(Photo: Wende) By Jim Dower: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (35-3, 27 KO’s) made weight on Friday for his fight on Saturday night against challenger Mehdi Bouadla (26-4, 11 KO’s) at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. Abraham, 32, weighed right on the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds. His opponent Bouadla, 30, weighed in at 164.7 lbs.
It’s hard to understand why Abraham chose to fight #14 WBO Bouadla, because there are arguably a lot better fighters in the division that Abraham could have fought for a lot more money than what he’ll get for this bout. It just looks like Abraham wanted to take a safe, easy fight for his first defense rather than take any kind of risk.
It’s hoped that this isn’t going to be the kind of champion Abraham is because his title as the IBF middleweight belt holder was a disappointment because he failed to take on the top fighters in the division like Kelly Pavlik, Jermain Taylor, and Felix Sturm, and instead his only interesting fight during that time was against Edison Mirando, who Abraham won a highly questionable decision over in their first fight.
Bouadla doesn’t really have any big wins during his 9-year pro career. His most important wins have come against Samir Santos Barbosa, and Francisco Antonio Mora. Bouadla did fight Mikkel Kessler last year, but he was badly beaten and stopped in the 6th round in a horribly one-sided fight. Based on that lost, it’s really understand why the World Boxing Organization still have Bouadla ranked in the top 15, and even harder to understand what the appeal is for Abraham to want to fight him.
Official weights on the card:
Mehdi Bouadla 164.7 vs Arthur Abraham 168
Jean Michel Hamilcaro 152.3 vs Jack Culcay 153.4
Juho Haapoja 195.8 vs Mateusz Masternak 195.1
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