Arthur Abraham retained his WBO super middleweight belt by defeating Paul Smith of England by unanimous decision for the second time on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.
The judges scored their rematch 116-112, 117-111, 117-111 in favor of Abraham, who again dominated in the face of a spirited challenge from Smith. Smith was angered to lose their first bout in September in Kiel, Germany, but there could no doubt about the winner here.
The Armenian-born German seemed comfortable taking Smith’s punches and was more effective with his own, delivering punishing barrages that the Liverpudlian did well to weather.
Abraham improved to 42-4 (28 KOs) after making the third defense of the title he won back from Robert Stieglitz by split decision in March 2014. Smith dropped to 35-5 (20 KOs).
