Unbeaten middleweight world champion Arthur Abraham (30-0, 24 KOs) retained his IBF title with a thrilling tenth-round technical knockout over German-based Turk Mahir Oral (25-2-2, 7 KOs) on Saturday night at the Max Schmeling Halle in Berlin, Germany. Abraham scored five knockdowns in all, including three in round ten before Oral’s corner stopped the fight.

The opening round was pretty calm as both fighters were focused and cautious trying not to take any punches and using their jabs to feel the space between each other. Abraham connected with a hard left to take the first stanza closely. Surprisingly, the WBA #7, IBF #11 and WBO #13 ranked Oral started to take the fight over in the second round. Oral was successful in taking the champion out of his defensive shell, scoring several times with the huge left and right hooks, when ‘King’ Arthur was opening up. Round two was all Oral’s and he also took the first two minutes of the third before being involved in a two-way exchange at the end of the stanza, which saw Abraham being a bit luckier with his huge blows. The fight seemed to be heading in a rough direction for the reigning champion, when Oral started the fourth round as confident as the previous two. But during the third minute of the fourth Abraham suddenly exploded with a huge multipunch combination, which forced Oral to lose his composure, shook him up and sent him into a hard knock-down after a thunderous right by the champion. Oral stood up on shaky legs and was lucky to survive till the ending bell of the round.

While the fight seemed about over, Oral dug deep and found some inner reserves in him to recover during a hard fifth round and even to land some bombs at the end of it. Round six saw his confidence growing up again but when the Turkish fighter was seemingly gaining his earlier composure, Abraham connected with a huge downright right hand that sent Oral down for the second time in the bout. ‘Lion” Oral was able to last till the end of the round again. Round seven was a time off for ‘King’ Arthur as he spent the whole stanza trying to find a weak spot in Oral’s unsteady defense but landed zero power punches. He began to operate with his usual frequency in the eighth; his punches easily penetrating his opponent’s block thanks to their enormous power. Round nine was once again huge for the champion who was all over the challenger. Finally, Oral took a knee at the very beginning of the tenth after another of Abraham’s furious assaults. The challenger bravely stood up only to go down two more times after body shots by Arthur Abraham. The fight was waved off at 1:23 of the tenth round, when Oral’s corner threw in the towel after the third knockdown. Abraham’s tenth successful title defense in a thrilling two-way action.