(Picture: Winfried Mausolf) By Scott Gilfoid: A day after saying that he’s interested in avenging his loss against Andre Ward, WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (39-4, 28 KO’s) is now saying he’d like to face IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm in the near future if possible.
For some reason Abraham and Sturm never fought each other despite the two German based fighters having held middleweight straps for many years at the same time. Abraham is now fighting at 168, and he says he can’t get down to 160 to fight at that weight anymore.
“I want to meet Felix Sturm at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. That’s what I am dreaming of.”
A fight between Sturm and Abraham would either have to be a catch-weight fight or it would need to involve Sturm moving up in weight to fight Abraham at 168. A fight between Sturm and Abraham may not seem like a big deal for people outside of the U.S, as Sturm is considered to be one of the weaker of the 160lb champions in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans, but in Germany it would be a big deal because they have a lot of respect for Sturm and for Abraham.
As far as Abraham goes, he’s not considered to be in the same class as Andre Ward, Carl Froch and some of the other top super middleweights, but his fans really support him to the hilt in Germany. So basically we’re talking about a domestic fight that the German fans would get really excited about, but probably not too many fans outside of Germany.
I think a fight between Sturm and Abraham is 5-7 years too late. They should have both fought each other when they held middleweight titles at the same time, because it’s not nearly as interesting as it would have been years ago. Abraham was beaten badly in the Super Six tournament by Ward, Froch and Andre Dirrell, and Abraham hasn’t fought anyone good since then. He picked up the WBO title against Robert Stieglitz, but he was considered by some fans to be a paper champion and not in the class of the other world title holders at 168.
This Saturday night Abraham will be making a safe title defense against #12 WBO Nikola Sjekloca (26-1, 8 KO’s) at The Velodrom, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany. This is a disappointing title defense if you’re a fan of Abraham, because he could have taken on so many better fighters than Sjekloca, but he’s playing it safe with this defense. Abraham did that kind of thing a lot when he held the IBF 160lb title, which is why it’s so sad to see Abraham taking the safe route still. With his career winding down, Abraham should be picking out the best challengers at all times, even for his optional title defenses instead of picking from the bottom of the division for a safe fight.
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