George Groves Previews Stieglitz vs Abraham

[WelshDevilRob]

George Groves Previews Stieglitz vs Abraham

 

GEORGE GROVES PREVIEWS STIEGLITZ v ABRAHAM

 

 

Expect an outbreak of civil war in Germany this Saturday (August 25th) when Magdeburg windmill Robert Stieglitz defends his WBO World super-middleweight title for a seventh time against home city hard case Arthur Abraham at the O2 World Arena, Berlin.

 

 

And all the action is live and exclusive on BoxNation (Sky Ch. 437/Virgin Ch. 546) from 7.30pm. Join at http://www.boxnation.com

 

 

Who better to analyse the Teutonic tear-up than British and Commonwealth super-middleweight czar George Groves, who was pitched to face Stieglitz in May but had to bale out due to nose damage.

 

 

 

Presently ranked third by the WBO, ‘The Saint’ can expect to do battle with Saturday’s victor in the near future.

 

 

George says: “This is a really interesting fight. Abraham is the bookies favourite and he has an advantage in top grade experience plus he’ll be fighting in his home city. Even though he’s come up from middleweight (and Stieglitz was a former IBF Youth champion at light-heavyweight) I’d expect that Abraham will also have the edge in strength and power.

 

He’s a very hard man who’s won fights when his own jaw has been broken and he’s knocked several out with one punch. I don’t think he’s fazed by anything or anyone. He’s one of those types you want to keep relatively tame, if you can. You don’t really want to ignite the beast by hitting him too hard or upsetting him! If things aren’t going his way, he has this capacity to just flick a switch within him and spring into life. You can never get complacent against him.

 

But while he was certainly a formidable force down at 160(lbs), he’s been a little bit ‘hit and miss’ up at supermiddle. He started the Super Six (tournament) really positively by wiping out Jermain Taylor but he got very frustrated against Andre Dirrell – who wouldn’t? – and was comprehensively outboxed by Carl Froch. Carls a great fighter but he doesn’t tend to outbox too many.

 

I’ve studied Stieglitz quite a bit because obviously I was due to fight him last May. He’s a great athlete and a really good ambassador for our sport. He’s a very good operator, a typical German type; a well schooled all rounder with an exceptionally high work rate but no really special qualities.

 

His biggest attribute would have to be the volume of punches that he can throw, round after round. He doesn’t throw three punch combinations, he throws ten punch combinations and if two or three get through, he’ll be happy that he won that exchange. It’s a tactic he repeats and repeats. No one will ever outwork him.

 

Robert isn’t the heaviest puncher; particularly in comparison to Abraham, but he’s more versatile. He can change angles and mix it up better; keeps the opponent guessing. You’d always have to be switched on if you were facing him.

 

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