Update: State of the SMW division

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Having entered September, most fighters have one more fight scheduled this year.

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faces lightly regarded WBC titlist

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on the September 12th undercard in Las Vegas. Both guys have their advantages and flaws, but generally Groves is viewed as a favorite and most expect him to win this fight by a knockout. Should Groves win, there is a good possibility that we get a huge unification showdown between Groves and DeGale.
However, if Badou Jack manages to win, he could be fighting one of Haymon's fighters next, most noticeably one of the Dirrell brothers. Jack also said that he is moving up to LHW after this fight, so it's best to wait and see what happens.

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is coming back. The opponent will be

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@ Oct 17th. Dirrell will obviously be gunning for another title shot next year, possibly WBC title or a rematch against DeGale. We'll see what happens.

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is likely having another tune-up fight, which is very disappointing. Opponent is TBA and the fight is rumored to take place on Canelo-Cotto undercard. Nothing is confirmed yet, but Ward almost definitely won face a top opponent this year (very disappointing considering that he hasn't fought a top SMW since 2011 and managed to lose his WBC and Ring titles in the process).

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just renewed his Sauerland contract, and he could be landing an unification fight somewhere next year. He will likely fight once again this year, and the rumored possible opponents so far are

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,

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and

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.

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hasn't been in the news much since beating Andre Dirrell. He's signed to Haymon recently so it's possible that he will land a title defense in the US before the end of 2015. Lucian Bute looks to be a possible options, and there is a shady IBF eliminator set up between

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and

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.

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recently won a WBA interim belt, and according to the rumors, he will face the winner of WBA regular title fight between

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and

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, with the winner of those matches being elevated to full WBA status (Ward vacating/being stripped on the horizon?).

Among the top prospects, there are some interesting fights coming up as well.

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and

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collide on November 7th in Liverpool. Both are undefeated, good match-up. The winner will be on the way to the WBC title shot.

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faces

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on Sept. 26th in Berlin in yet another step-up for the top German prospect. Zeuge looks to be heading towards a title shot in the hear future and potential huge showdown with Arthur Abraham.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

 

It's hard to see that happening since Abraham is probably aiming to fight Sturm after Stieglitz. He said that if Ward and Dirrell want to fight him, they have to come to Germany, and I'm not sure of that happening.

 

The time has come to sum the recent events. Before I start, let's point out at an interesting thing I had to say about a month ago.

The key parts are "situation at SMW heating up" and "he (Ward) better not be looking to fight one of those middleweights".

Right now, with Andre Ward returning (although fighting at LHW and still not being rated by the Ring), I am afraid that the unfortunate situation of Ward trying to skip the fighters of his own weight class and secure a fight with the boxers from lower divisions remains.

Ward has looked very good in defeating an overmatched opponent, who was chosen in order to make Ward look good. We've all seen that the ring rust isn't there, and if it was, Ward has shaken it off and successfully arrived back at the scene.

Now let's take a look at the Ring SMW ratings:

1. Arthur Abraham (WBO)
2. James DeGale (IBF)
3. George Groves
4. Robert Stieglitz
5. Gilberto Ramirez
6. Andre Dirrell
7. Badou Jack (WBC)

Let's skip King Arthur for a moment and focus on James DeGale.

The IBF champion James DeGale has become the first British Olympic gold medalist to win a world title by defeating the highly talented Andre Dirrell.

What is also important to the topic is that

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if he wins the IBF belt. DeGale proceeded to win the IBF title and again said that he wants Andre Ward, also saying

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. DeGale's team also said that Andre Ward has avoided that fight in the past, obviously firing shots directed towards Ward.

Unfortunately, Andre Ward is yet to reply on any of those accusations. So far it looks like he's pretending that James DeGale doesn't exist.

On the other hand, Ward keeps calling a middleweight champion Golovkin on his words (that he'd fight anyone 154-168) and trying to create some kind of media hype to surround the potential match-up.

Even before DeGale-Dirrell happened and Ward came back, I expressed fear of such scenario. Since winning the Super Six tournament in 2011,

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. First it was Sergio Martinez, then it was Kelly Pavlik, then it was Chavez Jr, and now it's Gennady Golovkin. In the meantime, he looked other way rather than deciding to face the top fighters of his own division. It allowed other fighters such as Carl Froch to use that opportunity and become bigger names than Ward himself (Abraham and Kessler were much bigger than Ward before Super 6, so they just rebuilt themselves during Ward's inactivity).

Now, let's move back to Arthur Abraham.

Since Ward was so inactive, and with Froch being removed from the rankings for inactivity as well, King Arthur has now reached his all-time high rating at SMW and became recognized by the Ring as the best super-middleweight in the world. To be fair, Ward did come back, and although he's still not rated by the Ring, it is fair to rate him as the #1.

However, as I've mentioned before, Abraham was looking to secure a mega showdown against the longtime rival, Felix Sturm. As Sturm failed to capture the WBA title in a fight against Fedor Chudinov, that fight is not close to be made anymore. Sturm will probably still have the chance to create the right circumstances, as he is likely to rematch Chudinov late this year.

In the meantime, Abraham is set to fight another longtime rival (the one he actually did fight, 3 times) Robert Stieglitz, in what is expected to be their final showdown. Whoever wins the big fight, will probably be obligated to face the unbeaten Mexican prospect Gilberto Ramirez. While Bob Arum (Ramirez' promoter) is mentioning Dubai as the possible location, it is hard to believe that he will be able to dictate any terms, especially if Arthur Abraham still holds the title at that time (Bob would need to send King Arthur a very fat contract in order to get him outside Germany).

As far as George Groves is concerned, he will be fighting Badou Jack for the WBC belt soon, which could set up a huge fight against James DeGale if Groves manages to beat Jack (perhaps then Ward will remember DeGale and complain about DeGale and Groves avoiding him and having a "domestic fight" instead).

Andre Dirrell have failed to win a title yet again (this time it was fair and square, unlike when Froch robbed him), so he will need a fight to come back and get himself back into the contention. The most logical scenario would be facing Badou Jack (if Jack beats Groves) after a tune-up, but we are yet to see what the future holds.

For start, let's hope that Mr. Andre Ward finally starts fighting the top super-middleweights and stop looking to fight those smaller guys.

There is no undisputed champion at SMW, and if anyone wishes to take that claim, it is pretty obvious what needs to be done.

 

The only "lesser" belt could be WBA "regular" in this case, owned by Chudinov. I doubt that he'll be holding it for too long.