HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Edison Miranda always talks a great game before a fight. Unfortunately, he hasn't mastered the art of backing it up.
No amount of bold words could save him from getting splattered across the ring by Arthur Abraham at the Hard Rock Live arena on Saturday.
Abraham knocked Miranda down three times before referee Telis Assimenios stopped the scheduled 12-round match at 1:13 of the fourth round, giving Abraham a TKO victory.
Before the fight, Miranda said he would break Abraham's jaw again to prove that it wasn't a fluke the first time he did.
In their first fight in Germany in 2006, Abraham suffered a severely broken jaw in the fifth round and his corner forced him to continue. Though he was in pain and bleeding profusely from the mouth, Abraham managed to win a close decision. Miranda was penalized five points for fouls during the fight.
That raised the level of nastiness heading into the rematch, which reached a boiling point at the conclusion of the fight.
While Miranda was still on the canvas being attended to by the ring doctor, Alexander Abraham, Arthur's brother, kicked Miranda in the head. That prompted someone from Miranda's corner to try to get into the ring with a folding chair. It took on a WWE twist. But this hatred and venom was real.
Alexander Abraham was arrested by the Seminole Tribal Police; he later was turned over to the Broward County Sheriff's Office and taken to jail. He was awaiting bail late Saturday night. Arthur Abraham was fined $100,000 by the Florida State Athletic Commission for failure to control his entourage.
There is no excuse for that type of behavior, no matter what Miranda said. But it's clear that verbal theatrics can have a detrimental effect when they go too far.
Recently, Ricardo Mayorga has taken trash-talking to the gutter in most of his matches. He has failed to back it up in most instances, and most people now consider him nothing more than a clown who performs at his own cheap circus.
Miranda may be falling into that category. He talked smack to Jermain Taylor when the two were on the same card last year. Miranda actually was fighting Kelly Pavlik, but he disrespected Pavlik so much that he looked completely past him and targeted Taylor for his verbal barbs. Pavlik drilled him and shut him up for Taylor.
Before he fought Abraham the first time in Germany back in 2006, Miranda made the throat-slashing sign to Abraham, which offended Abraham and the German boxing fans. Of course he didn't win that fight, either.
After getting clobbered by Abraham, Miranda can officially be considered a joke when he decides to open his mouth to disparage a future opponent.
What about Abraham and his brother and their reactions to Miranda's taunts? Are they off the hook because they were provoked?
No. Alexander Abraham should know better than to kick a man when he's down, and Arthur Abraham should have a better control over the people in his corner.
This was Abraham's first fight in the U.S. He was hoping to raise his profile so that he could get some lucrative matches with American stars like middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. Abraham was brilliant against Miranda, patiently waiting for Miranda to open up, then landing those three perfectly placed lefts. It was as if he knew that those shots would be there for the taking at some point during the fight, and sooner or later Miranda would accommodate him.
Before moving on to the likes of Pavlik, Abraham has to deal with Raul Marquez, who won a narrow decision over Giovanni Lorenzo in an IBF middleweight title eliminator on the undercard.
The actions of his brother against Miranda won't win Abraham any fans in the U.S. But for him to disavow his brother's actions would be a good first step.
The information about what Alexander Abraham had done to Miranda hadn't surfaced by the time Abraham left the postfight news conference. So no one had an opportunity to ask him about it. But he was asked about Miranda's trash-talking as compared to Marquez's being a complete gentleman.
"It's pleasant to deal with someone like Marquez," Abraham said. "Boxing needs people like Miranda to do some shows. It's good."
Tim Smith is the boxing columnist for the New York Daily News.