WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (46-4, 26 KO’s) failed to pace himself tonight in running out of gas in the 2nd part of his rubber match against Arthur Abraham (39-4, 28 KO’s) in losing a 12 round split decision at the GETEC Arena, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Stieglitz unloaded everything but the kitchen sink on Abraham in the first four rounds of action going for broke to get a stoppage. But when Abraham was still there after the 4th round, Stieglitz had no answers in what to do to try and win the fight.
Abraham knocked Stieglitz down in the 12th round. Before the knockdown, Stieglitz had been wobbled from a right hand from Abraham. It looked like for a second there that he might make it out of the round without going down, but Stieglitz took another big shot and that caused him to hit the canvas.
Instead of trying to box Abraham, Stieglitz continued to nail him with the hardest shots that he could, and that approach failed to work. The judges scored the fight 113-112 for Stieglitz, and 115-110 and 114-111 for Abraham. I’m not sure what the judges was thinking about in giving the fight to Stieglitz, but thankfully the other two judges had their heads screwed on straight. Abraham definitely won the fight based on his cleaner landing shots. his domination of most of the rounds, and because of the knockdown that he got in the 12th.
The action was ugly to watch at times because of the holding that was going on by Stieglitz, and due to their dirty fighting. Abraham had a point deducted for hitting Stieglitz behind in the head in the 8th round. It was kind of interesting how Abraham looked at the referee Geno Rodriguez, as if to say ‘You’re going to deduct a point for that?’ It’s kind of understandable when you realize that Stieglitz was bending the rules too left and right, and that’s why it seemed odd that the referee waited that long before he started taking off points. Stieglitz lost a point in the 9th round before of his chronic clinching.
This was a really sloppy fight overall, and I hope it’s the last time that these guys fight each other. 3 times in 2 years is more than enough, and they’re letting the good contenders get a chance to fight for a title in between their fights. It would be nice to see someone else like James DeGale or George Groves get a shot at the WBO strap.
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