Fighter Of The Week - Robert Stieglitz

This week we have chosen Robert Steiglitz as our 

fighters of the week...

There wasn't much mainstream action in boxing this weekend, and the show we were all looking forward to (Abraham-Stieglitz II in Germany) was a slow-burner for the fans and the fighters in the first few bouts of the night. But thankfully a man named Robert Steiglitz saved the day with a career-best performance on the way to winning back his WBO super-middleweight title in a rematch with Arthur Abraham, the man that took the title from him in the Summer of last year.

Continue reading...

Arthur Abraham Vs Robert Stieglitz II - Fight Preview

By James McKnight @JamesMcKnight83.

'King Arthur' Abraham aims to defend the WBO super-middleweight title against Robert Stieglitz on Saturday, March 23. 

The pair are set to clash for a second time after their first meeting occurred last August in Berlin, Germany. This time around they meet at the GETEC arena in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

Abraham, 33, is Armenian-born, but is now a resident of Berlin, compared to Stieglitz, 31, who was born in Russia but now resides in Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt. This, of course, now means that Stieglitz has home advantage, whereas before Abraham did. 

Abraham becomes two-weight world champ!



Abraham (centre) with the WBO super-middlweight title. 



'Amazing!' That is the only word I can use to sum up this fight. Maybe the intensity and the excitement of the event was just increased because it had been so long since any of us boxing fans had seen a world class televised fight. But anyway, you're not here to hear me ramble on about how excited I am that the boxing season has started again. You're here to read about what actually happened in the highly anticipated super-middleweight fight between Arthur Abraham and Robert Stieglitz.

I think the reason that this fight was as good as it was, is because both men wanted it so bad. It was a crossroads fight and both of them had something to prove. I think it's fair to say that going into this fight we were thinking that if Abraham didn't win then his career as a world-class fighter was over. On the other hand, we all also knew that Stieglitz was desperate to be victorious because he had to prove that he belonged with the top-level fighters at super-middleweight.

It was clear from the beginning that Abraham was not fighting with the same game-plan that he usually does. For anyone who has seen the German-based Armenian fight before, you will know that he usually just lasts through the first half of the fight without really throwing any punches and then from around the 6th or 7th round onwards he tries to wear his opponent down until they give up. But this time things were different. The 32-year old came out strong and fast and clearly won the first round. This was a sign that he knew that this was potentially his last chance at proving he was a force to be reckoned with at super-middleweight. Howeveer, Stieglitz was not just going to lay down and let Abraham walk away with the opportunity. The German-based Russian came back strong and threw more punches in the next few rounds than Abraham probably did in the whole fight. He even hurt the usually iron-jawed Abraham on occasions. When it got to the eighth round, I had it scored even and there were just no clues as to who was going to win. Abraham had just won the last round but he was looking very tired, whereas Stieglitz had blood pouring from his right eye and a bruise above his left but was still looking fresh when he threw his punches. The next four rounds were once again very close, except for the last round which Stieglitz clearly won.

At the end of the fight I had it scored 115-114 to Abraham but I could have easily had it the other way round. The judges scorecards were 116-112, 116-112 & 115-113, all in favour of Abraham. There was no arguments about the winner, I just think the scorecards were slightly wide.

One thing I did notice on Twitter after the fight is how many people were now fans of Stieglitz even though he lost th fight. A lot of people had not really seen much of him before and even though he lost, he still showed a lot of heart and courage and also proved that he can compete with some top-class fighters at the weight.

Abraham is now in the best position he has been in since moving up to super-middleweight. He is now a two-weight world champion and back up there with the top-level fighters. Whilst I don't think there's much chance of him beating the likes of Andre Ward and Carl Froch, there's still a lot big fights out there for him.

Abraham Vs Stieglitz likely for August 25th...

Robert Stieglitz                                         Arthur Abraham.

According to Chris Meyer (the general manager of Team Sauerland), the highly anticipated fight involving WBO super-middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz and German fan-favourite Arthur Abraham will possibly take place on August 25th. The location and venue will be decided in the near future.

Abraham (34-3,27 KO's) was made the mandatory challenger after British super-middleweight contender George Groves pulled out due to injury. He has already fought twice this year. In his most recent fight with Piotr Wilczewski he had a lot of trouble getting started in the early rounds and it looked as though he was on his way to fourth loss in just seven fights but he managed to dig deep and with the help of his loyal fans he went on to win by a unanimous decision.

Stieglitz has only fought once this year and that was this past Saturday on the undercard of Marco Huck Vs Ola Afolabi. He won a twelve round decision over last-minute step-in Nader Hamdan.

We will keep you posted if anything changes regarding to the date, location and venue. They will all likely be confirmed in the coming days.

Another great fight scheduled for May 5th!

The night of boxing on May 5th has just got even better. First they 
gave us Mayweather-Cotto, then they gave us Alvarez-Mosely and now they've given us George Groves Vs Robert Stieglitz and Marco Huck Vs 
Ola Afolabi on a different show. 

British and commonwealth super-middleweight champion George Groves will challenge WBO world champion Stieglitz in a long awaited fight that is 
set to take place in Germany. 

The main event of the card will see WBO cruiserweight champion Marco 
Huck defend his titles in a rematch against Ola Afolabi. 

Huck gets hand raised in 1st fight
with Afolabi.

Stieglitz was originally meant to face Mikel Kessler in April (the 
fight had been pushed back from November) but the bout was called off 
after Kessler pulled out and instead chose to fight light-heavyweight Allan Green. Groves was also scheduled to fight a different opponent. 
On May 16th he was going to clash with Kenny Anderson but pulled due to 
a 'back injury'. The same day he was announced the mandatory challenger 
for the WBO title. 

'St George' Groves has done just about everything possible at domestic 
level and is now attempting to make a statement at world level. It is 
sometimes easy to forget that he is only 24 years old when you think of 
everything has done already in his career. But, Stieglitz is a very 
experienced pro that may make Groves look like an un-experienced 
prospect on May 5th. If he doesn't, then Groves may well be a very 
special fighter indeed. 

The first fight between Huck and Afolabi was a very close fight. The 
scorecards read 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112, all in favour of Marco 
Huck. Afolabi is Britain's No.1 ranked cruiserweight and has said many 
times that he will give the fight of his life on May 5th. 

All four of the big fights will be shown live on BoxNation (SKY 456) so 
it is shaping up to be a fantastic day for fight fans all around the 
world.