Abraham in position to get big fights against Bute, Oosthuizen and Groves

By Boxing News - 08/25/2012 - Comments

Image: Abraham in position to get big fights against Bute, Oosthuizen and GrovesBy Dan Ambrose: In beating WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (42-3, 23 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight in Berlin Germany, Arthur Abraham (35-3, 27 KO’s) is the new World Boxing Organization super middleweight champion and he’s now in the enviable position to get some big money fights against the likes of Lucian Bute, Thomas Oosthuizen and George Groves.

Mikkel Kessler also is a possibility for Abraham, although it’s not likely an option that will happen because Kessler has a big money rematch next year against IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch.

Abraham dominated Stieglitz tonight with his hard power shots that enabled him to win by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113. The fight was entertaining enough to where a rematch might be an appealing option for Abraham if he’s not interested in facing Groves or he can’t get fights against Kessler, Bute or Oosthuizen. He’ll likely be able to get one of those four, but the only question is whether the fight will make more money than a rematch against Stieglitz.

Abraham’s win doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s in the same class as other champions Froch and Andre Ward. I think we saw pretty clearly that those two fighters are on another level than Abraham is when they easily beat him in the Super Six tournament. What we did learn tonight is that Abraham is a little bit better than Stieglitz, who unfortunately a lot of boxing fans saw him as a paper champion and not a legitimate title holder.

This is the sad part about how badly boxing’s divisions have been watered down due to all the sanctioning bodies each having titles. What’s further disappointing is how some of the sanctioning bodies have more than one title in each division, for example, the WBA having a regular WBA World champion and then the WBA Super World champion for the weight classes. But there’s no doubt that Abraham is a good fighter, but he’s just the best or even the second best in the super middleweight division despite holding down the WBO title now.



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