Mundine To Face Sturm Next?

By Jim Dower: Now that middleweight contender Anthony Mundine (35-3, 23 KOs) has beaten fellow Australian Shannan Taylor, Mundine is next in line for a shot at World Boxing Association middleweight champion Felix Sturm (31-2-1, 13 KOs), who has until the end of October to fight Mundine or end up having his title taken away from him from the sanctioning body. That fight will probably take place unless Sturm opts for a big money fight against IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham, a fight which would be a huge fight in Germany considering that both fighters fight out of Germany.

However, Sturm has a history of being risk aversive, fighting strictly within his own alphabet organization and never staying from there, so I can’t see Sturm wanting to take a huge risk and fight Abraham.

A fight between Mundine, who’s currently ranked #1 in the WBA, would set up an interesting matchup between two fighters that have played it pretty much safe for the past three to four years of their career. Mundine, a former two-time WBA super middleweight champion, hasn’t been in tough since losing a one-sided 12-round decision to Mikkel Kessler in June 2005.

Since that time, Mundine has been matched with a long string of mostly soft opponents, beating fighters like Rashid Matumla, Rico Chong Nee, Ruben Eduardo Acosta, Sam Soliman (twice), Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas, Jose Alberto Clavero, Nader Hamdan, Crazy Kim, and Rafael Sosa Pintos. In fairness to Mundine, the super middleweight division was especially poor during those years with few talented fighters worth mixing it up.

Mundine defeated Soliman in March 2007 to pick up the WBA super middleweight title, and after four easy title defenses against marginal opposition Mundine vacated the title in May 2008 rather than face his number #1 contender Kessler, who perhaps would have beaten Mundine for a second time if given the chance. I would have liked to have seen Mundine face Kessler again, and it doesn’t sit right with me that he opted to take on the much easier opponent in Soliman rather than face Kessler and try to hold onto his title a little longer.

Sturm, 30, is a former WBO middleweight champion and is known for having lost his title in a controversial manner to Oscar De La Hoya in 12-round decision loss in June 2004. Sturm would later pick up the WBA title with an easy 12-round decision victory over Maselino Masoe in March 2006. Four months later, Sturm would lose his WBA title in his first defense against 37-year-old Spaniard Javier Castillejo in July 2006.

Sturm would regain his title in a controversial 12-round decision over Javier Castillejo in April 2007. Sturm, who did little other than jab the entire fight, appeared to lose but the fight, which took place in his native Germany, was scored in favor of him.

Since that time, Sturm has defended his title five times against generally soft opposition, fighting to a controversial 12-round draw over Randy Griffin in October 2007, a fight like the second Castillejo bout, which Sturm did little else but jab and appear to lose by a wide margin. Sturm would defeat Griffin in a rematch in July 2008, hardly looking much better than in the first fight. In his most recent fight, Sturm defeated Sebastian Sylvester by a 12-round decision in November.

It’s hard to pick who the winner would be between Sturm and Mundine. Sturm mostly jabs, only occasionally throwing power shots, whereas Mundine has a pawing jab and mostly throws slapping hooks and weak right hands. Neither fighter is what you would consider a power puncher, although Mundine fit in that category earlier in his career while fighting as a super middleweight.

Some of that may have had to do with the mostly poor opposition that Mundine fought in his early years in the super middleweight division. Given that a fight between Sturm and Mundine would likely take place in Germany, I would have to give the nod to Sturm based on that alone. Unless Mundine can score a knockout, which isn’t likely based on his last seven fights in which he’s scored only one knockout, I see Sturm getting the victory no matter how good Mundine looks.