The Super middleweight division is really boiling up in this country with the announcement of Chris Eubank Jr taking on the former two-weight World champion Arthur Abraham. It is a major step up for the Brighton man who moved up from middleweight in his most recent outing in February to capture the lightly regarded IBO Super Middleweight belt stopping Renold Quinlan in 10 rounds.
The fight is scheduled for Saturday, July 15th at Wembley Arena with ITV to televise. It’s a very good move for Eubank and a real test for the ever improving 27-year old whose only loss came at the hands of WBO Middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders on close points decision back in November 2014.
Abraham is a massively experienced professional having made his debut 14 years ago. He has amassed a very credible record of 46 wins in 51 fights, 30 coming inside schedule against the likes of Jermain Taylor, Edison Miranda, Robert Stieglitz, and our own Paul Smith who put up a valiant effort going down on points twice and nearly man Martin Murray in 2015. His losses are against Super middleweight greats Carl Froch and Andre Ward. Abraham recently lost his WBO title to 6’3 Mexican southpaw undefeated Gilberto Ramirez on points last year but at 37 years old proved still has a fire in his belly rebounding with 2 wins since that loss and still has the confidence to travel to London to take on Eubank next month.
One thing we know is Abraham travels here with massive experience and plenty of confidence having only lost to the very best. We will know an awful lot more about Chris Eubank Jr and where he stands in this exciting division. One suspects he has an eye on the massive fights to be made with World Champions George Groves and James DeGale as well as Callum Smith who gets his chance in September… it’s getting very exciting!