By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm has reportedly turned down a clash with #1 IBF Hassan N’Dam for the vacant IBF middleweight title, according to Fightnews. Instead of Sturm fighting N’Dam for Jermain Taylor’s former IBF title, Sturm will be moving up in weight to the 168 pound division to try and get an all-German fight against WBO 168 pound champion Arthur Abraham.
That fight makes sense because Abraham has already had three fights in a short period of time against popular German fighter Robert Stieglitz, and if he can get a fight against Sturm, then Abraham can another German fighter to face.
Sturm is a heck of a lot more beatable than if Abraham were to have to face someone like Gilberto Ramirez and the other top 10 contenders.
“I will not fight at middleweight !!! That time is over,” Sturm said on his twitter.
It makes sense for Sturm not to have faced N’Dam at middleweight, because it was bad match-up for Sturm that he likely would have lost had he taken the fight. I mean, Sturm was recently beaten by 40-year-Sam Soliman twice, and that kind of tells you where Sturm is in terms of what he’s got left in the tank. Sturm’s stamina is suspect at this point in his boxing career, and I believe he’s more of a 3-round fighter than someone that is capable of fighting 12 full 3 minute rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjJBhkzxr3c
“As we expected, Sturm has turned down the fight against Hassan N’Dam,” Hassan’s manager Gary Hyde said to RingTV.com. “We hope that the IBF will tell us soon that one of their top 10 fighters has accepted to fight Hassan so that we can begin negotiations.”
The options for N’Dam are pretty thing in terms of opponents. #3 IBF Billy Joe Saunders is looking to face the winner of the April 11th fight between Peter Quillin and Andy Lee. If Saunders can get a fight against Lee, which doesn’t seem too likely at this point, it would be a huge money fight in the UK between the two fighters.
Besides that, N’Dam is a bad match-up for Saunders do to his fast hands, excellent mobility and superb boxing skills. As such, you can expect Saunders to turn down the fight against the tricky N’Dam. Saunders’ best chance of winning a world title at 160 is against Lee. But the only way that fight happens if Lee gets lucky against Quillin with one of his Hail Mary right hooks.
As RingTV pointed out, #5 IBF David Lemieux has promotional issues and he likely won’t take the fight. That’s perhaps a good thing for N’Dam because Lemeiux has the kind of power to put N’Dam on the deck every time he touches him cleanly.
Quillin was able to knock N’Dam down six times in their fight in 2012 with his power shots.
That leaves only 40-year-old former IBF 160 pound champion Sam Soliman as an opponent for N’Dam. Depending on how well Soliman’s injured knee has healed, he could be a good or a bad opponent for N’Dam.
Soliman recently lost his title to Taylor last year after his knee folded up from under him early in the fight.
N’Dam could fight for the vacant IBF title by April or May of this year.
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