By David Lahr: In a move that surprises few, World Boxing Association middleweight champion Felix Sturm (28-2-1, 12 KOs) will be defending his WBA title against unbeaten Australian Jamie Pittman (16-0, 7 KOs) on April 5th at the Burg-Waechter Castello, in Dusseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Pittman, ranked an incredible #14 by the World Boxing Association middleweight division, despite the fact that Pittman hasn’t beaten any named fighters on his record. The move for Sturm, 29, to take on a fighter this far down in the pack isn’t surprising to most Sturm detractors, who point frequently his tendency to avoid big-named fighters or, in other words, opponents that could potentially beat him.
However, in fairness to Sturm, the WBA division isn’t exactly loaded with talent at this time. As of now, the top #5 are listed in the following order: 1. Randy Griffin, 2. Javier Castillejo, 3. Jermain Taylor, 4. Sebastian Sylvester, 5. Raul Marquez. As you can see, only Taylor can considered a true top fighter of the list, at least as far I’m concerned. As you go below the top #5, the fighters can far less impressive, although the young prospect Joe Greene appears to almost a can’t miss future champion.
With this kind of ranking, Sturm can pretty much fight beatable fighters for the foreseeable future, or until either Taylor or Green move up a couple of notches. Taylor, for his part, hasn’t needed to fight Sturm, in that Taylor was a previous middleweight champion of his own right, and now is focused on trying to regain the title with a rematch with Sturm this Saturday. However, if Taylor fails against Pavlik, he may suddenly start showing interest in fighting Sturm, so that Taylor could have another shot at winning a title.
Sturm already was previously stopped in the 10th round by Spaniard Castillejo in July 2006, though Sturm was later able to regain the title in a close 12-round unanimous decision rematch fought last year in April 2007. However, Sturm’s defeat to Castillejo was made to look worse due to Castillejo’s advanced age of 37 (he’s now 39). Sturm was far from impressive in either bout, as he showed that he didn’t have much of an idea of what to do when Castillejo pressured him and worked on the inside.
It was as if Sturm had no clue on how to fight and inside fighter, as he merely covered up and took shots. And while Sturm did look slightly better in the rematch, he wasn’t that much improved, in that he took a lot of repeated punishment in the bout. I had the fight scored a draw, but I wasn’t surprised that Sturm got the decision, considering that the fight was in Germany (where Sturm lives and fights out of).
In his next bout, Sturm defended against his number#1 challenger, American Randy Griffiin, another fight which took place in Germany. I had Griffin winning the bout 9 rounds to 3, and I was stunned when the judges ruled it a draw. Even in scoring it 9-3, I was being overly generous in giving one of the rounds to Sturm, who was out-punched in every round of the fight. Whereas Griffin was landing combinations, all Sturm could mount up in terms of offensive firepower was his jab. I admit that Sturm’s jab was good, but he was taking non-stop combinations to the head during every round.
Griffin, an extremely busy fighter, never let up on Sturm as he poured in punches at a constant rate from the opening bell until the end of the 12th round. It’s got to be one of the worst decisions of all time, yet it doesn’t surprise me one bit. When, and if there’s a rematch, I see Griffin easily beating Sturm, as long as the fight is held in a neutral country.
As for Sturm’s next opponent, Pittman, he has little chance of winning against Sturm. I really don’t see Pittman as a top ranked fighter, given the soft competition that he’s built up his record on during his short career. While he may surprise me a little, I highly doubt it. This is going to be an easy fight for Sturm, who will be able to jab Pittman from the outside and win without too much trouble. Once Pittman’s out of the way, I suppose we’ll see Sturm taking on Griffin in a rematch.
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