by R. McCarson
Former IBF super middleweight champion and Super Six tournament participant, “King” Arthur Abraham (33-3, 27 KOs) will make his first defense of a regional title against Polish fighter Piotr Wilczewski (30-2, 10 KOs) on Saturday, March 31st. The bout will be featured as the main event with the Sparkassen-Arena hosting in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
Abraham is ranked 10th in the world among super middleweights. He’s won two of his last five bouts, with both wins coming by way of knockout.
In 2011, Abraham faced Stjepan Bozic, who was 24-4 at the time, and took home the TKO 2 win after Bozic injured his left hand with a punch to Abraham’s elbow. In his last bout, he stepped in the ring with Pablo Oscar Natalio Farias for a chance to win a vacant regional title belt. Farias came into the bout with a 19-1 record, but suffered the first knockout loss of his career after hitting the canvas three times in the fifth round.
The three losses of Abraham’s career come against well-known opponents. His first loss was in the form of a DQ when he faced Andre Dirrell. In this bout, Abraham suffered the first knockdown of his career, had a cut over his right eye, and he was behind on all three scorecards. In the eleventh round, Abraham hit Dirrell after he slipped on wet canvas, resulting in a disqualification. Following that loss, Abraham faced Carl Froch and lost by unanimous decision, and then, two bouts later, he faced Andre Ward and also lost by unanimous decision.
Wilczewski has yet to be in the ring with top level competition, but his record shows that he’s slowly making his way up through the ranks. He has two losses on record, the first one coming in 2009 by way of TKO 3, while the second loss came just over five months ago when he faced James DeGale, who is now 11-1, and lost by majority decision.
Since December of 2010, Wilczewski has recorded wins against Karlo Tabaghua (UD 12), Amin Asikainen (TKO 11) and Geard Ajetovic (SD 8).
While Abraham continues to try and show he’s got what it takes to be at the top of his division in the night’s main event, fans will also watch Eduard Gutknecht (23-1, 9 KOs) defend a regional title against Tony Averlant (17-5-2, 4 KOs) in the light heavyweight division and Mateusz Masternak (25-0, 19 KOs) take on Felipe Romero (15-4-1, 10 KOs) in the cruiserweight division.
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