German WBO super-middleweight boxer Arthur Abraham celebrates victory against his challenger Britain’s Paul Smith after their title fight in Berlin on Saturday. (Reuters)

AFP/Berlin

Arthur Abraham retained his WBO super-middleweight world title on Saturday with a second successive victory over former British DJ turned boxer Paul Smith in Berlin.
The 35-year-old champion, who was born in Armenia but moved to Germany with his parents at 15, won convincingly on points on all three judges’ cards, just as he had in the first contest in Kiel last September.
For ‘King Arthur’ it was his 41st victory of his career, against four defeats, and his third successful defence of the belt he regained from German Robert Stieglitz in March last year.  
Smith, emboldened by the vocal support of around 3,000 of his compatriots in the crowd, was the more aggressive of the two fighters from the opening bell, but by the fourth round Abraham had gained the ascendancy, delivering heavy blows to the body and face.
For 32-year-old Smith it was his fifth career defeat against 35 victories.
Abraham, who after he retires intends to open a boxing school in Armenia which will also provide language classes as he believes boxers cannot progress unless they speak a foreign language, could well face Stieglitz for the fourth time in his next defence.
Meanwhile Martin Murray’s quest for a world title at the third time of asking ended in disappointment but not embarrassment when he suffered an 11th-round stoppage defeat to the WBA middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin, in Monte Carlo.
The St Helens boxer was not a match for the unbeaten Kazakh, who ended the contest in the penultimate round with a barrage of blows, to earn the 32nd victory of his career and 29th by knockout.
It was a brave endeavour by Murray as Golovkin took control of the contest from the outset and kept up his impressive record of winning all of his world title fights by stoppage.
Both fighters made a tentative start to the fight, with few punches thrown in a cagey first round.
It was a different story in the second, however, as Golovkin backed Murray on to the ropes and unleashed a fierce uppercut to Murray’s chin.