By Scott Gilfoid: Arthur Abraham (32-2, 26 KO’s) was supposed to easily beat his hand-picked opponent on Saturday in his bout against little known 36-year-old Stjepan Bozic (24-5, 15 KO’s) at the RWE-Ruhr Sporthalle, Muelheim, Nordhein-Westflaen, Germany.

But Abraham looked about the same as Bozic. In other words, Abraham looked to be the equivalent of a 2nd tier super middleweight near the end of his career. The fight was pretty even until Bozic injured his left hand while digging a shot to the body of Abraham in the 2nd.

The fight was stopped almost immediately when it became clear that Bozic couldn’t continue fighting. Abraham failed miserably in establishing that he was better than Bozic, and it doesn’t bode well for Abraham that he has a big fight coming up in the Super Six tournament in his next fight against the talented WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward next. Abraham would get destroyed if he fought the way he did against Bozic in a fight against Ward. It wouldn’t be a fight.

Abraham tried to go to the body early on against Bozic, but was driven back with hard right hands and uppercuts to the head. Abraham then settled into his punching bag role that he’s been using in his last two fights against Andre Dirrell and Carl Froch. Abraham would periodically land some body and head shots against Bozic, but he was tagged hard each time and driven back. I had Bozic easily winning the first round.

In the 2nd, Bozic continued his domination of Abraham, pounding him to the head with nice right hands and hard combinations. Abraham fired back some nice shots of his own, but Bozic once again drove Abraham back with a salvo of shots. The fight then ended when Bozic landed a left hand that glanced off the right elbow of Abraham, causing Bozic to take a knee in pain. There was no way he could continue because of the pain.

Abraham might as well concede defeat to Ward in his next fight, because he just doesn’t have the size, the speed, the skill or the talent to beat a guy like Ward. If Abraham can’t even handle a hand-picked second tier fighter like Bozic, what does that tell you about Abraham’s chances against Ward?