OnThEGRiND BOXiNG

Sunday November 1st, 2009
by K.M. Stansen

In the past few decades it has become cliche for American boxing enthusiasts to label World Class European fighters as lesser than their American rivals. For years great European fighters such as Joe Calzaghe, Steve Collins, Fabrice Tiozzo, and to a lesser extent the famous Benn, Eubank, and Watson trio didn’t receive the credit across the pond that they deserved. We as well see similar examples today with the great Dane Mikkel Kessler finding himself severely underrated in the United States. Prior to his stunning knockout of Jermain Taylor, Arthur Abraham also, despite both having provided performances that easily matched or bested his counterparts, suffered similar criticism.

American boxing fans, who often times are more right than not on these issues, sometimes fail to discern a world class foreign fighter from what is often called a ‘euro-bum’ or ‘euro-fraud.’ The reason for this goes back to the well recognized root problem, which is that many foreign pugilists tend to compensate for a lack of elite ability with hometown assistance and corruption.

A prime example, and the latest in a long line of German fighters assisted by corruption, is Felix ‘Sven Ottke Jr.’ Sturm. Sturm is the type of European fighter that gives a bad name to great fighters like Kessler and Abraham, just as Sven Ottke gave a bad name to any European fighter that competed in the super middleweight division. Often times, elite European based fighters do not mix it up with their American counterparts due to promotional issues on both sides, which has been quite tragic for boxing. It is something that a fan of both the American and European scenes such as myself, and others just like me, have had to live with while dreaming of solutions.

Due to the simple fact that Sturm has fought Oscar De La Hoya, American fight fans know of him. and continue to have sympathy towards him, because he was indeed robbed blind that night against The Golden Boy. As a side effect of this sympathy, he is continuously brought up in discussions involving the top middleweight pugilists around the world. However, I’d like to point out that Sturm is not one to be sympathetic towards, as he himself has received about 4 blatant robberies in Germany. Furthermore, he has not put in a really notable performance since that night he did fight an out of shape De La Hoya, other than against Maselino Masoe. One could even say that most of Sturm’s bouts have been struggles against B level fighters, such as the aged but venerable, Javier Castillejo.

The pattern of Felix Sturm’s career is looking more and more like that of Sven Ottke’s, and by that I mean fighting with the hometown advantage, against suitable but not amazing opposition, and being assisted by corruption facilitated by national popularity. In essence, Sturm isn’t leaving Germany, he isn’t planning on fighting any top American competition, and he will continue to cry about the De La Hoya robbery when he himself has received two blatant gifts in just under two years.

When the American fight fan considers European fighters, the Sturms and Ottkes need to be totally ignored, as they represent everything that is wrong on both sides of the Atlantic…and for all intents and purposes, only exist on paper outside of their home nations. Any time that a fight fan mentions that Pavlik, Abraham or X fighter, ‘needs to battle with Sturm,’ I cringe. It is sad indeed that the majority of the public is not aware of this pathetic situation, starring Mr. Sven Ottke Jr.

Since the De La Hoya robbery, he’s put no effort into trying to do anything other than making the most money that he can.

That’s not what you would expect from a supposed World Class fighter at al,l and what stands at a greater tragedy for me is that in the Euro scene, there are many excellent fighters that never get the opportunity to shine internationally because they are robbed repeatedly in Europe against the popular fighters.

Would you like to know the best recent example of such?

Khoren Gevor being utterly robbed against Felix Sturm in their last fight, and because it wasn’t broadcast here Americans enthusiasts didn’t get the chance to experience outrage over it, or get the chance to write off the “hometown hero,” that requires corruption to maintain his status as ‘champion.’

The verdict -
Boxing fans world wide that appreciate true fighters and true champions ought to write off Felix ‘Sven Ottke Jr’ Sturm. The Sven Ottke model of a hometown fighter assisted by corruption is a disgrace to real pugilists, and thankfully, Europe now has plenty of promising true fighters, and plenty more that will be coming up the ranks and hopefully getting their shot.

Since Khoren Gevor owned Sturm, it’s unlikely that Sturm will be stepping up his competition on his home turf. Forget about him. He’s as close to a ‘fraud’ as you can objectively get in boxing, and just because he was robbed against De La Hoya, that doesn’t make him a patron saint. In fact, he’s a monumental example of something far worse. He is a living illustration of the crippling effect that corruption has had in the German and greater European boxing world for years.

Regards,
KM Stansen