Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29 KOs) insists he has left no stone unturned in preparation for his WBO World Super Middleweight Championship contest with Martin Murray (32-2-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday night at the TUI Arena in Hannover, Germany.
Speaking at today’s final pre-fight press conference, ‘King Arthur’ detailed his ‘brutal’ training camp and declared himself ready to beat the British challenger.
‘’This has been one of the toughest camps of my career,’’ said Abraham. ‘’My coach Ulli Wegner and his assistant Georg Bramowski have pushed me to my limits. It’s been brutal at times, but it will all be worthwhile when my hand is raised on Saturday night. Martin is a good boxer and I expect him to give me a hard fight, but there is no way he is taking my title!’’
Murray, who is contesting his first title at 168 lbs following three valiant attempts at middleweight, shares the Champion’s confidence and has vowed not to leave Germany without Abraham’s WBO belt.
‘’We’ve been studying Arthur carefully and I believe I’ve got him beat,’’ said the 33 year-old from St Helens. ‘’He is a great fighter, but he’s not changed his style in years, and in my opinion, he’s not evolved. It’s going to be a tough fight but I know it’s well within me to win. I won’t be leaving Germany without the title!’’
‘’This is a real 50-50 fight,’’ said promoter Kalle Sauerland. ‘’And I think it will be Arthur’s toughest test for many years. However, he has never shied away from a challenge, and against Murray, I expect Arthur to prove why he is the number one fighter in the super middleweight division.’’
Another man under no illusion of the danger Murray poses is Abraham’s long-time coach and mentor Ulli Wegner, who will be celebrating his 100th World title fight on Saturday night. ‘’For Arthur and I, a unification bout is the common goal,’’ said the 73 year-old. ‘’But first he must get past Murray, which will be no easy task!’’
The WBO World Super Middleweight Championship fight between Arthur Abraham and Martin Murray will be broadcast live on Sat.1 in Germany and Sky Sports in the UK. Tickets are available online via www.tickethall.de and www.eventim.de
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
