Quote Originally Posted by CFH View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Bilbo View Post
It will likely go to the latter rounds, maybe an Abraham points win.

As noted above Arthur rarely gets going early and as long as he's winning the fight comfortably may not even open up much at all.

I like Arthur, when he does go on the offensive I think he's the most devestating puncher in the whole middleweight division, it's just a shame his attacks rarely last longer than 15 seconds.

But I love his style, this is a bit abstract but he reminds me of the Ancient Greeks and their hoplites.

He starts by going into a defensive shell a la the Hoplites shield wall formation where he's just impenetrable to sword and arrow and then when the enemy have loosed all their arrows he launches into a brilliant attack, akin to Miltiades leading the Greek charge at Marathon or Pausanias routing the Persians at Plataea.

Whenever I watch him I just think of the start of the movie Troy when Achilles is landing with his troops on the beach, forget Katsidis Arthur Abraham is the real Greek Achilles
The Greek phalanx was pretty vulnerable to archers and any other type of fighting that did not involve head on combat with another phalanx or a like-minded group of opposing infantry. We actually just covered the Hoplite/Phalanx in my military history and technology class. There's a lot of mythology surrounding the Hoplite. The Persians blundered away many victories. Check out "The Western Way of War: Infantry Battles in Classical Greece" if you find this stuff interesting, I've enjoyed what I have read so far.

But I do agree with what you say about Abraham, he has the tools to be one of the most exciting fighters in boxing, but his safety first attitude holds him back.
I enjoy Ancient History. I prefer narrative works more than text heavy stuff though.

My favourite books on the subject are Persian Fire and Rubicon both by Tom Holland. He writes like a narrative and its gripping stuff.

I also loved Heroditus 'Histories' and Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War' was a lot more interesting than its reputation.

Always nice when we can turn a talk about a boxer into a history lesson