German based Armenian Arthur Abraham (35-3, 27) will make the first defense of his WBO Super Middleweight title this weekend as he faces Frenchman Mehdi Bouadla (26-4, 11) at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung.
Abraham claimed this title a few months ago as he controversially defeated Robert Stieglitz in a thoroughly fun to watch fight that saw both fighters giving and taking for 12 rounds. It did however take him 3 attempts to claim a Super Middleweight title after having also claimed a Middleweight title way back in 2005.
As a Middleweight Abraham was a really dangerous fighter who could KO fighters at any time, with either hand. His work rate was low, his guard was solid and his style was hugely frustrating, though when he let his hands go he was stupidly fun to watch. Sadly when he moved up to Super Middleweight he found that fighters weren't that easy to beat as the bigger men used their size, especially their reach and their ability to take harder shots. It was at Super Middleweight that Abraham suffered all 3 of his losses, 2 by decision and 1 by DQ.
Whilst Abraham is a known fighter with world credentials spanning the better part of the decade that has seen him in with fighters such as Andre Ward, Carl Froch, Andre Dirrell, Jermain Taylor, Kheron Gevor and Edison Miranda (twice, including a memorable and bloody battle) it's fair to say that Mehdi Bouadla is much less well known. Despite being less high profile Bouadla has himself mixed in world class company having faced a then 8-0 Gennady Golovkin, former title contender Morrade Hakkar and most recently Mikkel Kessler.
For most it's the Kessler fight that really suggest how good Bouadla is, and to be fair, it's not very. He's not bad as such but he's a long way from being a genuinely world class fighter and I think this will be shown as Abraham slowly breaks down Bouadla in the middle to late rounds. Kessler is admittedly a very different fighter to Abraham, but they both bang and I think that one thing in common will show again here.
Prediction-Abrahm TKO9
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