Photo Gallery of the Press Conference

Hamburg - The big world middleweight title fight between puncher Maselino Masoe and technician Felix Sturm is almost here. The clash takes place on Saturday at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, Germany. The fighters met face to face Monday at a pre-fight press conference.

"I respect Felix Sturm and have studied videos of his fights," said Masoe (26-2, 25 KOs), who arrived in Hamburg a week ago. "He is a challenger to take very seriously. We will offer a great show to the public. His home advantage doesn't interest me, because I won my title by knockout in America against a Don King boxer, Evans Ashira. Felix has substantially more pressure than me because here in Germany he is a big favorite. Whoever keeps their nerve leaves the ring as a winner and that will be me."

Sturm (24-1, 11 KOs), who arrived in Hamburg on Sunday, stated "I prepared perfectly with my coach Michael Timm and I will implement all we have worked on. I am happy to be able to finally get back into the ring again. I was world champion, then the title was stolen from me. I'll become world champion again and nothing and nobody can stop me!" The fight between Sturm and the 39-year-old Masoe Masoe was originally scheduled for November 2005, but was delayed after Sturm suffered an elbow injury. "That was a bad experience for me," said Felix. "All the more pleased I am about the fantastic preparation which now lies behind me."

In the other world title fight, Wladimir Sidorenko (18-0, 6 KOs) defends his WBA bantamweight crown against Ricardo Cordoba (27-1, 18 KOs).

Also, high explosiveness is expected in the heavyweight clash between "The White Tyson" Ruslan Chagaev (19-0-1, 16 KOs) and Vladimir Virchis (20-0, 17 KOs). The winner of the duel of unbeaten stablemates will propel one of them a giant step closer to a world title shot.

Altogether the card includes eight fights spanning the entire spectrum of boxing from the skillful bantamweights to hard-hitting heavyweights, so once again fight fans in the Color Line Arena will experience a big night of boxing. Promoter Klaus Peter Kohl of Universum Box-Promotion expects an almost full house on Saturday night. Already approximately 7000 tickets have been sold.