Sturm considering retirement

By Boxing News - 02/21/2016 - Comments

sturm900By Scott Gilfoid: After winning a very controversial 12 round majority decision last Saturday night over WBA Super World super middleweight champion Fedor Chudinov (14-1, 10 KOs), 37-year-old Felix Sturm (40-5-3, 18 KOs) says he’s thinking of retiring from the sport after 15 years in the ring.

Sturm appeared to lose the fight against Chudinov in the minds of many boxing fans, but the three judges scored it 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113 for Sturm at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, in Oberhausen, Germany.

Sturm was outworked the entire fight, and looked shot fighter in my view. I had Sturm winning all of three rounds, and losing the other nine. It was a very one-sided fight in my view, but I’m not one of the three judges that were scoring it.

It was thought that Sturm would take his new WBA super middleweight title and face the German based WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham in a unification fight in Germany later this year if Abraham defeats Gilberto Ramirez on April 9. For Sturm to retire without taking the Abraham fight would be a real shocker, and I just can’t see that happening. Money talks. Now that Sturm has a highly controversial win over Chudinov, he can easily move forward to face Abraham in an all Germany unification fight.

I doubt the World Boxing Association will get in Sturm’s way by ordering him to fight a rematch against Chudinov to clear up the controversy. Sturm appealed to the WBA after his 12 round split decision loss to Chudinov last year in May, and the WBA allowed Sturm to get the rematch.

The thing is last Saturday’s Chudinov-Sturm 2 fight was even more one-sided than the first fight in favor of Chudinov, and yet Sturm was given the decision. I wonder if the WBA is going to give Chudinov a chance for a third fight against Sturm if he appeals it? I can’t wait to find out. I won’t be surprised if the WBA lets Sturm walk with his questionable decision.

“Maybe today was my last fight,” said Sturm via fightnews.com. “Once again, I’ve had everything taken out of me and showed everyone that it’s better behind the microphone or on TV! That decision won’t come today. I’ll let my wounds heal and then discuss it with my family and my team. Maybe I’ll have two or three more fights, maybe I’ll say goodbye.”

Sturm took a beating in the fight against Chudinov last night. The left side of Sturm’s jaw was swollen, and he had a cut on the side of his right eye. His face was also badly swollen. Chudinov is a good fighter, but there are arguably much better fighters in the super middleweight division than him. Even some of the bottom ranked contenders are better fighters than Chudinov in my view.

If Sturm can’t even beat a limited fighter like Chudinov without the decision being HIGHLY QUESIONABLE, then what does that tell you about Sturm if he chooses to hold onto his WBA 168lb title? Personally, I think Sturm would be beaten by the following bottom ranked contenders: Jamie Cox, Lucian Bute, George Groves, Dilmurod Satybaldiev, Callum Smith, Sakio Bika and Ezequiel Maderna.

I don’t think for a second that Sturm will retire. I see him going for the money in a fight against Abraham later this year. If Abraham loses to Ramirez on April 9, then I see Sturm milking his title against some of the bottom feeders in the division rather than facing Ramirez.



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