Felix Sturm vs. Giovanni Lorenzo

As I´m in Germany I joined my boxing-mates in the gym at last Saturday night to watch this fight. But that was not worth it at all. The fight was on free TV. We were nearly put to sleep as the first hour went by with interviews of many VIPs ("Prommies" as the dumb press say in nearly every article in the newspapers), actors, actresses, sportsmen and -women and politicians. No one had any boxing-knowledge, nor anything worthwhile to say. It was all but very boring!

Every now and then came up a report of Felix Sturm. But if You think the subject had been anything about boxing-skills, or -tactics or anything interesting You would be badly mistaken. The one and only thing was that Felix would be a millionaire ´cause he has left "Sauerland"-promotion and is now on his own. I had hoped to hear a few things about the circumstances of his new built gym, where he has prepared for that fight. Also Felix has a new trainer, new training-methods and much more. That we had hoped to hear from.

After 1 hour blathering of no sense, all of us were wondering, who are the actors and who are the journalists? It seemed that all of them were actors. In a sort of a bad tragedy.

Seamlessly the entrance of the fighters took place. That again was a big comedy. Extreme undignified! Ridiculous! Peripatetic! Judging the fight on it´s pre ballyhoo, it would have to be a sensational one. But the fight was a very ordinary one. In the 80s and 90s Felix und Giovanni would not be in the list of the 30 best middleweights. I thought of the intrances of all the acient warriors. They showed that they had class and style, and came determinedly to work and to fight! I remembered Mike Tyson rushing to the ring, black trunks, black boots, no socks, no robe. Or Big George Foreman jogging amongst his team to the ring with that thick robe, ready to go. They had known that the robes are not first and foremost to put as much sales promotion on the back of the fighters but to keep the fighters warm!

I´ve got the feeling that there is vast boxing-knowledge that is now almost completely lost and gone. Thus diminishing all aspects of Boxing. Sure, Felix´s new coach is very experienced and certainly knows it all. But what can You do when almost the whole audience is not really interested in boxing, but just to show how pretty they are and to produce themselves? No chance. And instead of interviewing the few guys that have real knowledge, they asked some retarded idiots for rediculous comments.

As that is not a single thing, it´s all but typical for Boxing in Germany, it´ll take Boxing down in this country. Because interests will rapidly fade from Boxing to more lucrative "jobs". VIPs, pimps, prostitutes and money-makers that usually make the major part of the audience are not the people Boxing in Germany should rely on. Boxing would be built on sand. 

My good friends and me are really pissed off those hugh amounts of money the officials, managers, taxes and only a handful of fighters get. Very few boxers can make a living out of Boxing. Not to mention a good one. We don´t mind Felix getting those big purses. If he would earn it, it´ll be okay. But he doesn´t. Instead of blubbering around that the fight would be a business venture instead of a Boxing-match, he should learn how to lean into his punch in order to get one. There are many more or less unknown fighters who keeping Boxing alive. Many fighters of all levels, from the 1st pro-fight on,! Not Felix, not Sauerland!

The Fight itself was uneventful. Just boring. Giovanni was said to be a puncher, but had no punch. Felix was said to be a technician, but didn´t show it. After the decision no one could tell one round from the other. From 2nd on, it went by just the same. Felix did get the decision, but no one of us has noticed one single punch with noteworthy weight behind it. Felix´s got 2 X over, and Giovanni 3 X over: Overrated, overpaid, oversea.

After all it was more theatre, even cheap comic, a lot of noise, nasty blubbering, sales promotions for plastic surgeons than anything of Boxing. No way we would buy one single ticket for such a fight!

Next time we´ll better watch fights from the USA or GB!