By Mike Nosky

Just over a year ago, an undefeated and little known Canadian named Sebastien Demers traveled to Germany to take on Arthur Abraham for the IBF middleweight title. In less than three rounds, he found out where he was on the pecking order in the middleweight picture.

Demers was in over his head and was nothing more than a footnote at the end of the day in Abraham’s first fight after suffering a broken jaw against Edison Miranda in their controversial bout eight months earlier.

When the bout was finally stopped at 2:57 of round three, Demers suffered his first career defeat but the fight also gave Demers a measuring stick as to how far away he was from his ultimate goal – a world title.

“When Demers fought against Abraham, he realized the gap between him and the champion. He has since been doing everything to close the gap. He took two months off after the title fight to analyze exactly where he needed to improve,” promoter Yvon Michel told me this week. “During that period of time, he found his passion back and was more willing than ever to take all the necessary steps to get back into title contention.

“During the fight with Abraham, he realized he had the right technique but needed to improve his strength and get more mature in terms of experience. At that time, he was a pro for only two and a half years.

“He thinks it was good move for him to fight Abraham because he needed that kind of challenge to get to the next level.”

On Friday night, in front of a worldwide audience, Demers will get a chance to show everyone that he belongs in the mix at middleweight. Demers is taking on Sam Hill in the co-feature bout underneath the IBF super lightweight elimination bout between Hermann Ngoudjo and Souleymane M’baye on ESPN2’s ‘Friday Night Fight’ at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal.

Demers is now 24-1 (9), having won four straight bouts since his awakening against Abraham. Ironically, each of his previous four opponents could be considered tougher fights than Hill.

He started his comeback against Walid Smichet, winning a lopsided decision (119-109, 117-111, 117-111) against the fighter who has delayed John Duddy’s world title hopes for the time being after the beating he laid on the Irishman back in February at Madison Square Garden.

“Since the Abraham fight, Sebastien has fought good opposition and has improved tremendously,” Michel added.

The improvement has not just been in the ring as a fighter, but also in the rankings.

When he entered the ring against Abraham, he was the 15th rated middleweight by the IBF. Today, Demers is rated #5 by the WBO, #12 by the IBF and #14 by the WBA.

While the improved ratings indicate the level of opposition that  he has defeated over the last twelve months, Michel does not seem to be in a major rush to push Demers back into a world title fight, instead biding his time until his charge is absolutely ready, but he still doesn’t hesitate to challenge any of the other world contenders to meet his man in the ring.

“He will not be rushed toward a title fight but will gradually move forward and soon will earn the right to be back in there,” Michel said. “Looking at the other fighters in the middleweight division, he might not yet be at the level of Abraham and (current world champion Kelly) Pavlik, but he can match up with any of the other top contenders right now.

“Taking into consideration that Sebastien has been a professional for only three and a half years and that he has shown steady improvement, I can really see him winning a world title before long.

“Right now, I would take anyone in the top ten but I would especially like to match him with John Duddy, Joe Greene or Marco Antonio Rubio. But if all goes right for Sebastien on Friday night, we have a deal in place for a fight in July against former Contender star Miguel Espino.”

Is there someone that Demers reminds Michel (who has been promoting for a long time) of?

“His attitude and commitment are similar to (multi-time world titlist) Eric Lucas after he lost to Roy Jones,” Michel quickly replied. “I can easily see him following the same path."