By Nate Anderson: Arthur Abraham (33-3, 27 KO’s) refuses to go back down to middleweight and has decided to make this his last stand at super middleweight rather than taking off a little weight to move back down to 160lbs where he had all of his success in his career. Tonight, Abraham faces Piotr Wilczewski (30-1, 10 KO’s) at the Sparkassen-Arena, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Up until recently, the 33-year-old Wilczewski was ranked near the top of the division by the WBO. However, a questionable 12 round majority decision loss has completely knocked Wilczewski out of the top 15 rankings, which is kind of silly given how good this fighter is and how well he fought against DeGale.
To be sure, there are better fighters in the super middleweight division than Wilczewski, but not too many. He’s definitely a top 15 contender, whereas you really have to question whether the 32-year-old Abraham still deserves to be ranked at #2 WBO, #4 WBA, and #4 IBF based on his three defeats he suffered in a short period of time in the Super Six tournament. Abraham looked limited, slow and unskilled against the better fighters in the tournament to the point where it was almost an embarrassment.
Wilczewski has the power and the boxing ability to give Abraham a lot of problem. Abraham will have to load up with everything he’s got if he wants to get Wilczewski out of there, because if this fight goes to the cards, it’s going to be bad for Abraham. Wilczewski will win a lot of rounds based on his better work rate unless the judges give Abraham rounds for landing three or four punches in the last thirty seconds of every round.
Abraham saves up everything for the last 30 seconds and then rushes wildly forward, throwing punches seemingly without much aim, while the crowd goes wild. Abraham misses badly but the judges and the crowd loves it. Abraham could technically win a decision by trying to steal every round this way, but it would take some very questionable judging to ignore Wilczewski better work in the first two and half minutes of every round.
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