Arthur Abraham vs. Piotr Wilczewski, March 31st 2012

King Arthur vs. Wilk (a play on the name Wilczewski and also Polish slang for "wolf") highlights an otherwise ****-weak upcoming weekend.

It's actually a pretty good card top to bottom.

Edward Gutknecht defends his 175lb Euro title against the European Union champion Tony Averlant.

Dustin Dirks is stepping up slightly against Thomas Ulrich. After a very pedestrian showing against Parfait Tindani last October, this is a chance for DD to prove his mettle in a real test for once. He looked to be on the right track with his thrashing of Sam Couzens on the last Abraham card. Ulrich's best days are well behind him, but he's been in with some classy operators and not always done too poorly.

Mateusz Masternak is stepping - er, laterally against Felipe Romero. The Mexican southpaw had a rocky first few years but has started to turn his career around of late. A win over Saul Montana was sandwiched between two over former champ Julio Gonzalez (RIP). MM would continue to enhance his image if able to dominate here.

Robert Weber vs. Lorenzo di Giacamo is an interesting crossroads meeting. The former is coming off a brave showing against Robert Stieglitz, failing his challenging bid but showing great heart and chin. The latter is coming off a loss to Gutknecht in which he was game but similarly outmatched.




...and then, the main event.

Obviously Abraham will be looking to score a KO, and is liable to take his sweet time going about it. Wilk is no willing victim, however - as James DeGale recently found out. If the Armenian takes this for a walk in the park he could find himself in a points hole before he bothers relaxing his stiffly atrophied muscles from the turtle shell and summoning the effort to land the big punch.

The smart pick is AA by late KO...but...there is that slim possibility...maybe a close S/MD upset? :think

 

Yeah. The vBookie event is up.

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?p=12423290

 

Tough, though - and a better boxer than Abe.

 

:think I'm honestly a little surprised nobody's bitten on the draw yet...either in the poll here or on the vBookie thread where it's paying $33/1.

If you consider it at all feasible for Wilk to see the final bell (and it isn't particularly unfeasible IMO) then it's safe to say he'll be swimming against the tide trying to get a decision. If most of ESB has it for him like 115-113, he will probably lose by scores in the 116-112/117-111 range. If most fans have it a draw, Abraham will have close to a shutout. If most people have it close to a shutout for Wilk, he might get a draw or if he's really lucky a MD or SD.

I can't imagine a scenario where most of the boxing community will have legitimately felt that Abraham did enough to get the nod, given his usual work rate and Wilk's respectively.

 

That is kind of what I mean, though.

See the chart:

(right of the colon is what will happen in actuality in the event that things play out in the manner on the left of the colon)

Wilczewski earns a win that should rightfully be in the 116-111 neighborhood: Officially Abraham wins by 119-109 type scores.

Wilczewski earns a win that should rightfully be in the 118-110 neighborhood: Officially Abraham wins by 116-112 type scores

Wilczewski earns a win that should rightfully be in the 120-108 neighborhood: Officially a draw.

:yep