By Allan Fox: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (33-3, 27 KO’s) will be making a quick ring return on March 31st against an opponent to be named later at the Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

This will likely be another level opponent like Abraham’s last fight against Pablo Oscar Natalio Farias last January. If Abraham can win his next tune-up fight, there’s talk of Abraham being matched against WBA World middleweight champion Felix Sturm in what would be a huge German-based fight.

Abraham didn’t look all that impressive in his win over Farias and made the same mistakes that cost him big time in losses to Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch and Andre Ward in the Super Six tournament. However, Abraham’s power looked very good, and Abraham might be able to score a stoppage win over Sturm or one of the other middleweight champions.

Once he moves back down to middleweight, Abraham’s power might be even more pronounced. It’s doubtful Abraham would be given a chance to fight WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. because he’s being aimed at Antonio Margarito and Andy Lee for his next fight and after that fight, Chavez Jr. will likely be facing Miguel Cotto.

One question about Abraham is whether he’ll be too weak to fight at middleweight. His last fight was at 168lbs, and he hasn’t fought at middleweight since 2009 when he beat Mahir Oral in June 2009. Abraham moved up because he was weakened from having to meet the 160 pound weight limit.

However, if he can move down in weight without being drained by making the weight, Abraham will have an immediate impact on the division. I’m just not so certain that Abraham can make the fight anymore without being weakened significantly. Abraham needs to talk to Chavez Jr’s people to find out how to take off massive amounts of water weight without ending up weight drained.