(Photo Credit: Sebastian Heger) By Scott Gilfoid: The fourth fight between WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (42-4, 28 KOs) and former WBO 168lb champ Robert Stieglitz (47-4-1, 27 KOs) is only two and a half weeks away for their fight on July 18th at the Gerry Weber Stadium in Halle, Germany.
Abraham’s trainer Ulli Wegner has been bragging about how Abraham has been dropping bigger cruiserweights left and right during training camp. Wegner doesn’t say who these so-called cruiserweights or, so we’re left having to take what he says at face value rather than being able to see for ourselves or from the cruiserweights about these sparring sessions.
Wegner is saying that he’ll stop training Abraham if he loses to Stieglitz, and he’ll tell him that he needs to retire from the sport. Abraham says he’s not going to lose to Stieglitz, even though he’s already been beaten once in their three fights. Heck, Abraham almost lost to Stieglitz again in their third fight. He beat him by a 12 round split decision, but it was very, very close. If Stieglitz hadn’t run out of gas in the final two rounds, he would have won the fight.
Abraham wants to keep his WBO 168lb title for another two years before he retires from the sport. He’s 35 now, and is coming off of two back to back wins over England’s Paul Smith. Abraham looked terrible in both fights, and the only reason he won was because Smith was so awful.
For Abraham to hold onto his WBO title for another two years, he’s going to need to beat Gilberto Ramirez, the current No.2 WBO contender, and likely beat Stieglitz another two more times. It’s painfully obvious that Abraham and Stieglitz are going to keep fighting until the bitter end.
The German fans like seeing these two fighters face each other even though there are much better fighters than these guys in the super middleweight division. But the fact that they live in Germany makes it appealing for the fans to see them fight.
“I have already beaten him twice, and in our second fight I was beaten by injury,” Abraham said. “I can guarantee that the fourth fight will be our last. Robert throws a lot of punches, but he has no killer punch. Although I cannot promise a KO, I will leave the audience in no doubt over who the better boxer is.”
I bet. Abraham isn’t going to KO Stieglitz in this fight. It’s not that Abraham doesn’t have good punching power. His problem is he doesn’t throw enough punches in combination form for him to KO his opponents at this point in his career. When he was younger, he was able to throw combinations, but that’s no longer the case.
Abraham now throws a couple of punches and then covers up and rests for 10 to 15 seconds before throwing another two or three punches followed by another long rest. If Stieglitz can’t beat Abraham at this point in his career, then Stiegilitz should retire as well. They both should retire because neither guy is fighting at a high level. I don’t know why the World Boxing Organization keeps giving Stieglitz a high ranking after his defeats, because I think the guy should be at the bottom of the WBO ranking right now instead of at No.1.
If Abraham loses this fight, of course he won’t be retiring. What will happen is Stieglitz will give Abraham an immediate rematch for a fifth fight between them, and the WBO will likely bless the immediate rematch despite the fact that the two guys have been going round and round with their continual rematches. In the meantime, Gilberto Ramirez will be aging while he waits for the WBO to finally let him have a chance at the WBO title.
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