Bamberg, Germany -- (Sports Network) - "King Arthur" Abraham scored a victory over Raul Marquez on Saturday to retain his IBF middleweight title.

The fight was originally scheduled for October 4, but Abraham (28-0, 23 KOs) came down with the flu and the bout was postponed.

The month-long layoff apparently worked to Abraham's advantage, as the Armenian-born fighter came out strong and beat Marquez (41-4-1) over six rounds, so thoroughly that Marquez did not come out of his corner for the seventh.

The 28-year-old Abraham did not knock Marquez down at any point during the six rounds of action, and the fight was fairly even through the first two rounds.

Abraham began to punish the American challenger with body shots in the third round, though, and Marquez refused to return to the center of the ring after the sixth round.