13.03.06 – By Fritz Drexel: On Saturday night, German-based middleweight Felix Sturm ( 25-1, 11 KOs) easily defeated Maselino Masoe from New Zealand, by way of unanimous 12-round decision in Hamburg, Germany. The fight was for Masoe’s WBA middleweight championship, which he had won in his last bout way back in May 2004, defeating Evans Ashira. To say that Masoe (26-3, 25 KOs) was a little rusty going into his bout with Sturm, is huge understatement, as he looked completely unprepared to deal with Sturm’s movement. However, despite winning the fight in a completely one-sided manner and essentially winning all the rounds, Sturm looked timid, almost scared, as he ran all over the ring, avoiding close combat with Masoe.
No doubt, it was a battle tactic going into the fight, yet it made Sturm look almost petrified with fear, since he ran from Masoe, even though the fight was completely in the bag and there was no indication that Maose could hurt him with any of his punches. Obviously, the crowd hated it, for they booed loudly in the final rounds, voicing their distain for Sturm’s reluctance to mix it up with Masoe. The final judges scores were: 117-111, 117-111, 115-113.
Frankly, I’m starting to think that Sturm’s strategy of moving and avoiding exchanges is more of an ingrained part of him, which is something he can’t simply turn off and turn on, as he seems to do it in all of his fights. For example, in his fight with Oscar DeLa Hoya, he chose to stay on the outside and jab, even in the later rounds, when Oscar was badly fatigued and not much of a threat. Needless to say, it made Sturm look bad, as if he was afraid, and probably was the biggest reason he lost the fight to Dela Hoya, even though he had Oscar’s face badly swollen from his stinging jabs.
In first two rounds, Sturm freely mixed it up with Masoe, jumping in and landing good left hooks and right uppercuts to the head, and then jumping out and circling Masoe, and then pumping his jab. It looked good and was clearly effective, almost like a miniature, much more limited, Muhammed Ali. However, in the 3rd round, Masoe caught Sturm with a powerful left hook to the head, that seemed to cause Sturm to be more reluctant to get in close after that, perhaps fearing he would get stopped. Following the 3rd round, Sturm basically got on his bicycle, moving continuously, although using his outstanding left jab to single-handedly control the fight.
From the very start, it was clear that Masoe simply didn’t have the hand speed or the foot speed to make this fight competitive, no matter how powerful his punches may be. In truth, he looked painfully slow, almost like he was walking in quicksand, as he tried to stalk the quicker Sturm. By the 5th round, the outcome of the fight seemed almost academic, for it was clear to me that Masoe would never be able to catch Sturm, who wasn’t going to get close enough for him to lay a glove on him.
What can I say about Sturm’s jab, other then it’s probably the best in the entire middleweight division, bar none. True, Jermain Taylor has a good jab, yet his jab doesn’t have the power behind it that Sturm seems to have. To be honest, I can’t blame Sturm for using his best weapon, almost exclusively, since why waste time doing anything else, if that’s all it takes to win. However, from a fight fan’s standpoint, I hated watching this fight, being that it reminded me of seeing Roy Jones Jr, winning a lopsided decision over one of his hapless opponents during Roy’s later years, after he stopped using his flurries to win fights. No, what bugged me the most about Sturm was that he ran from Masoe, often without throwing any punches, just running, and wearing a gleeful look on his face, as if he was playing a game. To me, it seemed as Sturm was taunting Masoe, which is something that didn’t look good, considering that the fight was one-sided from start to finish.
Next up for Felix Sturm, is possibly a bout with IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (20-0, 17 KO’s), a fighter with limited ring movement, not much faster than Masoe, in my opinion. Without a dount, Abraham can punch a little, especially to the body, yet he’s not very fast and doesn’t cut off the ring well, from what I’ve seen of him. To be honest, against someone as fast as Sturm, I think Abraham, who tends to plod, would have a lot of problems just trying to catch up to him. If Abraham can somehow corner Sturm, it might make for a good fight, although I have my doubts that he can do this. No, I think the only middleweights out there who can handle Sturm, are Winky Wright and Jermain Taylor, both of whom would likely easily beat Sturm, due to their ability to fight well from the inside and outside. In a fight against one of them, Sturm would have to get in close at some point in the fight, and he would probably lose most of those exchanges with them.