Arthur Abraham moving to super middleweight

by Brickhaus on Jun 21, 2009 4:01 PM EDT Comment 8 comments

According to Bild.de (link in German), Arthur Abraham's fight against Mahir Oral next week will be Arthur Abraham's last at middleweight. Despite being a bit on the short side, Abraham has long had problems with making the 160 pound middleweight limit, and without a big fight at middleweight in immediate sight, he plans on moving to super middleweight, which is a much stronger weight class overall with more opportunities for big name fights.

In all honesty, I have to blame Bob Arum for this one, and in all of his discussions about building Abraham into a bigger name before making a superfight, he dawdled for too long, and the window of opportunity is now closing. This is very bad news for Pavlik. Middleweight is a division without a whole lot of depth, and even without him being a star, a fight with Abraham was probably the biggest money fight he was going to get. Abraham's fight with Oral will be his second to be televised on Showtime, although any serious boxing fan knows he's the biggest threat to Pavlik's middleweight title.

So where does this leave Abraham? I'd say he's in a pretty good position. In Europe, there are a fair number of super middleweights he could go after for decent money, including Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch and Karoly Balzsay. Even if the chances of any of those fights seems remote, they must all seem less remote than a big money matchup with either Pavlik or Felix Sturm. Abraham's management had offered Sturm 2.5 million Euro for one of the biggest fights that could be made in Germany, and Sturm's camp turned that down without even opening up negotiations. Arum and Sauerland have been pussyfooting around each other to make a Pavlik-Abraham fight for over a year now, and the matchup seems no closer to reality now than it did then. At least there's a ton of depth at 168, and Abraham's earning potential is probably better there. On the other hand, with his peekaboo power punching style, he'll probably have a tougher time dominating at 168, and I think he'd struggle with many of the top dogs in the weight class.

Where does this leave Pavlik? Twiddling his thumbs, pretty much. Arum is still threatening to make the abomination of a fight known as Pavlik-Mora, and he's brought out Felix Sturm as a name, though I'll believe it when I see it. Winky Wright is an option, but we all know about his tendency to ask for way way more than he's worth. Anthony Mundine says he wants Pavlik, but he would have the same problem of needing to develop a name in the US, especially considering that he makes loads of cash fighting patsies in Australia. The last option is Paul Williams, and Bob Arum has all but refused to work with him lately, due to prior Pavlik-Williams negotiations that fell through. He could also move to 168, but frankly, Pavlik hasn't looked like the same fighter north of 160.

Best of luck to Arthur at 168, and maybe this will finally be the kick in the ass that Bob Arum needs to get this fight made.

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There's just something off about Pavlik

at this point. He’s been completely adrift since the Hopkins debacle, and his window for becoming a legitimate star (i.e. PPV) seems to have closed. Mora is a terrible fight, and Wright isn’t much better at this point. He needs to fight Sturm, or, even better, Williams. Otherwise, no one cares.

by The Boxer Rebellion on Jun 21, 2009 8:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm starting to think Pavlik just isn't what he cracked up to be

And is being protected a bit. Going back through his resume, the only wins that still look impressive are the Taylor wins, and we saw what happened to Taylor against Froch. Miranda’s gotten his butt kicked a couple of times since he faced Pavlik, Zertuche got knocked out by Rubio quicker than Pavlik did the deed, McKart seems halfway to shot, Zuniga has been beaten twice since, etc. It’s like he’s the anti-Cotto. Every big win he has looks worse in retrospect than it did at the time.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 21, 2009 10:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think Pavlik is being protected....

I mean, from who? It think he is legitmately having a hard time making proper defenses. His division cleared out (and up) in a hurry, and I think Kelly Pavlik had at least something to do with that. Rubio should have been a better fight than it was, and the guys he counts as his best wins ~~Zertuche, Miranda, Taylor~~ looked far better before he kayoed them then after (well, maybe not Taylor). Zertuche, in particular, was one of the more frightening knockouts that year, and the sort of moment that radically changes most fighters careers. The Lockett fight was a joke with Calzaghe playing the comedian. That was like Cotto fighting Gomez, to gin up the PR-Mexican market for Cotto-Margarito. But Pavlik-Rubio had every right to be a better fight then it was. it just wasn’t, because Rubio was outsized and outclassed.

Sturm, on the other hand, is so protected they built a moat around his Panic Room. That fight would never happen. The classic has always been Abraham-Pavlik, and both guys really need each other. The negotiations would be tough, but its worth noting that its Abraham who is leaving the division, just like Miranda and Taylor did. Undefeated Joe Greene shrunk down to 154 in early 2008 after being groomed for 160 title shot a pro. It could be coincidence, but Pavlik did seem to be standing in more or less an empty room after knocking out Miranda and beating Jermaine twice.

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Jun 22, 2009 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

For quite a while now

Abraham has been both the most significant fight and the biggest money option available, if you discount Williams (who Arum just refuses to deal with). While I understand that it could have become a BIGGER fight, the fact that the two sides haven’t come together for legitimate negotiations tells me that neither side wants to face the other one. I think Pavlik and Abraham themselves would fight whoever is put in front of them, but I think Arum is a bit afraid that Abraham would knock Pavlik out, and I think Sauerland is afraid that Pavlik would outhustle Abraham to a wide decision.

There’s certainly an argument that Pavlik MADE his opponents worse after the beatdowns he gave them. Miranda certainly hasn’t been as aggressive since, at the very least. But the fact is that Pavlik-Abraham has been one of the only fights that would make sense for both of those fighters, and the fact that it has yet to happen signifies a little something fishy to me.

Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."

by Brickhaus on Jun 22, 2009 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

But Abraham really needs to be doing the calling out, since the Ring belt belongs to Pav. I know that’s an oversimplified way of putting it, and I’m not saying Abraham couldn’t take it from him. But when you take the fact that Pavlik is the lineal champ and that Abraham’s best win is probably over a guy that Pavlik dusted first, its pretty clear that Pavlik is the man to beat, and Abraham really has to make the concessions here. It could be that Bob isn’t so much playing as he is (kind of rightfully) making the case that it is up to the rest of the field to chase his champion.

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Jun 22, 2009 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think Pavlik is being protected…. I mean, from who? It think he is legitmately having a hard time making proper defenses. His division cleared out (and up) in a hurry, and I think Kelly Pavlik had at least something to do with that. Rubio should have been a better fight than it was, and the guys he counts as his best wins ~~Zertuche, Miranda, Taylor~~ looked far better before he kayoed them then after (well, maybe not Taylor). Zertuche, in particular, was one of the more frightening knockouts that year, and the sort of moment that radically changes most fighters careers. The Lockett fight was a joke with Calzaghe playing the comedian, but Pavlik-Rubio had every right to be a better fight then it was.

Sturm,on

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Jun 22, 2009 10:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I didn’t regard Zertuche all that highly to begin with but that was definitely a nasty KO. But I’ve believed for a long time now that Miranda has suffered from their fight. Pavlik beating the living shit out of him.

Bad Left Hook
Camden Chat

by SC on Jun 22, 2009 10:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I frigged up that post… the full one is above. I didn’t think much of Zertuche either, but he’d never been down before in his career. And I don’tthink it’s a stretch to say that Zertuche getting TKO’ed by Rubio in his next fight had a little something to do with the Pavlik fight. Sometimes the chin is gone forever after something like that. And, although I hate to put it this way, sometimes the fighting guts are gone too.

"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb

by jrok on Jun 22, 2009 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs