Arthur Abraham in stay busy fight against Nikola Sjekloca tonight in Berlin, Germany

By Boxing News - 05/03/2014 - Comments

abraham44444(Credit: Thomas Goos / Team Sjekloca) By Allan Fox: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (39-4, 28 KO’s) has a stay busy fight against fringe contender Nikola Sjekloca (26-1, 8 KO’s) tonight at The Velodrom, Prenzlauer Berg, in Berlin, Germany. Sjekloca, 35, isn’t thought to be any real threat to beating the 34-year-old Abraham, and he’s just someone that Abraham is facing to get an easy title defense against while he looks for other fights.

Abraham recently was considered to be on the verge of retirement before his fight against WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz last March, but Abraham was able to defeat Stieglitz and take back his WBO title. That was their third fight between them in the past couple of years.

If Abraham can get past Sjekloca tonight, he’d like to fight Stieglitz again in a fourth fight, as long as Stieglitz does what he needs to do in winning his next fight in order to make the Abraham-Stieglitz 4 fight happen.

Sjekloca hopes to ruin Abraham’s plans of further rematches against Stieglitz by pounding out a decision tonight. Sjekloca doesn’t have the kind of power needed for him to get a knockout of Abraham, but can out-box him if he stays on the outside all night long and uses his jab. Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Carl Froch, all tall 6-foot fighters, were able to stay on the outside and beat Abraham easily by jabbing. Sjekloca has the same height and reach as those three fighters, and it’s possible that he can keep Abraham from getting to him with his big power shots tonight. Sjekloca isn’t in the same class as those three fighters, but he still have a very good jab. It’s a winnable fight if Sjekloca fights smart and avoids getting close to Abraham.

Abraham looked a lot better in his last fight against Stieglitz than he has in quite some time, as he fought with more aggression, and was able to fight for the full three minutes of every round. That’s something that Abraham hasn’t been able to do in a number of years since he was dominated in the Super Six tournament. If Abraham can fight like that tonight, he should be able to make quick work of Sjekloca.

Abraham no doubt has a rematch clause in his contract for the Sjekloca fight in case he loses. He shouldn’t lose, but if he does Abraham will get a rematch, and get an opportunity to get his WBO title back.



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