By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (31-2, 25 KO’s) will be fighting a stay busy tune-up fight against a still to be determined opponent on February 7th at the RWE Rhein-Ruhr Sporthalle, Muelheim, Nordhein-Westfalen, Germany. Abraham, 30, has been given permission from Showtime to take a fight outside of the Super Six tournament to use it as a tune-up for Abraham’s fight against WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward in May. That’s going to be a very tough fight for Abraham, because he’s already lost his last bouts against the talented Andre Dirrell and Britain’s Carl Froch. Abraham needs to stop his losing streak somehow and by having Abraham fight a soft opponent, this would seem to be the best chance there is for Abraham before he likely takes another beating.

Abraham has to work out his problems with his inability to throw enough punches to win his important fights. Abraham was outworked by both Dirrell and Froch, and looked sluggish in both fights. This is a problem that Abraham has had since shortly before leaving the middleweight division in 2009, and the problem seems to have gotten worse. Back then, Abraham was blaming his poor performances on having to strip off weight to make the 160 middleweight limit. Now that he’s fighting at 168, Abraham no has any excuses to fall back on other than perhaps not enough talent.

The card will have a few decent fights on it with EBU cruiserweight champion Alexander Frenkel in action, and WBA interim cruiserweight champion Steve Herelius facing former Cuban amateur star Yoan Pablo Hernandez. Those fights alone will make this card with watching if not the Abraham fight.