By Michael Collins: Former two division world champion Darius Michalzewski believes that former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (33-3, 27 KO’s) could have a really tough time on Saturday night against former EBU super middleweight champion Piotr Wilczewski (30-2, 10 KO’s) in their fight at the Sparkassen-Arena, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Michalzewski told this to the Bild.de: “Wilczewski is a good boy, who can fight. Arthur shouldn’t underestimate him in any way.”
Abraham will be defending his WBO European super middleweight title against the 33-year-old Wilczewski. The title isn’t a big deal, as it’s one of the local ones and not a world title. Abraham has lost three out of his last five fights and looked awful in pretty every fight, even in his two wins against 2nd tier opponents. Abraham would be making a huge mistake to be overlooking anyone because he’s not a big deal at super middleweight and really need to think long and hard about his decision stay at this weight. Abraham badly schooled by Andre Dirrell, Andre Ward and Carl Froch at super middleweight.
Perhaps Abraham is sticking it out at this weight because he feels he can’t make 160 anymore. However, he probably would be better off getting back down to 160 even if it left him weight drained. At super middleweight, Abraham’s only shot is to try and win the WBO paper title off of champion Robert Stieglitz and then milk it the way that Stiegitz has been doing the past two years. I don’t see that working unless Abraham was able to dodge the top contenders left and right to pick and choose which fighter he wants to face. We’re seeing that more and more at middleweight and light heavyweight nowadays with champions being maneuvered around the mandatory challengers for long stretches. I guess if other champions can do it then Abraham might as well do it to.
However, I think he’s going to have all he can handle with the bigger Wilczewski. This guys is a lot better boxer than the limited Abraham. He might be as strong as him but he’s bigger and a more skilled fighter. Wilczewski was recently jobbed in his fight against James DeGale last year, losing his EBU super middleweight title in a fight that a lot of boxing fans saw him winning. If Wilczewski can do that against DeGale, then he can make Abraham look silly because Abraham isn’t as skilled as DeGale.