Sjekloca getting advice from Mayweather camp to beat Arthur Abraham

By Boxing News - 04/24/2014 - Comments

sjekloca3(Picture: Team Sauerland) By Dan Ambrose: #12 WBO Nikola Sjekloca (26-1, 8 KO’s) says he’s been getting advice from Team Mayweather in how to get ready for his upcoming fight against WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (39-4, 28 KO’s) on May 3rd at The Velodrom, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany.

“I am close to the camp of Floyd Mayweather,” Sjekloca said. “Their instructions in addition to hard workouts with my coach Millvoje Basic are the perfect package to become a world champion.”

Sjekloca, 6’1″, really doesn’t need the advice of Mayweather’s team to figure out how to beat the 5’9″ Abraham, because there’s already plenty of fights available to watch where Abraham was already beaten and badly exposed in defeats against Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward, Carl Froch and Robert Stieglitz. The best bluepoint to beat Abraham for Sjekloca would be for him to follow what Ward and Dirrell did, because both fighters used their height and reach advantage to jab Abraham and keep him on the outside for 12 rounds.

If nothing else, Sjekloca is good at jabbing and keeping his opponents on the outside. If he fights with more discipline than he did in his 12 round decision loss to Sakio Bika last year, Sjekloca should be able to beat Abraham without any problems. The trick is that Sjekloca must stay on the outside at all times, use his jab and give ground quickly when Abraham makes his forward attacks. Abraham, 34, isn’t tall and he’s got a limited reach.

The only way that Abraham can get close enough to land something is by charging forward while swinging wildly with wide home run swings. Abraham is a lot like Froch with the way he attacks his opponents with flurries of slow, ponderous punches. If Sjekloca stays in place during one of these attacks without backing away, he’ll end up getting hit with some really big shots to the head and body. Abraham hits too hard for a fighter like Sjekloca to stand still and just cover up while being attacked.

Sjekloca going to need to move laterally each time Abraham comes forward because he’ll take too much punishment if he fails to move. Besides that, the judges will be giving Abraham rounds just based on his flurries. It doesn’t seem to matter whether he’s landing anything or not. The judges still give him rounds if he came charge his opponents and look busy.

Abraham’s promoters obviously like what they see of Sjekloca and see him as someone that is safe enough to fight. Sjekloca has to prove them wrong by fighting smart on May 3rd if he wants to take the 34-year-old Abraham’s WBO 168lb title.