18.09.04 – Former WBO middleweight champion Felix Sturm maintained his reputation as one of the top-3 fighters in his weightclass with a unanimous decision victory over American Robert Frazier. It was an important night for the 25 year old German because beside winning the WBO intercontinental title he maintained his position as most credible challenger to the winner of the Bernard Hopkins-Oscar de la Hoya megafight which will take place in a few hours in Las Vegas.
In front of a sellout crowd of 3.500 in his hometown Leverkusen the intelligent and handsome Sturm redisplayed the skills and the speed that enabled him to outbox The Golden Boy on most occasions on June 5. Against the very determined opposition of Robert Frazier Sturm scored with the more solid shots throughout the fight and hurt his opponent several times deeply in the two final rounds.
After twelve rounds the three judges Andre van Grotenbruel (Belgium), Robin Dolpierre (France) and Reynaldo Cadero (Italy) scored the contest 116:112, 119:109 and 117:111 in favor of Sturm.
Felix Sturm, now 21-1 with 9 knockouts, is mandatory challenger of the World Boxing Organization. The mega fight in Las Vegas between Hopkins and de la Hoya will be for the unified WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC titles at 160 lb.
Frazier’s record dropped to 30-6-3 with 15 knockouts.
Three months ago Felix Sturm lost a controversial twelve round decision to boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya. Whereas all experts unanimously agreed that Sturm beat de la Hoya, the three judges at ringsite scored the the contest 115:113 in favor of the American. Punchstat numbers later showed that Sturm threw and landed more punches in several rounds that were incorrectly given to de la Hoya. However, an official protest by promoter Universum was turned down by the WBO.
“Facing the winner of the de la Hoya-Hopkins fight is what I really want now”, the former WBO champion said. “I beat Oscar in June and I should be the one who is fighting a rematch against him tonight or fight against Hopkins for the title.”
“Felix must face the winner of tonight’s fight in Las Vegas”, promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “Against de la Hoya he proved that he can beat every middleweight contender in the world.”
On the undercard in Leverkusen 6 foot 7 heavyweight prospect Alexander Dimitrenko knocked out American Andy Sample in round two. Dimitrenko who knocked down his chanceless opponent four times improved his undefeated record to 16-0 with 11 knockouts. On October 16 the 23 year old man with Russian and Ukrainian citizenship will face American journey man Ross Puritty in Braunschweig.
All Results:
WBO Int. Middleweight Championship:
Felix Sturm W12 (116:112, 119:109, 117:111) Robert Frazier
Heavyweight:
Adnan Serin W6 Bruce Özbek
Cruiserweight:
Mark Hendem TKO2 (2:45) Stefan Kusnir
Cruiserweight:
Alexander Petkovic W8 Damon Reed
Heavyweight:
Alexander Dimitrenko KO2 (1:49) Andy Sample
Super Middleweight:
Lukas Wilaschek TKO3 (2:23) Anton Lascek
Jr. Welterweight:
Ali Ahraoui W6 Tibor Rafael
Heavyweight:
Josef Jakob TKO1 (1:48) Ladislav Slezak
Flyweight:
Julia Sahin W6 Iliana Boneva
Exclusive photo gallery of the official weigh-in on www.boxing.de