Ringside Report Looks at the Career and Recent Comeback of Former World Champion Felix Sturm

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Europe is a swirling maelstrom of immigration, economic migration and the mixing of nationalities that it is often a wonder that narrow nationalism manages to take hold anywhere at all. But it does.

When you have a fighter who holds both Bosnian and German nationality it is simply an example rather than the exception. Felix Sturm, 42-6-3, 18 KO’s, born, Adnan Ćatić, of two Bosnian parents, is the light heavyweight/super middleweight/middleweight in question. What is certainly not in question is the man’s boxing pedigree. As an amateur he won gold at the European championships in 2000, represented Germany at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, lost to Jermain Taylor on points, before conquering the world in the professionals and holding the WBO and WBA middleweight belts and the WBA super title at super middleweight. He is however not a man without controversy dogging his every step.

His debut in the pro ranks came on the 27th of January 2001, with a fight against the Angolan Antonio Ribiero in Munich and he started with a points win over 4 rounds.

His first world title – the WBO middleweight crown – came on the 13th of September 2003 when he successfully beat Hector Javier Velazco as a late replacement! His firs defense – successful – was against Ruyben Varon Fernandez of Spain in Keil on points.

But his next defense was against a ring legend.

Oscar De La Hoya.

The 5th of June 2004, in Las Vegas, in he came and faced him. He lost. His camp disputed the result and there were plenty – and I mean plenty – who howled at the unanimous decision. De La Hoya admitted his performance stunk, but what stunk even more was the fact that he was lined up for a mega fight with Bernard Hopkins that depended upon him beating Sturm. All three judges scored the fight the same 115-113 in De La Hoya’s favor.

The WBO middleweight title was now De La Hoya’s.

On the 11th of March 2006 he was to get another world title shot. This time for the WBA version of the title. Up against Maselino Masoe he became a two-time world champion on points in Altona. Then came the see saw of world titles as he lost it in his first defense against Javier Castillejo back in Altona on the 15th of July 2006 and then won it back in a rematch. In between he had to defeat Gavin Topp in Neukoelln in December 2006 to get his chance – he stopped Topp in the 6th!

He was now a three-time world champion – not a bad record to have on his resume.

He now went on quite the run and reigned up until 2012.

It seemed to have little effect as he was elevated to the WBA super champion upon defeating Giovanni Lorenzo on points on the 4th of September 2009 in Cologne, then beat two British boxers in Mathew Macklin and Martin Murray. There were, however, cracks appearing and the winning against Murray in Mannheim on the 2nd of December 2011 was seriously questioned – it was scored a split decision draw. For me, Macklin won, but I was not a judge.

Unification against Australian Daniel Geale was next on the 1st of September 2012 in Oberhausen as his WBA belt was on the line alongside the IBF belt held by Geale. Could he? The cracks blew open and no he could not. But it simply delayed him getting the IBF belt as he managed to become Germany’s first ever four-time world champion when he took the belt from Britain’s Darren Barker in a tragic fight where Barker was unable to continue due to a highly unusual hip injury which retired him from the sport.

Having lost his middleweight belt against Sam Soliman in a points loss which was pretty close. That was not before Soliman gave a positive drug sample and had the title stripped from him. He rematched him and this time lost legitimately with the IBF belt gone in May 2014 over 12 rounds.

It was time to move up in weight to super middleweight. In 2015 he took on Fedor Chudinov and tried to get back into that winning mentality as he fought for the WBA super title in Frankfurt but lost by split decision. The rematch in 2016 saw him win by majority decision in Oberhausen. It was around that time that controversy really began to stalk him, in the form of questions over cheating. It was after the rematch with Chudinov, where samples taken from him were challenged. He fought back and claimed his innocence.

A couple of months after this revelation Sturm was to complain over his treatment. It was unfair he wailed. The fact is that the investigation was, at best, botched and at worst exactly as he claimed – prejudiced against him. When things like this happen, it becomes difficult to shake off the feeling of shame and the taint of the accusation.

And then in April 2019 Sturm was arrested. For what? Tax evasion. Sentenced to 8 months in prison before being granted bail this hero of the German boxing ring was laid low. His original sentence when it came back into court for a second session was increased, his fine went up and he was also convicted of violating an anti-doping law where he “violated himself” according to the judgment – presumably by taking substances he should not have and therefore making the allegations much more credible. His fight with Chudinov got a mention and off he toddled back to his cell. It brought a comeback fight against Arthur Abraham, another German ring legend and discussions around that to a halt.

But it did not stop comeback plans completely.

Late December 2020 he kickstarted the comeback by beating Timo Rost in a shutout victory on two of the judge’s cards after 4 years away from the ring. In June 2021, he returned to the ring to face James Kraft also beating him in Hamburg. Will he continue that comeback from his native home of Bosnia Herzegovina – to where he has allegedly hidden himself after getting out the jail? Who knows but the whole business has been nothing short of a fascinating ride – BUT Sturm has been very vocal about his plans. “I would like to fight in the States against a big name and [have] one fight in the U.K., that is a dream of mine,” said Sturm to the Ring Magazine. “In the United States, boxing is different, it’s like a festival, everybody knows there is a fight, no matter if you’re in New York City, Los Angeles or Las Vegas – it’s something special. They know how to promote a fight. I won my third world title against Darren Barker, he’s from the U.K. The plan was to have a second fight in the U.K., but [Barker] retired, so I never got the chance.”

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