(Photo Credit: Sebastian Heger) By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like Paul Smith (35-4, 20 KOs) is going to need to get in line and wait his turn for another crack at WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (41-4, 28 KOs) after losing to him by a 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Abraham said after the fight that he’s more interested in facing the winner of the November 8th fight between Felix Sturm vs. Robert Stieglitz fight at the Porsche Arena, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Abraham says he would be interested in fighting Smith a second time under the fight circumstances. What those circumstances are is unclear.
I would have to assume that Abraham means that if Smith were to pick up some big wins against actual contender instead of the 2nd tier fodder he’s been fighting on for the past several years. If Smith could beat several top contenders then Abraham might show some interest in fighting him again, but then again Abraham is a shaky champion and he’s obviously going to last as a belt holder as long as he can keep going back and forth with his fights against Stieglitz. Once Abraham has to fight a talent like Andre Dirrell, he’s going to lose his strap and his merry-go-round fights against Stieglitz will end.
Abraham has already fought Stieglitz 3 times since 2012, and the chances are high that he’ll fight him a 4th time in early 2015.
“Of course I would fight Paul again,” Abraham said after the fight. “However, the circumstances would need to be right. At the moment the most interesting fight for me would be Sturm or Stieglitz.”
The money that Abraham can make against Sturm or Stieglitz is far better than the cash that he can make for another Paul Smith fight. I mean, I don’t blame Abraham for wanting to take the bigger payday against Sturm or Stieglitz. Those guys are a big deal in Germany. They may not be a big deal anywhere else, but in Germany they’re a big deal. Abraham is just trying to maximize the amount of cash he can get with the little time he has left in his career. You can’t expect him to get stuck fighting Smith over and over again, especially with the lopsided scores for their fight last night.
Abraham defeated Smith by the scores of 117-111, 117-111 and 119-109. Those scores were fair and a good indication of what happened in the fight, as far as I’m concerned. I know a lot of Smith’s fans have been bellyaching about how Smith was robbed and how the scores were lopsided, but if you look at the fight again you’ll see that Abraham was the one landing the cleaner, head-snapping shots in every round of the fight.
At best, I thought Smith deserved to win just 2 rounds, but I can see where the one referee felt he only won one round. One of the rounds I gave Smith was a close one where Abraham still landed the cleaner and harder shots, so I definitely think the 119-109 was a fair score.
I know it might not make Smith’s fans happy that he lost so badly, but the fact of the matter is he was getting nailed all night long by Abraham’s harder shots, and you can’t win rounds when your head is getting snapped back left and right like Smith’s was last Saturday night. These were professional judges that scored the fight, not a mob of fans wearing their ego on their shirtsleeves.
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