By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like all that grumbling by Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) has been doing ever since his loss to WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) last Saturday night is going to pay off for him, because he’s going to be getting a rematch with Abraham even if the World Boxing Organization (WBO) chooses not to order a rematch.
Dan Rafael of ESPN is reporting that Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn is in negotiations with Abraham’s promoters at Sauerland Event to put the rematch together regardless of whether the WBO says no to a rematch.
Hearn filed an appeal to the WBO to have them review the Abraham-Smith fight in order for them to make Smith Abraham’s mandatory challenger.
Abraham and his promoter Kalle Sauerland are interested in the bigger money fight against the winner of the Robert Stieglitz vs. Felix Sturm fight, because there’s a lot of good cash that can be made from Abraham fighting the winner of that fight. But fighting Smith again is hardly a huge payday for Abraham unless Hearn wants to open up his wallet and spread some of that green in Abraham’s direction to make it worthwhile for him to give him what many boxing fans feel is a totally unnecessary rematch.
“I’m told regardless of what WBO says in its Abraham-Smith review, Eddie Hearn & Sauerland Brothers are negotiating a voluntary rematch. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter.
Abraham won the fight by the scores of 117-111, 119-109 and 117-111. Even if you throw out the one lopsided score of 119-109, which I personally agreed with, you still had two judges in full agreement that Smith lost by a 117-111 score.
What we don’t want to see is for Abraham to beat Smith over and over again, and then have Smith protesting each time he got beaten. For some fighters it’s hard for them to come to terms when they’ve been whipped by the superior fighter, and I think this is the case with Smith. It might be the only way Abraham can shut Smith up is if he knocks him out, because if it does to decision each time, Smith can always complaining about the scores being totally off and how he deserved the decision instead of Abraham.
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