazy! Eastman is one of the craftiest boxers around. If he could not allude Miranda's punches, Abraham is dead meat!

Yes, but eastman is a lazy bugger, always has been. He wouldn't have been stopped had he been firing back when he was under fire. He didn't look like he was on the verge of going down, but he left the ref little choice because he just lay there on the ropes taking shot after shot. I thought that Eastman could have weathered the storm, but he has been around long enough to know that if you aren't firing back and your getting hit repeatedly, the referee is going to have little option.

Dunno why everyone says Abrahama is so capable and crafty. I saw two fights of his, Ikeke and Eastman. Abraham vs. Eastman was a rubber match with a poorly prepared Eastman that could have gone either way. Abraham swallowed a lot in this fight and was dead tired after 8, 9 rounds (as was Eastman).

And Abraham vs. Ikeke was impressive of sorts, but then Abraham was scoring with the same trick over and over again -- feint, slip the counterpunch, get inside, land a combo, get outside. A well-prepared fighter would have sidstepped Abraham whenever he feinted, and in this case not much would have been left of Abraham's game.

So I see this as two strong, solid, but limited fighters squaring off. Both remind me a bit of Lacy. It could be an exciting match, and home-advantage means that Abraham is perhaps 60-40 favorite (although I bet on Miranda, pure gutfeeling). But neither would stand much of a chance with a world class operator like Taylor in the ring.

P

I think that Miranda is going to cause an upset here and win in 7-8 rounds.
Abraham hasn't impressed me against Jantuah and Taylor in his last couple of fights, both of whom were blown up Light-middles and nearing the end of their careers.

Miranda was impressive against Eastman and hits harder than Abraham, and looks to have a good workrate.

pundit wrote:Dunno why everyone says Abrahama is so capable and craft. I saw two fights of him, Ikeke and Eastman. Abraham vs. Eastman was a rubber match with a poorly prepared Eastman that could ahve gone either way. Abraham swallowed a lot in this fight and was dead tired after 8, 9 rounds (as was Eastman).

And Abraham vs. Ikeke was impressive of sorts, but then Abraham was scoring with the same trick over and over again -- feint, slip the counterpunch, get inside, land a combo, get outside. A well-prepared fighter would have sidstepped Abraham whenever he feinted, and in this case not much would have been left of Abraham's game.

So I see this as two strong, solid , but limited fighters squaring off. Both remind me a bit of Lacy. It could be an exciting match, and home-advantage means that Abraham is perhaps 60-40 favorite (although I bet on Miranda, pure gutfeeling). But neither would stand much of a chance with a world class operator like Taylor in the ring.

P

Ikeke was also apparently horrifically weight drained, not surprising really, how many 6' 4" middleweights are there out there?

Think Lacy puts his punches together better than either of these men, when he had a relatively slow moving target like Reid, he was hitting him with 3-4 shot combinations regularly. Good performance that, but against a moving target, he really struggled.

Pantera wrote:

MightyWarrior wrote:This is shaping up to be a classic, live on ARD TV sat night @ 10pm.

Miranda could well be the hardest hitting middleweight around, just based on him hurting the rock chinned Eastman like that, but I can see Abraham being far too crafty for him..

AA will bide his time behind that high guard, push back Miranda when he can, and crash home hard punches every chance he gets.

The difference will be who has the better chin - and that's Abraham.

Abraham TKO9

Abraham too crafty? You are crazy! Eastman is one of the craftiest boxers around. If he could not allude Miranda's punches, Abraham is dead meat!

Well we'll soon see wont we? I really think your boy is going down. The Eastman fights showed us who has the bigger punch: Miranda.

But more importantly, they showed us who has the better chin: Abraham.

Miranda's legs went at one point, showing us that like most big hitters, he doesn't hold one as well as he dishes out.

That's a huge advantage to take into what shapes up as a 50/50 fight.

Miranda has definate raw power and beat Eastman fair and square for his shot, however in his bout Jose Varela he showed good patience and boxing skills and that he can do the distance.

Abraham blows hot and cold, his emphatic win over Ikeke appears a case of styles make fights and flattered him i think, his laboured wins over Taylor and Jantuah show this. I expect him to have the edge in experience over Miranda though and stop him late or take it on points.

states wrote:

Max Molyneux wrote:Except for Eastman, Miranda's record only has journymen.

So how the hell did Miranda get a ranking?

You could quite easily ask how did Eastman get another shot at a belt.

Max, seriously, please stop your love affair with every British boxer.

Eastman's record is not all journymen though like Miranda's.

That is nothing to do with them being British, Eastman has won the Brit, Common and Euro titles to get up there and he was supposed to fight Taylor until he pulled out, so Eastman was given the shot.

Plus Eastman is not British.

I think Abraham will win this one, wish I was getting to see the fight live this is an exciting match. Don't blink!

Taylor has gotten his fair share of stick. There are still ppl who come up with good arguments that Hopkins and Winky beat him. & IMO he should've gunned for the Ikekes & Eastmans of the world to prepare himself for big fights.

But because of his hype, and the stick he's had recently, the pressure is on him to perform. So I think that Taylor CAN be an outstanding fighter, because he won't take his success for granted and probably won't take poor opponents on.

I'm half rooting for Miranda to win tomorrow, as a unification would be a natural AND easy-ish to set up.

We'll see if Miranda is for real in this one, because although he is undoubtedly hungry and can really bang, Abraham is an underrated boxer and a powerful puncher who took some of Eastman's better shots without ever looking too phased.

I'm picking Abraham by close-ish decision in this one, although he'll probably get wobbled once or twice along the way.