Soliman dominates Sturm, captures IBF 160 lb. title

By Boxing News - 06/01/2014 - Comments

sturm6By Allan Fox: #1 IBF Sam Soliman (44-11, 18 KO’s) completely wore out IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm (39-4-2, 18 KO’s) in beating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night to capture his IBF 160 lb. title at the König Palast, Krefeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Soliman, 40, won the fight by the judges’ scores of 118-110, 118-110, and 117-111.

Soliman beat Sturm last year by a 12 round unanimous decision in February of 2013. But last night, Soliman beat Sturm far worse than he did last time in badly outworking him for 12 rounds.

Sturm looked his best in the 1st round in which he landed several big right hands and a couple of left hooks to the head. It still a close round due to Soliman’s high work rate and constant shifting of angles with his punches.

Soliman turned up the gas on his attacks on Sturm starting in the 2nd round, as he continually was throwing shots from different angles and charging forward for clinches. When Soliman would come forward to initiate a clinch, he’d charge and throw a jab at the same time and then grab Sturm before he could throw anything back at him. It was pretty smart of Soliman because the jab would keep Sturm from picking him off with anything while he was coming forward to initiate a clinch.

In the 3rd round, Soliman was warned three times by the referee Eddie Cotton for pulling down on Sturm’s head and partially throwing him to the canvas. It was pretty rough stuff from Soliman, but it looked like he was letting Sturm know that he meant business. Just the fast pace of the round seemed to drain Sturm like a battery because he was forced to try and keep up with what Soliman was doing in the ring, and he couldn’t do it. Sturm is the type of fighter that needs to fight at a slow, methodical pace, and Soliman didn’t let him do that in the 3rd or any of the remaining rounds of the fight.

Soliman began to look a little ragged in the 8th and 9th rounds, as he was missing with a lot of his shots and charging into Sturm to initiate frequent clinches. However, Soliman was still busier than Sturm and landing more punches them him, so it was impossible to give Sturm any of these rounds. Sturm did land one big left hook in the 8th round that got Soliman’s attention, but he fired back a hard right hand of his own immediately.

In rounds 10 through 12, Soliman appeared to get his second wind as he fought much better and really worked Sturm over with nonstop shots thrown from different angles. By that time in the fight, Sturm was red-faced and looking totally exhausted from trying to keep up with Soliman.

Soliman was just too much for Sturm in this fight, and it wasn’t surprising that Sturm ended up losing to him for the second time. Sturm matches up better against guys that fight at a slower pace like Peter Quillin.



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