By Jim Dower: Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham made weight during Friday’s weigh-in for his highly important title challenge of WBO super middleweight champion Roberto Stieglitz on Saturday night at the O2 World Arena, Kreuzberg, in Berlin, Germany.

Abraham weighed in at 167.8 pounds. Stieglitz, for his part, also came in at 167.8 lbs for what could be his toughest title defense.

Stieglitz has held the World Boxing Organization 168 pound title since 2009 and has already successfully defended it six times, but against less than dangerous opposition. Abraham will be by far Stieglitz’s toughest title defense.

Abraham has struggled since moving up in weight to the super middleweight division in 2009, losing three of seven fights. His best win during that time against Jermain Taylor in the first fight in the Super Six tournament for Abraham. The win wasn’t as good as it could be due to Taylor having already been knocked out in his previous fight before the Super Six tourney began against Carl Froch.

Abraham feels that the size differences between the super middleweights and the middleweights that he had previously been dominating was a bit too much for him after he moved up in weight, saying to ESPN “The obvious difference is the size of my opponents. At middleweight, all of my foes were a lot smaller. After I moved up a division, I suddenly have to deal with guys who possess a greater reach and are physically a lot stronger than the middleweights.”

Abraham could also include that the middleweights that he fought were a lot less talented than the super middleweights he lost to, because Abraham’s time as the International Boxing Federation middleweight champion was marked by him fighting a lot of less than spectacular opponents. Sadly, the best fighter that Abraham fought at middleweight was probably Edison Miranda. Abraham never fought the likes of Kelly Pavlik and Felix Sturm, among many other top middleweights.

other weights on Saturday’s card in Berlin:

Robin Krasniqi 172.6 – Serdar Sahin 173.1
Jack Culcay 153.7 – Ferderic Serre 153.9
Dustin Dirks 173.9 – Sandro Siproshvili 175.3
Carlos Caicedo 170.6 – Tyron Zeuge 170.6
Felix Lamm 139.8 – Eloy Rebollo 138.9