In Kiel, Germany last night, Paul Smith put in the most gallant of efforts to wrestle the WBO super-middleweight title from the holder, Arthur Abraham.
Watching the two pugilists battle it out for twelve pulsating rounds, I was of the view that the fight was close, very close.
In fact waiting for the judge?s scores to be read out, it wouldn?t have surprised me if the fight had been declared a draw, a split decision or one boxer taking it by the odd point or two.
Unfortunately, it appears that the three judges had been watching a different fight to the one you and I had been watching with the scores being announced as:-
? 117-111 (in favour of Abraham)
? 117-111 (in favour of Abraham)
? 119-109 (in favour of Abraham)
In short it was a total travesty!
Smith, marched into the champion?s backyard and gave him the hardest night he?s likely to have for many a year. The Liverpool fighter, cheered on by a thousand of his fans, switched his attacks from head to body as he attempted to knock the sting out of Abraham.
Abraham had his moments but, to be brutally honest, he never had Smith in any kind of trouble as the Liverpool boxer boxed beautifully behind his jab and keeping just the right distance away from his foe.
The look of disbelief, in Smith?s eyes, when the score-cards were read out, said it all and after the fight Smith had this to say about what was clearly very poor-scoring,
‘That’s twice I have been on the end of a wrong decision and it has shattered my world.’
‘I knew I had the beating of him but I did a lot right and was outworking him in every round. ?
‘I believed I had done enough and won the fight but the judges didn’t. I feel robbed.’
The biggest injustice isn?t the fact that Smith lost but the fact that when the record books are studied in the years to come, those scores will show it as a one-sided fight and we all know it was far more than that.
But Smith can take consolation from the fact that he has proven beyond doubt that he belongs in this level of boxing, world class.
Smith Suffers the Greatest of Injustices!
