Who's the best SMW right now?

Feigenbutz

 

Here's my deal with Abraham - yes he only has one defeat officially in the 4½ years since Ward but his opposition has largely been mediocre. He is coming off his absolute best result since Jermain Taylor in 2009 - and neither Murray nor Taylor ever managed to establish themselves as legitimate credible super middleweights despite having been a top contender and lineal champion respectively down at 160lb before moving up. Those are by far Abraham's two best results at SMW, and they're over two fellow blown-up middles.

Examine the rest of his time at the weight:

Well on his way to a wide decision loss to Dirrell when he pulled the cheap shot in frustration. Yes, there was the bad acting job by Dirrell to over-sell it but the fact is that Abraham did commit an unconscionable foul and deserved to lose for it, and had let Dirrell outbox him most of the way until that point. So it was a night for his stock to plummet and for him to pick up an official L any way you slice it.

Schooled by Carl Froch. Let me repeat: schooled by Carl Froch. While the Cobra's boxing skills are sometimes underrated, Abraham made him out to be a bigger whiter version of Pete Whitaker in his prime. Another L, another very bad knock on Abraham's h2h value at 168lb. He lost every minute, allowing someone known more for being a stalker/puncher to resemble a genius tactician in a total whitewash.

Was doing very poorly early on in his attempts to handle Stjepan Bozic. I actually gave the Slovenian the 1st, and he kept Abraham's offense contained to just a few horribly amateurish wide-slapping body combos that barely made contact and had no effect. Maybe the complexion of the fight would've changed as it went on, given that Abraham does start notoriously slowly and Bozic has never proven himself capable of getting a big W like Abraham would've been, and yet based on what did transpire it does feel like Abraham got a bit lucky with Bozic injuring himself (similar to Charr vs. Saglam, wherein Charr was having a shockingly high degree of difficulty after two rounds before similarly lucking out with Saglam's injury). The result itself does nothing for Abraham's resume on paper, yet the circumstances and his performance when evaluated push his stock even further down the spiral begun with the Dirrell & Froch losses.

Then he gets shut the fuck out by Andre Ward, as expected, just as thoroughly humiliated and out-boxed as he was against Froch, his second utter schooling in just six months. Abraham is now officially 2-3 in the division, with the first W coming over a Taylor previously ruined by Froch and never cut out for SMW, and the second over an unheralded Bozic who actually won the only complete round of the fight and was giving Abraham serious problems before the unsatisfactory conclusion. So in his three outings at the weight versus real super middleweights of note he was 0-3, barely winning a round of 34 and change.

Since then? He knocked out Pokemon Farias. So what? Not top 40 at the weight.

Wilk is a decent W, and was maybe top 15 at the weight, but his ceiling is decidedly Euro tier. Not a world beater, and while Abraham beat him comfortably (elevating his stock a bit from the funk it was in after his initial SMW run of Taylor/Dirrell/Froch/Bozic/Ward/Pokemon) this still ranks well behind Murray and Taylor on Abraham's list of recent accomplishments (slightly behind Stieglitz, whom I'm just about to get to), even with Taylor and Murray being middleweights and Wilk a natural SMW at the outer fringes of world contention.

Now we begin the Stieglitz rivalry. Both had been in the game for roughly a decade when they first met, give or take a year (Abraham minus, Stieglitz plus). Stieglitz was viewed as having been a weaker titlist at 168lb who babysat the WBO belt at home, and furthermore was considered to be somewhat on the slide by 2012 on top of being a paper champ and only ever average by world titlist standards to begin with. First time, close UD, better result than Wilk but nothing amazing. He knocked off a weak titlist holding a belt of quaternary importance hostage in Germany. Big whoop. It wasn't even a decisive win in which he clearly distanced himself from Stieglitz as the better man. It was very close (enough to warrant a rematch a short time later...)

Mehdi Bouadla. Okay, he fought most of his career at super middle and some at middle (never below 160lbs) but in all honesty with his frame, height and light pop the guy ought to have been a career junior middle. Beating him by TKO is well and fine given that an inexperienced Golovkin went the full scheduled eight with him without scoring a knockdown, except if you delve further into the circumstances you find that Abraham didn't score a proper knockout as Mikkel Kessler had the year before in two fewer rounds, nor even battered his way to a serious TKO. It was stopped on cuts. Blah.

Stieglitz II. Overwhelmed and stopped by the light-hitting Russian-German. Not a good look. This substantially lowers Abraham's stock, more than his Pokemon/Wilk/Stieglitz I/Bouadla victories combined had brought it up - putting him right down in the same pit it was in after the Ward loss.

Shihepo and De Carolis - two absolute nobodies, with respect. Good fighters in context, at regional level in their respective corners of the globe, and determined triers beyond that, but to say either was a top 40 SMW is flattering, and 25-30 would be the hard cap for both. Abraham struggled on both nights, and while I can't remember offhand which of them it was (both were dull affairs, like most Abraham fights, and I've no desire to revisit them) there was a general sense of the scoring for Abraham being favorable in one. In both, actually, the scorecards didn't reflect how pedestrian Abraham looked against non-contenders.

...and yet, the pair of them were enough to vault Abraham into a world title shot in the Stieglitz rubber match. III, like I, ended up being close and just edged by Abraham. Both were, heading in, considered spent entities without much left to offer at SMW outside settling their little rivalry in a vacuum. It was generally perceived that no matter who came out 2-1, he was going to be the weakest belt holder at the weight.

Sjekloca had come off a valiant showing absorbing punishment from Bika, yet that eliminator showed how well short of world class he was. Abraham taking yet another close decision over the likes of the Serb (again, with some very favorable scoring including one absurdly wide card) doesn't really do a lot for his standing.

Smith I & II were a step down from even Sjekloca. Abraham was universally derided for taking a challenge from Smith. The only reason the rematch was entertained as reasonable is because of how surprisingly well Smith did the first time - which served to convince that Abraham was indeed on the slide and losing his ability to come on strong in the 2nd half of fights as had been thought for a few years, rather than Smith actually being a top player at SMW. 24 rounds of failing to distinguish himself by much from Smith again is poor look for Abe.

Stieglitz IV just confirmed what Stieglitz's performances in 2014 - a gift stoppage over Sergey Khomitsky where Stieglitz was getting his butt kicked before the officiating travesty, and the gift draw with Sturm after getting outfought in a good fight where he found reserves of toughness and tenacity and did well but clearly deserved to lose - had suggested, that Stieglitz was shot. At best it cancels out Abraham's stoppage defeat to Stieglitz, with their close rubber match sandwiched in between and leading to a conclusion of very little overall separation between them despite Abraham winding up officially 3-1 over him. (much as the Pacquiao vs. Marquez rivalry left a distinct aftertaste of Pacquiao not being the better man that having a 2-1-1 edge would make it appear).

I actually had Murray beating Abraham, 115-112 - though I could see it as close as maybe a draw. Once more, magnanimous judging for the charmed-life Abraham.

So in review, here are the SMW victories over notables wherein Abraham was convincingly the better man on the night:

Taylor (asterisk due to having just been KTFO and perhaps ruined by Froch in a heart-breaking ahead-on-points last-minute collapse)
Wilk (decisive enough, and Wilk a solid guy, but this gets no higher than a B grade)
Stieglitz IV (both of their distance-going encounters, I and III were close enough to argue having gone either way - and even here, you have to withhold some credit due to Stieglitz being quite battle-worn at this point and looking awful versus Khomitsky and deserving the loss to a blown-up, also-shot MW in Sturm)

That's it. Bozic - inconclusive result, and from the little we did see Abraham clearly wasn't shaping up to be the better man in the ring on the night (regardless of whether you believe he would've come on strong in the 2nd half as was long his trademark). Pokemon - worthless. Bouadla - more satisfactory result than Bozic and less worthless than Pokemon, but still kind of anticlimactic due to being a cuts stoppage, and not worth too much even had it been a legitimate one. Shihepo and De Carolis - upjumped regional fighters that gave Abraham more problems than anyone to be regarded as championship material at the weight ought to be given by their ilk. Sjekloca - probably a full level below Wilk. Smith - a level below even that. Stieglitz I & III - close enough to say that Abraham is on a par with Stieglitz, whose legacy is having been a weak paper champ. Murray - gift decision over a guy that had just debuted at the weight.

 

I can see why Boxrec might place him #1 given their computerized points-ranking system lending more weight to official results on paper and less to qualitative evaluation of the circumstances and context of those results, but shame on the Ring and TBRB for putting him that high based on a campaign that has NEVER spelled out Abraham being definitively top 5, let alone 'the man' in the division.

 

Think Boxing News say Degale

How many times, they are magazines and just someones opinion

For me I think currently it is Degale

 

Looks like a post from me. I do agree

 

abraham on longevity
degale on head to head

plus rarely mentioned is when fighters like degale fight in the other mans backyard and get the win.
this is a hard thing to do.
fighters like
lennox lewis never got much credit for this .
does boxing rec points system takes this into account ?

but degale still needs more defenses and longevity.

 

Abraham is a joke one paced shot to pieces. Degale may be best unless ward comes back no can match him if he fights. That's a big if.

 

That really tells you how **** SMW is now a days, when AA is even considered to be the best atsch

 

Abraham.