By Dan Ambrose: Jermain Taylor was stripped of his IBF middleweight title earlier today, according to Dan Rafael. Taylor is dealing with a whole host of legal problems that could keep him out of the ring possibly for good. He was supposed to face Sergio Mora in his first title defense, but that obviously isn’t going to happen now. Mora is fighting tonight against Abe Han.
With Taylor now stripped of his IBF title, the International Boxing Federation has now ordered #1 Hassan N’Dam (31-1, 18 KOs) to fight #3 IBF Felix Sturm (39-4-3, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF title.
“Jermain Taylor has been stripped of his IBF middleweight title. #boxing,” Dan Rafael of ESPN said on his twitter today. “Hasan N’Dam and Felix Sturm have been ordered to fight the vacant belt.”
It’s unclear at this time whether the N’Dam vs. Sturm fight will actually take place, because Sturm is generally very selective in the opponents he faces, and it could be that he might not be interested in facing N’Dam. We’re going to have to wait and see on this fight to see if it actually takes place, because Sturm could very well decline the fight and instead keep picking and choosing guys like he’s been doing.
Sturm lost his IBF title to 40-year-old Sam Soliman in May of last year in losing a 12 round decision. In Sturm’s last fight, he fought to a 12 round draw against Robert Stieglitz in November of 2014.
Sturm has had stamina problems in his last few fights, and it’s very likely that he’ll continue to have these problems in the future. If Sturm isn’t able to fight hard for more than three rounds, then he’s going to lose to N’Dam. Sturm has excellent boxing skills, but he’s getting up there in age and his lack of stamina is going to cause him problems if he can’t fight hard for a full three minutes of every round for 12 continuous rounds.
N’Dam was knocked down repeatedly by Peter Quillin in their fight in 2012, and it’s quite possible that he’s still got a problem with his chin. Sturm can exploit this problem if he can nail N’Dam with enough shots. N’Dam is going to need a better chin than what he showed in the Quillin fight if he wants to be able to beat Sturm, because the German based fighter has decent punching power. N’Dam is kind of slick though, and not easy to hit on a regular basis. However, Sturm has a good jab and he might be able to pick N’Dam off with his jab while he’s coming in to try and land his fast shots. N’Dam gave Quillin a lot of problems with his hand speed. Unfortunately for N’Dam, he hit the canvas pretty much every time Quillin would land a solid blow.
N’Dam has won his last four fights since losing to Peter Quillin in 2012. N’Dam is coming off of a 12 round decision win over the hard-hitting Curtis Stevens last October in Santa Monica. Before that, N’Dam defeated Fulgencio Zuniga by a 10 round decision last year in April.
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