Felix Sturm Wins Another Title, Outpoints Chudinov in Oberhausen

Sturm Wins Another Title – Felix Sturm captured the WBA super middleweight title on Saturday, Feb. 20, with a majority decision over Fedor Chudinov. The scores were 115-113 twice and 114-114. The bout was staged at the Koenig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen, Germany and while no one would dispute that the fight was close, one can make a reasonable case that Sturm was the beneficiary of a “hometown” decision. Sturm, who represented Germany in the 2000 Olympics, advanced to 40-5-3 (18 KOs). It was the first professional loss for Chudinov who declined to 14-1 (10).

This was a rematch. In May of last year, Sturm and Chudinov locked horns in Frankfurt. With the vacant title at stake, the Russian finished strong to cop a split decision. The sequel took a similar tack. Chudinov looked fresher at the finish, notwithstanding the fact that the 37-year-old Sturm, a former two-time world middleweight champion, seemingly did enough to win the final round. There were no knockdowns. In his post-fight comments, Sturm hinted that this may have been his final fight.

Felix Sturm Wins Another Title

The event had a very soft undercard with none of the preliminaries slated for more than six rounds. Two fighters of note, heavyweight Francesco Pianeta and light heavyweight Konni Konrad, breezed to easy wins over inexperienced and overmatched opponents.

Pianeta, who was outclassed and then stopped by Wladimir Klitschko in 2013 and then stopped in the opening round by Ruslan Chagaev this past July, rebounded from that embarrassment with a fifth-round stoppage of Hasan Olaki. The 6’5” southpaw from Italy, currently based in Germany, is now 32-2-1 (18). Konrad, born Mevludin Cokovic in Montenegro, moved to 23-2-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Andrej Maurer.

Check out the complete report from the live event from The Sweet Science’s own Phil Woolever. who was there live.