Robert Stieglitz vs. Isaac Ekpo this Saturday in Germany

By Boxing News - 10/16/2013 - Comments

stieglitz32234By Allan Fox: WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (45-3, 26 KO’s) defends his title this Saturday night against #7 WBO Isaac Ekpo (22-1, 16 KO’s) at the Messehalle, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany. Stieglitz only has to get by Ekpo and he’ll then be able to face Arthur Abraham for the 3rd time in the past 5 fights.

Stieglitz lost to Abraham by a 12 round unanimous decision last year in August. After both fighters defeated little known opponents, they met again last March with Stieglitz stopping Abraham in the 4th round. Stieglitz has since defended the WBO title against fringe contender Yuzo Kiyota, and Saturday he’ll be defending it against Ekpo.

Stiegliz should easily beat the vastly inexperienced without any problems. In the meantime, the WBO has given Abraham the #1 ranking in the division after his controversial decision over Willbeforce Shihepo last August. What’s going to be interesting is to see if we get Abraham and Stieglitz facing each other for a 4th and 5th fight.

With Stieglitz and Abraham taking easy fights in between their matches and with the WBO installing one of them each time as the mandatory, they could end up facing each other over and over again without having to face any of the other top five contenders like George Groves, James DeGale, Lucian Bute and Mikkel Kessler. Hopefully, the WBO eventually breaks the cycle so that the 168 lb. WBO title has other top five contenders fighting for it instead of Abraham and Stieglitz going back and forth.

A lot of the top fighters have wanted a shot at Stieglitz for years, but they haven’t been able to get a crack at the German based fighter. Abraham is by far the best fighter that Stieglitz has fought during his career.

You haven’t seen Stieglitz face the likes of Carl Froch, Andre Ward, Kessler, Bute, Edwin Rodriguez or Sakio Bika. Instead of Stieglitz fighting those guys, he’s faced fighters like Khoren Gevor, Henry Weber, Nader Hamdan, and Michal Nieroda. The match-making for Stieglitz has been done very carefully it seems during his career because he should have fought some of the top fighters ages ago.



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