Undefeated WBA champion Andre Ward moved one win away from claiming the ground-breaking inaugural Super Six World Boxing Classic Cup with a convincing 12-round unanimous decision over “King” Arthur Abraham at The Home Depot Center. Ward (24-0, 13 KOs) will face the winner of the June 4 Super Six Semifinal between Carl “The Cobra” Froch (27-1, 20 KOs) and former world champion Glen “The Road Warrior” Johnson (51-14-2, 35 KOs) of Miami, Fla., for the right to fight for the Super Six title and 168-pound world supremacy sometime in the fall.
Fighting outside the comfortable confines of Oakland, Calif., for the first time in 20 months spanning three fights, Ward defended his WBA belt for the third time in what SHOWTIME expert analyst Al Bernstein called one of Ward’s “most complete wins he’s ever had in his career.”
Judge Stanley Christodoulou scored every round to Ward (120-108) while German judge Ingo Barrabas had it (118-110) and Dr. James Jen Kin had Ward winning, 118-111.
A boisterous crowd cheered both for the Californian Ward and Abraham, backed by hundreds of loud Armenian fans from Southern California. “Arthur Abraham was strong and very determined,” Ward said. “He had passionate fans and he didn’t want to lose in front of them. I’m going to stay humble and keep working hard. I want to be champion for a long time and take the least amount of punishment possible.”