By Sean McDaniel: The Sam Soliman (42-11, 17 KO’s) vs. Felix Sturm (37-3-2, 16 KO’s) has been moved from February 2nd to February 1st, 2013. It will still be taking place at the ISS Dome in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The fight is an IBF World middleweight title eliminator, which will give the winner the mandatory position to fight IBF champion Daniel Geale. That’s the guy that just finished beating the 33-year-old Sturm by a 12 round split decision in Germany last September.
It was a close fight that could have gone either way, but this time it went against Sturm and he ended up losing by a narrow margin. Geale has a fight coming up against Anthony Mundine in January, so there’s a possibility that the Sturm vs. Soliman winner could end up facing Mundine rather than Geale.
That’s still a good fight, and I’m sure the Soliman-Sturm winner won’t mind who he faces, as long as the International Boxing Federation title is up for grabs. Sturm no doubt would like to avenge his loss to Geale, but I think at this point his main concern is to try and capture the IBF title, because Sturm makes a lot of money as a champion in Germany, and he really doesn’t have to fight anyone really good in order to get a lot of cash for his fights.
Sturm will have a big advantage of the 39-year-old Soliman. Sturm may have slipped a little in terms of his skills, but he’s still a really good jabber, he’s well disciplined, and doesn’t get hit a lot because of his high guard. Soliman is going to have problems because he’s probably not going to be able to stop Sturm, and he’s also going to have problems getting through Sturm’s guard.
Soliman may be 39, but he’s a young 39. Soliman has beaten Giovanni Lorenzo, Garth Wood and Eromosele Albert in his last three fights and looked real good. The only guy that really gave Soliman any problems was Mundine back in May 2008. Soliman has won seven fights since then and looked sharp.
Sturm has the better jab, the better power, the better boxing skills, and he’s got the better defense. He should be able to box his way to a one-sided 12 round decision in this fight as long as he hasn’t lost something from his recent fights. Geale landed a lot of punches in beating Sturm, so it’ll be interested to see where Sturm is from that loss.