Felix
Sturm won't go away. In fact, he just regained championship status
following an impressive, unanimous decision win over now former champion
Maselino Masoe in front of 7,000 fans at the
Color Line Arena in Hamburg. Felix Sturm continues to push on and Jermain Taylor and
possibly Winky Wright are going to have to deal with him eventually if
they intend to claim undisputed eminence in the middleweight division.
It has
been almost two years since Adnan Catic, a.k.a. Felix Sturm, "lost" -and
I use the term loosely- his WBO belt to Oscar de la Hoya in Las Vegas,
Nevada. The old adage goes that sometimes in losing you win, and that is
exactly what happened on the night of June 5, 2004, at the MGM Grand in
Sin City. Sturm was robbed by the judges, but he showed his mettle in
and out of the ring, oozing confidence and poise, boxing beautifully and
winning over many fans in his United States debut, and first fight ever
outside his native Germany.
Oscar
de la Hoya has only re-matched two opponents in his twelve years as a
professional boxer, Julio Cesar Chavez and Shane Mosley. I think it is fair
to say that Oscar de la Hoya has nothing to gain by meeting Sturm again, even though
the German has made it clear that he would relish the opportunity to
face Oscar again. Felix, don't hold your breath, forget it, it's not
going to happen. However, and this is a dream fight for me, Jermain
Taylor vs Felix Sturm would be a very competitive, evenly
matched fight.
The
only question in my mind regarding Sturm was whether he had
a chin; couldn’t really judge it by the Oscar de la Hoya fight, since
Oscar was the smaller man, not a true middleweight, who never posed a
threat to Sturm with his power, or lack thereof.
Having
been ringside at the Masoe-Evans fight, I can vouch for the New
Zealander's punching power. Yes, he is slow, and yes, he is almost 40
years old, nevertheless trust me when I tell you Masoe has very heavy
hands, having won 25 of his 26 fights via the early evening route.
Therefore, considering the Masoe-Sturm bout went the distance of twelve,
during which time Maselino had to have made contact with his opponent
but couldn't put him down or beat him otherwise, one has to reach the
conclusion that Felix Sturm must have a decent beard. The
official scoring went as follows: Stanley Christodoulou (South Africa)
and Raul Caiz Jr. (USA) scored it 117-111, while Gustavo Padilla
(Panama) saw it 115-113.
That
being said, a couple of questions come to mind... Will the now two-time
champion Felix Sturm risk coming
back to the United States to get robbed, again? Will Jermain "Bad
Intentions' Taylor care to run
into Sturm inside the ropes? I believe that Felix Sturm has proven
himself a worthy champion, and should get the winner of Wright-Taylor.
Our
congratulations to the new champion and his team. Here is hoping to see
you back in our neck of the woods very soon...
-Photo Credit: Andre Boge-
Felix Sturm is trained by Michael Timm and promoted by
Klaus-Peter Kohl. With the victory his record improves to 25-1, 11
KOs, while Maselino Masoe drops to 26-3, 25 KOs.
Questions? Comments?
Email
Elisa Harrison
