By Dan Rafael/ESPN
When the Super Six World Boxing Classic began, Abraham, the former middleweight titlist with wrecking-ball power, was the second favorite to win it all behind Mikkel Kessler. Abraham began the tournament well, too, drilling Jermain Taylor in the 12th round of their opening bout in October 2009. But since then, it has been all downhill for Germany’s Abraham, who turns 31 on Feb. 20. In his second bout of the tournament, Abraham was being dominated and was trailing by wide margins on all three scorecards against Andre Dirrell in the 11th round. When Dirrell slipped to the canvas, Abraham hit him with a brutal and illegal punch while he was down and was disqualified. In his Group Stage 3 fight against Carl Froch for a vacant super middleweight belt, Abraham looked like a lost puppy. He barely threw any punches and lost by virtual shutout decision in a performance even worse than the one he turned in against Dirrell. With a semifinal bout looming in May against titleholder and tournament leader Andre Ward, Abraham elected to take a tuneup bout to see if he could get himself together. Facing Slovenia’s Bozic, 36, Abraham did not have much time to do anything, however. Abraham was busy for a change and had easily won the first round, but in the second round, Bozic landed a left hand on Abraham’s elbow and seemed to damage his hand. He dropped to a knee in apparent pain and when it was clear he would not go on, referee Daniel Van de Wiele called it off at 1 minute, 1 second. Bozic lost for the second time in three bouts.