Saturday December 8, 2007
Arthur Abraham

Basel, Switzerland

 RESULT: Abraham Wins
by TKO in the 5th

IBF middleweight champion "King" Arthur Abraham (25-0, 20 KOs) impressively took apart Wayne Elcock (18-3, 8 KOs) round by round on Saturday night at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. Arthur dropped Elcock in round two and continued to dismantle Elcock, dropping the challenger again in round five before referee Wayne Kelly stopped the slaughter at the 1:58 mark. It was Abraham's sixth successful title defense.

Wayne Elcock's trip to Basle in Switzerland ended in defeat as IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham knocked him out in the fifth round.  The British challenger collapsed into the referee's arms after Abraham badly hurt him with a right-left combination with 62 seconds to go in the round.  After a cagey opening, Abraham sent the Birmingham fighter down with a straight right in the second round.  The 33-year-old bounced back by landing some nice combinations in the next two rounds, before Abraham's eye swelling up following an accidental headbutt.  But the champion turned on the style in the fifth, with Elcock receiving another count when a big right almost fired him out of the ring.  The one-two combination then ended Elcock's quest and he admitted afterwards: "It did not work tonight.  "It was a bad day in the office and I am very disappointed.

"Abraham is a great champion and he proved it. I just want to say thanks to the people in Switzerland and it is a shame I could not put more of a fight on but I will be back."

Abraham, a German of Armenian descent who lives in Berlin, said: "I feel very happy - it wasn't easy.  "It was a hard fight. After the swelling I thought I better finish him off because I didn't want my eye to get closed.  "I am relieved. I tried to look for his mistakes in the first rounds - I kept observing and then made my move. That's my style."