By Scott Gilfoid: #5 WBO Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) was clearly beaten last September by WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in Kiel, Germany.
Smith bellyached nonstop after the fight, saying that he felt he should have won the fight, and that he deserved a rematch. Well, Smith’s complaining has paid off because he’s getting a rematch on February 21st against Abraham at the O2 World Arena in Berlin, Germany.
One can only imagine what will happen if Smith loses the rematch. Will he complain his way into a third fight? Will the World Boxing Organization put their feet down and tell Smith to move on and take his loss with a stiff upper lip instead of complaining about it? For some fighters it’s hard for them to come to terms with a defeat. I mean, it’s hard for them to see a fight in a neutral way when watching it on replay.
You have to wonder if that’s Smith’s problem, because I can’t see how Smith deserved to win more than 1 or 2 rounds at best in the fight. He was just too weak, too slow and too inactive to deserve a decision against Abraham. The sad thing is that Smith was facing arguably the weakest of the four super middleweight world champions, and yet he still couldn’t beat him.
The judges scored the previous Abraham-Smith fight 117-111, 119-109, and 117-111. I personally was in full agreement with the 119-109 score by the judge Fernando Laguna, because Smith basically did just enough to lose close to every round of the fight. I mean, he didn’t throw enough punches, and the ones that he did throw lacked the steam on them that we saw with Abraham’s big shots.
‘’We promised Paul the rematch and Arthur was happy to oblige,’’ Abraham’s promoter Kalle Sauerland said “Germany vs. England always adds an extra spice to an event. We’re expecting an atmosphere second to none on February 21.’’
You can kind of understand why Abraham’s promoter would be interested in a second fight between Abraham and Smith. It gives Abraham a safe fight that will generate some interest in Germany due to the Germany vs. Britain rivalry. But most of all, it gives Abraham a fight that he’s pretty much guaranteed to win.
If Abraham to fight a top contender with some talent like Gilberto Ramirez, Andre Dirrell or Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr, Abraham would be much handing over his WBO title to those talents. Those are guys that a level above Abraham in my view, and I could see him getting whipped badly by them. But with Abraham getting a second fight against Smith, it’s the equivalent of an optional/stay busy fight for Abraham instead of a risky fight where he might lose.
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