Arthur Abraham v Felix Sturm has to happen in 2015, says Wilfried Sauerland

The all-German showdown between Felix Sturm and Arthur Abraham has to take place before the end of the year - or it will never happen.

That is the view of Wilfried Sauerland, whose promotional company takes care of the WBO super-middleweight world champion.

Sturm, the former middleweight IBF and WBA champion, was expected to set up the showdown by beating Fedor Chudinov and claiming the vacant WBA belt at 168lbs.

If it doesn't take place in 2015, then it probably never will.

But a shock defeat on a split decision over 12 rounds meant the fight Germany wants to see has been put in jeopardy and certainly will not be a unification battle.

And Sauerland believes that if it is not sorted out in the next five months, it will never happen.

"The fight must happen this year, because after that, Arthur Abraham has other commitments," he told Bild am Sonntag.

"He has a mandatory defence and that takes precedence. It's already late for the fight between Abraham and Sturm - but not too late. If it doesn't take place in 2015, then it probably never will."

Sturm (39-5-3-KO19) has now gone three fights without success, losing his IBF middleweight crown to Sam Soliman two years ago, drawing with another domestic rival in Robert Stieglitz last year, and being out-pointed by Chudinov in May.

In contrast, Abraham's last three fights saw him defend his WBO belt twice to Britain's Paul Smith in the space of five months and then stop Stieglitz in six rounds last month, settling their long-standing score, making it 3-1.

Abraham's number one challenger is Mexican puncher Gilberto Ramirez (32-0-KO24).