WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (46-3, 26 KO’s) made weight today in coming in at 168 lbs on the dot for his title defense on Saturday against the 34-year-old Arthur Abraham (38-4, 28 KO’s) at the GETEC Arena, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Abraham, 34, also weighed in at 168 lbs. If Abraham looks as feeble and clueless as he did in losing to Stieglitz last year, then you can count on Abraham getting whipped again.
Abraham let Stieglitz bombard him for three rounds in their 2nd fight until the bout was halted in the 4th. From what I could see, Abraham didn’t look mentally into the fight. Even if the bout had been allowed to continue on, it was clear that he was going to lose. Abraham looked like someone that didn’t want to fight anymore.
Abraham won his last two fights against Giovanni De Carolis and Willbeforce Shihepo, but we’re not talking about really good opposition, and the win over Shihepo was as controversial fight as I’ve ever seen before. Shihepo should have been given the decision in that fight, as he made Abraham look like a shot fighter.
Abraham and Stieglitz have been locked into facing each other over and over again to the point where it’s difficult to take the match-up seriously as a world title fight because neither of them are fighting high quality opposition in between their fights. They’re just basically taking easy fights against obscure opposition and than facing each other in rematch after rematch.
Stieglitz hasn’t fought anyone remotely good during the past 5 years other than Abraham. I’m not sure why he’s been reluctant to face real quality opposition during that time, but my guess is he’s been playing it safe.
These are the fighters that Stieglitz has faced during the past 5 years. The really sad part about it is that many of these fights came while Stieglitz was the WBO super middleweight strap holder.
Arthur Abraham
Isaac Ekpo
Yuzo Kiyota
Michal Nieroda
Nader Hamdan
Henry Weber
Khoren Gevor
Enrique Ornelas
Eduard Gutknecht
Ruben Eduardo Acosta
Karoly Balzsay
Jindrich Velecky
Dmitri Protkunas
Abraham pretty much stopped fighting good opposition after he was dominated in the Super Six tournament between 2009-2011. Abraham lost 3 of the 4 fights in the Super Six tournament. Since then, Abraham has fought the following opponents:
Pablo Farias
Piotr Wilczewski
Robert Stieglitz
Mehdi Bouadla
Wilbeforce Shihepo
Giovanni De Carolis
