12.12.06 – by Matt Stein: Colombian middleweight Edison Miranda (26-1, 23 KO’s) will return to the ring this Saturday night when he fights Willie Gibbs (20-1, 16 KO’s) at the Miccosukee Resort & Gaming, in Miami, Florida. The fight will be showed live on HBO, which will give American’s audience a first time of seeing the young 25-year old Miranda, who is currently is the #1 ranked middleweight in the IBF. Miranda, best known for his huge knockout power, is taking on another tough up and coming middleweight in Willie Gibbs. For his part, Gibbs has been very impressive since turning professional in 2001, winning the majoring of his fights by knockout. Aside from his lone loss, a 4th round knockout loss to Daniel Edouard in August 2004, he has showed excellent potential.
In September 2006, Miranda suffered a 12-round controversial loss to IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, a fight in which Miranda broke Abraham’s jaw in the 4th round.
Later, in the next round, the referee stopped the action following an intentional head butt by Miranda. During the five minute break, the ring doctor was seen treating Abraham’s mouth, as area that was unaffected by the head butt. At this point, Abraham looked ready to quit, partly because he was unable to close his mouth due to his broken jaw. However, after a brief period of confusion, where the referee seemed ready to stop the fight, oddly enough, the fight was allowed to continue despite Abraham’s serious injury and the referee’s recommendations to stop it.
Over the remainder of the rounds, Miranda appeared to be the much stronger fighter, often punishing Abraham with his powerful two-handed shots. Yet, Miranda was penalized for a head butt and two low blows, thus swinging the fight in Abraham’s favor.
In reviewing the fight for this article, I noted that of the two low blow point deductions, only one of them appeared warranted, since the low blow in the 11th round was on Abraham’s belt line. Whatever, the case, Abraham appeared to win only one round, the 9th, without the help of the fouls being called on Miranda, from my view of the fight. In fact, I had Miranda easily winning the first four rounds, mostly due to his constant work rate which had Abraham on the run trying to survive.
After the 5th round, the fight became even more one-sided with Miranda constantly stalking Abraham, pinning him to the ropes and unloading tremendous shots that often landed cleanly to Abraham’s face, contorting it in a grotesque manner. Abraham had his best moments of the fight in the 9th round, when he tagged Miranda with a beautiful right hand, catching him when he least suspected it and hurting him. Later in the round, Abraham seemed to hurt Miranda again with another big right hand shot. However, Abraham was unable to finish the job and Miranda escaped the round without going down. In the final three rounds, it was all Miranda, as he savagely beat Abraham, knocking him about from pillar to post.
In the 11th round, however, Miranda was penalized once again for a low blow. On replay, the blow was shown to be on the Abraham’s belt line. Nevertheless, the damage was done, and another round was awarded to Abraham.
Following the fight, the IBF kept Miranda as the number # 1 ranked fighter, due to the massive confusion involved with the 5th round, among other things.
If Miranda can win this fight, there’s a potential for a rematch with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham. Of course, that rests on whether or not Abraham recovers from his broken jaw, which at this point is unclear.