Glory 50: Richard Abraham

He's got that boom boom pow. Maybe we shouldn't use a Fergie reference after this weekend, but the facts remain. Richard Abraham (as we predicted) won his fight Friday night at Glory 50 against Malik Watson-Smith by unanimous decision after three rounds.Twelve days before the fight, Abraham tweeted that "Patience is a virtue." Friday night we saw exactly what he meant. Despite Watson-Smith coming out throwing ferocious kicks to the head, Abraham's defense and patience weathered the storm as he would unleash flurries of strikes, landing on the head and body of Watson-Smith. The fight went on almost entirely like this, providing an entertaining bout between two extremely talented fighters. The only lulls took place when an exhausted Malik Watson-Smith would hold onto Richard Abraham to rest or to get a small amount of respite from the precision striking of Abraham.During round one Watson-Smith looked to make the fight interesting. Coming out with high energy and powerful kicks. Unfortunately for him that energy seemed to be wasted as Abraham defended and avoided the powerful strikes. Utilizing his boxing skills Richard efficiently delivered counter combinations that would ultimately fatigue and demoralize the newcomer Watson-Smith.

Round 2 was more of the same, Smith throwing kicks and Abraham expertly countering. Whatever shots were landed on Abraham didn't seem to phase him in the least and he continued to pour it on with his boxing prowess.It was during round three that we could all see the fatigue taking hold of Watson-Smith, the previous two rounds, despite losing them, his punches and kicks remained crisp despite missing their marks. Round three saw Malik's energy drop off in a big way. A talented fighter no doubt, but his energy, had been wasted trying to break the impregnable defense of Richard Abraham. Abraham took advantage of this as he continued his steady assault, moving forward, taking ground.