By Jim Dower: Former IBF middleweight champion Sebastian Sylvester (34-5-1, 16 KO’s) was beaten by a 3rd round cut stoppage on Saturday night against fringe middleweight contender Grzegorz Proksa (26-0, 19 KO’s) in a fight for the vacant European Boxing Union (EBU) middleweight crown at the Jahnsportforum, Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Sylvester, 31, suffered a bad cut over his right eyebrow in the 2nd round. The cut eventually led to the fight being halted after the 3rd round. Sylvester looked to be having huge problems even before the cut, as he wasn’t throwing many punches and was just letting Proksa have his way.

It was an odd fight for Sylvester, because he could always be counted on to throw a lot of jabs in his fights in the past. However, against Proksa. Sylvester seemed frozen and mentally defeated from the first round. It could be that Proksa’s slick style of fighting, which reminded one of a combination between Dimitry Pirog and Sergio Martinez with the way that Proksa fought with his hands down by his knees and his used of a lot of head movement.

Sylvester was unable to land his power shots and was limited to just his jabs. However, Proksa wasn’t un-hittable by any means. Sylvester was able to land shots quite frequently when he had the inclination to let his hands go, and Proska would stop throwing when he was getting hit. But where Sylvester went wrong was he just didn’t throw punches and seemed bothered by Proksa’s constant showboating with his slick style of fighting.

In the 2nd round, Sylvester’s face was reduced to a bloody mess after he was cut by a hard punch from Proksa. That clearly didn’t help Sylvester any, as it seemed to give Proksa a lot of confidence, not that he really needed it. Sylvester would have been beaten by pretty much anyone in this fight because he seemed paralyzed with his inability to let his hands go.

I wasn’t all that impressed with Proksa. He seems stiff, doesn’t have a lot of power despite his flashy record build on 2nd and 3rd tier opposition and he’s not very big at only 5’9″. His constant showboating where he made faces, changing from southpaw to orthodox fighting stance for no apparent reason, just seemed like a lot of wasted energy. That kind of stuff wasn’t necessary for what he was facing and it won’t help him when he fights someone that actually has interest in fighting back instead of just standing around for three rounds.

Proksa said he wants to take on WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm next. Good luck. Proksa doesn’t have the ranking to get that fight, as he’s ranked at only #13 by the WBC and not ranked at all in the top 15 by the other sanctioning bodies. I like Sturm in an easy one-sided 12 round decision over Proksa if that fight is ever made. Sturm has the better power by far, the longer reach, the much better jab, height and experience.