This Saturday, (September 27, 2014), Super Middleweights Arthur Abraham and Paul Smith face off in Germany for Abraham’s WBO World Super Middleweight title. Right now, Several Bookmakers has Abraham a (-550) favorite to defeat Smith, who comes back at (+400). Smith has an overall 35-3 record, and he has won four fights in a row since his November 2011 loss to George Groves, three of those fights by stoppage. Smith may be remembered for his one fight shot on ‘The Contender’ TV series, where he won a Split Decision over David Banks back in 2007. He is still just 31 years old however, and he has spent the ensuing years battling it out for the British Super Middleweight title, capturing the title for the 2nd time back in June of 2013 with a TKO of Tony Dodson (29-7). Abraham is still very active at 34, as he is already 2-0 in 2014. In March he beat rival Robert Steiglitz to win the series between the two of them 2-1. That win earned him back the WBO World Super Middleweight title he had dropped to Steiglitz, and he has since defended the belt, earning a May 3rd win over Nikola Sjekloca (26-1). Abraham was not stopped in any of his losses to Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell and Carl Froch though he was shown to be susceptible to elite boxers. Steiglitz was able to stop Abraham, but the fight was decided by swelling that had shut Abraham’s eye, not because Abraham was close to being knocked out. Abraham is generally considered granite chinned, so Smith is probably going to need more than his KO punch in this fight. The fact is that Smith is probably out of his league here. He has never traveled to fight except for the Contenders TV taping, and that trip showed he was average back then, as he did not have the points to advance to the next phase. after his loss to Groves, he did settle back in to win 4 in a row, but he fought 2 bouts at 6 rounds and 1 at 8 rounds. That is not the same level of competition that Abraham operates at, and it is likely to show. For Smith, it is a World title shot, and that is always meaningful to a hard working British fighter who has paid his dues over the years on the tough British scene. Unfortunately, he is going against a better fighter, in that fighter’s home town and this will be his first time away from the atmosphere around UK fights. His only fight abroad was at a TV taping in the USA, not at a live event. In Germany, he will face a foreign commission and travel around a fight for the first time. There is no reason to think Smith has much of a chance in this one at all.
