The King Returns: Abraham vs. Demers
By Julian Kasdin (May 24, 2007) Doghouse Boxing
Not too long ago ‘King’ Arthur Abraham, 22-0 (17), would defend his title, in what became a brutal affair, against Edison Miranda. Abraham would easily control the fight early on until he got cocky and got caught with a small right hand that, luckily for Miranda, broke Abraham’s jaw. The following eight rounds saw Arthur survive a series of hard shots to a severely broken jaw while landing his own hard shots against Miranda, almost stopping the power punching Colombian in the ninth round. The end result was that Abraham would win via 12th round decision. Since then he has been on the shelf, recovering from his injuries, but this Saturday he makes his return fight against Canadian contender Sebastien ‘Double Trouble’ Demers, 20-0 (9).

Demers is pretty much an unknown by those outside of Canada that said he has logged some solid wins against Mamadou Thiam, Sherwin Davis, Stephane Desormiers and Ian MacKillop. While this is not a murders row of opponents it is the kind of fighters you pit a young man against to develop him further. Demers is tall, standing at 6’ and with his long 27.5 inch arms has an impressive reach. Demers has vowed to test Abraham’s jaw early, which would obviously let us know just how solid it still is, but would also leave Sebastien open to Abraham’s huge counter shots. Having never seen Demers fight I cannot really say much about him aside from what I think someone his size should do, which is jab and keep distance.

That all being Abraham has fought taller men before, most notably Kingsley Ikeke. Against Ikeke, Abraham was able to use his Winky Wright like guard and counter punching ability to control the fight from the outside and punish him inside. The end result was that Arthur was able to batter him around the ring and force a stoppage in the fifth round. However the big questions remain, is the hard punching Armenian still the same fighter? Can his chin withstand a shot, what are the chances that it will break again? All of this will obviously be answered on Saturday but it is swirling around in the minds of many boxing fans. Let’s be clear many fighters have had their jaws broken before and gone on to have very successful careers after, I need not remind anyone that Ali fought Frazier, Foreman and Norton immediately after Ken had broken his jaw. Also Abraham’s confidence in his ability to take a shot has to be sky high given that he was never even wobbled by Miranda’s vaunted power.

Some may call me crazy but I think Abraham comes back a better fighter knowing that he has the chin and heart to survive pretty much anything that gets dished out at him. Demers is a solid fighter and given Abraham’s inactivity might trouble him early, but I think that Abraham will eventually impose his skill and power on Demers stopping him around round seven.


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Julian at: Alcaldemb@aol.com
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