By Erik Schmidt: World Boxing Association middleweight champion Felix Sturm came out on the attack in today’s Universum press release, saying he doesn’t see IBF middleweight champion as a competitor and not a class boxer like himself. Sturm also fired back at Abraham, who had said recently that he would fight Sturm for free, telling him to sign the contract if he wants to fight for free.

Abraham, 28, recently stopped Raul Marquez in the 6th round on November 8th. After the fight, he mentioned wanting to face Sturm in a unification bout. However, instead of making arrangements for a fight, both fighters are slinging comments back and forth in the press about each other. The money is reportedly the sticking point, like usual, and this will have to be worked out if the two do eventually meet.

Abraham, though, has other options available, specifically a potential bout against WBA/WBC middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik, a fight which very likely bring in more money than a unification bout with Sturm.

However, Pavlik brings much more danger and uncertainty for Abraham then the boxer/puncher Sturm does and there’s a good chance that Pavlik may have too much for Abraham and possibly take him out. The safe move, as such, would be for Abraham to try hard to line up a unification fight with Sturm first, and then follow that closely with another unification bout against Pavlik if possible.

Sturm has shown to have problems in the past against pressure fighters, losing by a 10th round TKO to Spaniard Javier Castillejo. Sturm would later win a close controversial 12-round decision over Castillejo in the rematch fought nine months later in April 2007.

The bout took place in Germany, and Sturm ended up getting the benefit of the doubt by the judges, even though he appeared to lose the fight from this writer’s perspective. Controversy would soon follow Sturm again in another controversial fight, a 12-round draw with Randy Griffin in October 2007.

This, too, was a fight where Sturm had troubles with pressure and appeared to lose the fight by most accounts. In this case, Sturm fought a rematch with Griffin and did look good enough this time to win the fight, albeit much closer than the two of the lopsided scores that were handed out after the fight by the judges.

In Sturm’s most recent fight, he defeated his number # 1 challenger Sebastian Sylvester by a 12-round unanimous decision on November 1st. The fight was dull, with both fighters trading jabs and throwing few meaningful punches. Sturm clearly won the fight, but by a much closer score than two of the scores that were handed out by the judges.

Abraham, 28, appears to be the better fighter of the two, and if the fight does eventually end up getting made, I would fully expect for him to take Sturm out within ten rounds or so. Given that Abraham is also a German-based fighter, I expect that there would be much less of a chance of a hometown decision being awarded to Sturm if the fight does turn out to be close. I doubt it will, though. Abraham has too much power and speed for Sturm and will likely take him out with a series of hard power punches to the head.