Felix Sturm vs. Randy Griffin: Can Randy Win a Decision in Germany?

By Boxing News - 07/02/2008 - Comments

sturm35535.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: Randy Griffin (24-1-3, 12 KOs), the #1 challenger for the WBA middleweight title, has been forced to wait nine months since fighting to a controversial draw with WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm (29-2-1, 13 KOs), but on Saturday night at the Gerry Weber Stadium, Halle, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, Griffin will finally get his chance to correct the wrongs from last time out. The problem for Griffin, however, is that he’ll be once again forced to fight in Germany, in front of a hostile crowd and with circumstances that will likely be slanted once again in Sturm’s favor.

In their previous fight last year in October, it seemed abundantly clear who the winner was in the fight, as Griffin, 32, appeared to easily win the fight by a substantial margin. I, along with other writers from boxingnews24.com, saw Griffin winning by an eight rounds to four margin, and even with that scoring, we’d given Sturm an extra two rounds knowing that the judges would be likely giving him any close rounds. There were exactly two close rounds in the fight, both of which I gave to Sturm, and as for all the rest of them Griffin won them by a landslide due to his superior work.

Sturm, 29, a three-time middleweight champion, has been involved in a number of controversial bouts, starting with his fight with Oscar De La Hoya in June 2004, in which Sturm, then the WBO middleweight champion, lost his title when De La Hoya was given a 12-round unanimous decision victory. The fight, however, wasn’t even remotely close as Sturm beat De La Hoya black and blue, jabbing him, battering him with combinations, and tenderizing his face like a piece of meat.

For most people who’ve seen the fight, agree that Sturm was given a raw deal on that night, and should have won the fight by a considerable margin. Yet, De La Hoya, who was getting ready to take on Bernard Hopkins in a forthcoming match, got the win and with it Sturm’s title. Two years later, in March 2006, Sturm would win the WBA title with a victory over Maselino Masoe. There was no controversy there, because it was a clear cut win for Sturm.

However, after losing his title to a 38 year-old Javier Castillejo by a shocking 10th round TKO in July 2006, an arrangement was made for a rematch between the two fighters, which, of course, took place in Germany, Sturm’s adopted country. The fight, though close by most boxing fan’s accounts, appeared to be a clear win for Castillejo, yet the victory was given to Sturm. Instead of giving Castillejo a rematch, which he’d done, Sturm opted to take an easy fight against one of his lower ranking challengers Noe Gonzalez Alcoba (in other words, an easy payday for Sturm), whom he promptly beat by a lopsided decision.

In Sturm’s next fight in October 2007, this one against his number one challenger Randy Griffin, Sturm took a nonstop beating from rounds one through twelve. Griffin was all over him from the start, throwing shots continuously to the head and midsection of Sturm and not giving him any chance to get in his own shots. Round after round went by, with Griffin ever seemingly stopping with his volume offense for a moment, and turning the fight into a one-sided beating.

By the 10th round, Sturm’s face was red and swollen, and he’d appeared to have only won one legitimate round in the entire fight. Indeed, he hadn’t been able to land more than a handful of jabs during any one round, certainly none with his right or left hands. It was clear, Sturm needed a knockout in order to keep his title.

In the last two rounds, instead of fighting with a sense of urgency that you’d expect from a fighter as badly behind in the scoring as Sturm appeared to be, he stood back and threw jabs, not even trying to throw a power shot. Afterwards, I fully expected it to be an easy win for Griffin, who had done an excellent job pounding the living daylights out of Sturm. However, the judges scored it as follows: 114-114, 115-114 for Sturm and 117-111 for Griffin. Obviously, only the last judge appeared to have seen the fight, the other two seeming to have been at another fight on that night.

Given the fact this Saturday’s fight will once again be in Germany, I don’t have high expectations that Griffin will get any better judging than last time out. In fact, I see it more of the same, and barring a knockout victory for Griffin, the WBA title will stay in the hands of Sturm for a little while longer. Griffin isn’t a power puncher, and probably could never hope to knockout a fighter with a good chin like Sturm. Once Griffin is out of the way, and most of the boxing public once again angry with another rotten decision in Germany, Sturm will be forced to fight his Sebastian Sylvester, currently the number #3 ranked middleweight in the WBA.

Sylvester, if anything, is a huge puncher and though he’s has only average boxing skills, he hits like a ton of bricks. I see Sturm losing his title at that time, likely by another knockout. Ideally, I’d rather this Saturday’s fight be judged professionally, with the correct decision being given out, but like I said before, I don’t see that happening. If he’s still standing at the end, Sturm will win it no matter what occurs in the fight.



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