Kubrat Pulev vs. Joey Abell, 12 rounds, heavyweights
The sleeper of the division, Bulgaria’s Pulev (18-0, 9 KO) is poised to become a factor in a division that is in desperate need of fresh talents. But it looks like we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to see him in a real challenge, as he’ll be taking on a no-hoper in Germany’s Abell (29-6, 28 KO), a guy who has the size (6’4″, same as his opponent) but not the talent to be competitive against a man on a mission like Pulev, who has put together a nice set of wins against very solid opponents such as Tony Thompson, Alexander Ustinov and Alexander Dimitrenko in his last three outings. Still, it would be nice to see some progress in Pulev, who still has some rough edges to polish if he wants to take his act to the next level.
What to look for in this fight: In the new crop of heavyweights, size does matter, and Pulev has enough of that and enough boxing skills to cruise past Abell in this one.
