Michalczewski To Take On Ottke In May?

By Boxing News - 01/27/2008 - Comments

michalzewski12323.jpgBy Eric Schmidt: Two of the greatest fighters in German boxing history, Sven Ottke (34-0, 6 KOs) and Dariusz Michalczewski (48-2, 38 KOs) are rumored to be possibly fighting on May 24th, according to boxing news from Germany. Ottke, now 40, retired as an undefeated WBA/IBF super middleweight champion in March 2004, after having held his title for an incredible six years, during which time he defeated challengers such as Charles Brewer, Robin Reid, Glen Johnson, Thomas Tate, Mads Larsen and Anthony Mundine. In his prime, Ottke was almost un-hittable, as he had silky smooth boxing moves, which skillfully enabled him to beat cruder fighters blessed with more power.

In his day, he’d have been a formidable opponent for Joe Calzaghe, had they met. However, the two were never able to line up a fight, and it’s too bad, for I would have liked to have seen Calzaghe try to land against the defensive wizard Ottke. It would have been tough. As good as he was, Ottke was intensely disliked by some people, who were angered because of the fact that he fought most of his fights in his native Germany. However, that’s generally the case for a fighter, isn’t it? Most fighters typically fight the vast majority of their bouts in front of home audiences of their country, mainly because that’s where their known, and, of course, where the money is.

Ottke would have been insane to want to consider fighting out of Germany, where he’d make much less money to defend his WBA/IBF super middleweight titles. Another reason that Ottke was disliked was because most of his fights went the full distance due to his tendency to box his opponents. As most people already know, whenever a fight goes the distance, there is often controversy because some fans feel their fighter won the fighter, whereas others have the exact opposite view. When you as many fights going the distance as Ottke had, there’s bound to be controversy at times.

For his part, Michalczewski held his World Boxing Organization light heavyweight title for nine years, from 1994 to 2003. He eventually lost it to Julio Cesar Gonzalez by a split decision in October 2003, a fight that Michalczewski appeared to win. However, he really needed to retire perhaps two fights earlier, when he stopped Richard Hill in the 10th round in their second fight. When he was in his prime, Michalczewski was a punching machine, knocking many of his opponents out within the first few rounds.

Style wise, Michalczewski was the opposite of Ottke, preferring to slug it out with his opponents with his powerful fists. During the late 90s, Michalczewski had been mentioned as a possible opponent for Roy Jones Jr., but the two of them were never able to meet in the ring, due to Jones’ reluctance to travel to Germany, and fight in front of an unfriendly audience.



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