Sturm vs. Soliman: Felix looking to put himself in position to win a title

By Boxing News - 12/29/2012 - Comments

sturm32343534By Allan Fox: Former WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm (37-3, 16 KO’s) is fighting an IBF World middleweight title eliminator against 39-year-old Sam Soliman (42-11, 17 KO’s) on February 1st at the ISS Dome in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Sturm, 33, needs a win here over Soliman to become the mandatory challenger for IBF champion Daniel Geale, who recently beat Sturm by a 12 round split decision in September. That was a rare loss for Sturm but not necessarily an unexpected one, as he struggled badly against Ronald Hearns, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray in 2011.

The win over Macklin and the draw against Murray was deeply controversial, and it makes sense that Sturm would lose to Geale because you can only get lucky so many times before you run out of luck.
Soliman, 39, has a real shot of winning this fight despite his advanced age.

He’s still fighting at a high level, and he’s looked good lately in beating Garth Wood, Giovanni Lorenzo, and Eromosele Albert in his last three fights. Soliman is at least fighting on the same level as Sturm despite being six years older.

The thing that Solima has going against him in this fight is that he’ll be the visiting fighter when he steps inside the ring in Dusseldorf, Germany and it’s pretty hard to beat Sturm at home. He’s only lost two fights in Germany, but has been involved with a number of questionable decisions and controversial draws that he appeared to lose.

Sturm has the jab and the power to give Soliman trouble in this fight if he can keep Soliman from getting close enough to unload on his power shots. Sturm does well when he can keep the action on the outside, but he’s going to have problems in this fight if Soliman can get past his jab.