Sturm vs Murray Results: Close Fight Winds Up a Draw in Germany, Sturm Retains Title
by Scott Christ on Dec 2, 2011 6:12 PM EST
in Boxing Results and Post-Fight Analysis
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Felix Sturm retained his WBA middleweight title today in Mannheim, Germany, but he didn't get another win on his record, drawing Britain's Martin Murray in a back-and-forth, very close, and very entertaining fight.
The three ringside judges scored the bout 116-112 for Sturm, 115-113 for Murray, and 114-114. Sturm (36-2-2, 15 KO) and Murray (23-0-1, 10 KO) put on a fight similar in quality to that of Sturm's June bout with Matthew Macklin, which Sturm won via debated split decision.
Sturm likely banked some early rounds, but Murray did rally and keep himself in the fight all the way through. Both fighters felt the other man's power, and had their moments of certain control.
In the end, it wound up largely a battle of Murray's activity and Sturm landing what appeared often to be the cleaner, sharper blows. The scoring was, in my estimation, quite fair, though Sky Sports commentator Jim Watt protested pretty heavily, despite having scored the fight 115-113 for Murray, or one round away from a draw, in a fight where Watt said repeatedly that many rounds were too close to call.
I get the feeling, as Sky's Adam Smith said after the fight, that if Murray is offered a rematch, as Macklin was, he's going to take it, and not worry if it's back in Germany or not. He proved himself as a legitimate threat to Sturm today, and the 32-year-old German is not getting younger.
For Sturm's part, I'd be happy to see a Murray rematch, but I'd also love to see Felix come to the States and face someone like Andy Lee or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr at this point. Sturm has slowed down, which means he's not quite the top-notch fighter he was for a while, but also means that he makes for more exciting fights. Either one of those bouts could be terrific, and I think you might even have to favor the physical Lee or Chavez, as their styles and size could give Sturm serious trouble.
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That was by far the most exciting and entertaining Sturm-fight I’ve seen for a long while.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Thought the Macklin fight was better. Thought the Macklin fight was best middleweight fight of 2011.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
but this one might have been #2
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
Macklin did a better job, but I liked this one better, cause it had much more two-sided action, back-and-forth and was less following a simple pattern (i.e. Macklin pressing and attacking and Sturm defending and every now and then unleashing some counter-punshing).
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
Sturm might be a total fraud, but at least he makes for exciting fights. Can’t wait to see this one. Sad that we never got to see him face real competition at middleweight, but I feel like Universum, Sturm, and everyone watching knows how a not totally drunkard Kelly Pavlik might have done to him.
I don’t think he’s a total fraud at all. He’s a good fighter who has indeed received some dubious decisions over the years. Sometimes I wonder if he’d lose about three more fights, if he’d have more respect.
Still got jobbed against De La Hoya though.
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
To me, the De La Hoya fight says more about De La Hoya than it does Sturm. I like Sturm plenty personally from a perspective of a guy to watch. He’s an exciting (read: flawed) fighter. But you look at all those close (and sometimes not close) decisions that happened to go his way- Castillejo in the second fight, Griffin in the first fight, Khoren Gevor, Matthew Macklin, and now Martin Murray. For the one time he was jobbed, so many other guys have gotten the wrong side of a Sturm decision that it isn’t as I can feel sorry for the guy. A little less promotional money behind him and Sturm could be in complete obscurity or playing opponent to brutal beatdowns at the hands of Stieglitz, Golovkin, Oosthuizen, etc.
If the history books want to be accurate, they need to put as much weight behind Castillejo breaking his jaw and putting his lights out as they do behind him being an unheralded fighter who should have beaten Oscar.
by VirtualBalboa on Dec 2, 2011 8:20 PM EST up reply actions
It was a close fight and although I had it for Murray by two rounds, it was no robbery at all.But this was Murray’s first ever fight in anything like world class,even his European experience was really limited and yet it was an even fight something that hardly reflects well on Sturm . His fights might be entertaining but the guy deserves to be seen as a very poor middleweight champion, avoiding real threats and challenges and yet still needing the judges in his backyard to save his bacon time and time again.
by GT BOX the real McCoy on Dec 2, 2011 11:06 PM EST reply actions
I know this is old news, it’s a whole 24 hours ago and about 78 posts ago, but I just watched it and had it for Sturm 115-113. I gave Sturm the first feel out round but that could have went to Murray easily.
What I want to ask, if anyone still comes to this post, is was the ref justified in giving that much crap to Murray for the push offs? Were they bad enough that the ref had to stop Murray flurry at one point? I thought he was being a little uptight… but whatever.
Can’t wait for the rematch.
http://fistonchin.com http://brightlightssports.com
I think the warning for the pushing was maybe a little uptide, but definitely on the OK side. Murray wasn’t stopped in anything by this, too. By my understanding, the stopping of the flurry was due to the calling of a low blow, which I actually didn’t see. Neither did I see a replay of the scene, so I don’t know how to judge that. Anyway, in my eyes the draw was quite a gift to Murray here, so there’s really nothing for him to complain about.
"Sure, there have been injuries and deaths in boxing – but none of them serious." Alan Minter
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