By Eric Thomas: Former two division world champion Arthur Abraham (36-4, 28 KO’s) reportedly is unsatisfied with the purse offered to him from his promoters at Sauerland Events for his scheduled fight against Willbeforce Shihepo (20-6, 15 KO’s) on August 24th at the Schwerin, Mecklinburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
According to fightnews.com, Abraham could retire rather than take the fight and the pay cut that goes along with it.
Abraham is coming off of a 4th round TKO loss to Robert Stieglitz last March. Abraham lost his World Boxing Organization super middleweight title in that fight.
Without the WBO title, it’s not surprising that Abraham’s promoters wouldn’t be paying him as much as he was getting with the belt. It’s kind of normal for a fighter to take a pay cut after they lose their titles in the ring unless you’re a big star like Manny Pacquiao.
Abraham is nowhere close to being as popular as someone like Pacquiao, so you would assume that Abraham would take a pay cut after losing his WBO strap. Apparently the pay cut is big enough to where Abraham is ready to retire rather than fighting on if he doesn’t get his pay bumped up. Whether his promoters will give him a pay increase is unclear.
Abraham hasn’t had the greatest luck since moving up in weight from middleweight to super middleweight in 2009. He took part in the Super Six tournament and was beaten by Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Carl Froch.
After the Super Six tournament was over, Abraham was put in with two soft opponents Pablo Farias and Piotr Wilczewski and he was able to get two quick wins.
Last year, Abraham was given a title shot against what many boxing fans saw as a paper champion in WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz, and Abraham responded well by beating Stieglitz by a 12 round unanimous decision.
Abraham then took an easy first defense against Mehdi Bouadla last December and he was able to stop him in the 8th round. In Abraham’s second defense of his WBO title, he lost his title to Stieglitz in a rematch by a 4th round stoppage.
There’s not much known about Abraham’s August 24th scheduled opponent Shihepo other than he’s from Namibia, 30-years-old with a nickname “Black Mamba, and he’s faced mostly little known easy opposition during his 10-year pro career. Obviously, this fight has been set up to get Abraham a sure thing win and to get him ready for another title shot.
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