Geale-Sturm: Irresistible Objects and a Finally Moveable Force

Published

7 years ago

September 4, 2012

Geale-Sturm If this was Felix Sturm's swan song, it was a doozy. Sturm-Geale was a rock-solid scrap.

OBERHAUSEN -Perhaps a draw was the most fitting verdict on an evening of cliches both apt and absurd, but Daniel Geale and Felix Sturm had fought far too hard for that, whatever it meant, with sanctions aside.

Rhineland boxing's gloved-up gourmet menu did not have any Deutschland “Hausmannskost” (home cooking) on the bill Saturday night as Geale earned a coin-flip split decision into another pay bracket, just a quick autobahn dash away from Sturm's home town.

Instead, patrons were treated to a big-bang buffet feast of fisticuffs, topped off with generous portions of grace, class, and personal insight for the duking dessert. It was exactly the type of stimulating fight scene, everywhere from the nearby train station to the makeshift smoking areas outside the bleacher areas, that ensures the sport's continued popularity in these parts.

Alongside emerging Gennady Golovkin's win over commendable Grzegorz Proksa, Arthur Abraham's surprising performance against Robert Stieglitz and the upcoming Andre Ward – Chad Dawson or Sergio Martinez – Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr fiestas, the 160 -168 pound rumbling range is currently the most prime territory in boxing, especially during the present 30 day stretch.

Were those the “boxing's dead” blabbermouths I saw sitting in a ditch with the “rock and roll” and “US world power” nitwit naysayers?

Considering the intense skill level exhibited by each title holder, Geale – Sturm was one of the better fights anywhere this year, and definitely a leader for Western Europe. Joan Pablo Hernandez – Steve Cunningham had wilder whaps, and David Haye – Derick Chisora in London was a bigger spectacle, but Oberhausen saw a near classic through the extended, exhausting best of each man brought out by the other.

Almost all ringside media in my informal postfight poll scored the contest for Sturm, never the case before in his most recent defenses. The trifecta of 116-112 scores by the official judges were too wide, whoever was favored.

Even allowing a discount for my personal bias I gave Sturm the last round, and the fight, 115-114. A one or two punch margin, folks.

“I knew it was very close, but I was never worried about the decision, I knew I had put in the work,(both) in training and tonight,” said Geale, gazing like it was all still sinking in as he came down the ring post steps.

The win was Geale's second title winning split decision over a German based fighter in Germany, as he added Sturm's WBA belt to the IBF version Geale took from Sebastian Sylvester.

“I give my congratulations to Daniel for a great fight,” said Sturm, “And for his great team. He fought superb and he was very tough. I am, of course, very sad about the decision. But I am glad it was as good a fight as we promised our fans and I wish him the best. Maybe we will have a rematch if he wants one.”

Two clinched cliches, “That's boxing” and “No losers”, were repeated in multiple languages by both competitors and almost everyone behind a microphone except the beautiful “Sat 1” TV babe who moderated the press conference sitting next to Sturm, her perfect blonde hair and makeup in sharp contrast to the dark bruises of Sturm's slumped profile.

Any boxing fan should want to see Geale – Sturm II. Plenty of carnage, plenty of class.

Almost all available Oberhausen seats were filled in the scaled-down Konig-Pilsner Arena with a somewhat glamorous, somewhat subdued swarm of approximately 7077. You could get a good sense of how the fight flowed back and forth through periods of studious silence or screaming in the Sturm stronghold.

For a usually polite German boxing audience to howl in protest after the debatable decision was announced showed both their passion and disappointment.

Geale came in to blaring power chords, fitting his fighting style.No one in the stands made a noise, but Geale was glad to keep them quiet.

Sturm's pyrotechnical entrance to a great intro by Swedish singing star Lykke Li had bizarre, almost scary irony as hundreds captured images with devices held straight up in an unconscious, very eerie one armed salute which hopefully illustrated of how far society has progressed in recent decades.

Sturm came out quick in round one, didn't land much but threw a lot. Geale looked a little stronger and little more aggressive behind good body shots. Sturm had a better second session as they started to alternate control. The fight was dead even at the halfway point, but Sturm looked much worse for wear. Geale landed bigger shots, Sturm landed more.

During the first half of the fight Sturm slipped most shots. Geale didn't but his aggressiveness proved effective.

It appeared strength would trump speed as Geale roared in rounds 7 through 9, but Sturm proved his championship heart and skill as he rallied back with stirring combinations down the stretch.

From second row center I had the bout dead even going into the final frame, the final minute, the final frenzied exchange.

Round 12 may well be the Round of the Year.

Geale's gritty, granite style and personable manner won him many fans, through a looming local melancholia as long time titlist Sturm was dislodged from the upper stratosphere.

Of more vital relevance for 31 year old Geale and the global boxing community, the result seemed to open the door a bit wider for a series of major middleweight matches. We may never see the “Four King” days of Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and others like Wilfredo Benitez and John Mugabi, but there are solid heirs to the throne throwing shots these days, plenty of potential punching princes.

It was almost as if the confident Team Geale brought in new addition promoter Gary Shaw to field negotiations for Geale's next giant step. That could mean a match with Golovkin, or the winner of Martinez – Chavez Jr, but realistically not until some softer defenses to build everybody's USA market recognition and purse potential.

Sturm looked much more marked at post fight press conference. Geale was relatively unscathed, though he looked just as exhausted.

“Everything went the way I planned it. We knew I had to fight the fight of my life and I did it,” said Geale, now 28-1 (15). “I'd be glad to have a rematch because it was a great fight, but I can't really say what's next. I'm happy I get to some rest, then sit down and look at my options. I think I'll have at least a few more big fights now.”

All four members of Team Geale that spoke sounded sincerely impressed with how Sturm the promoter treated them. It looked painful for Sturm to raise his shoulders and force a slight smile.

“I've known Felix for a very very long time. He has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of,” offered Shaw during a personal display that spoke well for US diplomacy, and of which a dejected Sturm seemed to be taking to heart. “I've been on that side of the table before and I know he's very down right now, but I know he'll be back if he wants.”

If it was the venerable, still relatively young (at 33 years old) Sturm's last big stand, it was certainly an excellent end to quite a run.

It's hard to assess how much mauling mileage Sturm has left, but Geale took lots of it.

Sturm's level of achievement is good in global terms, not just European records, but Sturm will always be faulted around North America for remaining inside a perceived protective zone in his adopted German homeland. Sturm still won't have to travel far for work unless he wants, but Australia ain't the worst place for a paid holiday.

Maybe the most obvious move for Sturm, now 37-3-2 (16), would be the huge, German extravaganza that could come with a bout against newly crowned 168 pound rival Arthur Abraham. That could probably provide Sturm with a nice, grand finale payday to his career inside the strands should those welts look a bit too purple for the face of a guy who still models for Calvin Klein underwear.

At this point, both Sturm and Abraham still have enough leverage and options beyond each other to continue their long running, no-budge negotiation stance.

For his part, it looked like Sturm is still one of the top five middleweights in the world, belt or not.

With his hard earned new hardware, Geale may prove to be the very toughest middleweight of them all.

Waning illumination from the remains of a so called blue moon glowed down upon cheerful figures of shadow and light, that hustled noisily to the trains from the arena. Whatever the fans' scorecards read, there was a pervasive sense that somehow, the strands held no injustice.

There was pain, there was glory.

There were no losers.

That's boxing.

Comment on this article

Post Views: 0

Phil Woolever

Star Power: Ryan Garcia and Oscar De La Hoya at West L.A. Gym

Published

6 hours ago

January 21, 2020

David A. Avila

Star-Power-Ryan-Garcia-and-Oscar-De-La-Hoya-at-West-LA-Gym

Under gray skies and very cool temperatures Ryan Garcia arrived with his father and a couple of others at the Westside Boxing Gym on Monday.

Waiting anxiously were about 100 people comprised of mostly videographers and photographers who had already surrounded Oscar De La Hoya who arrived earlier.

Golden Boy greets the Flash.

Garcia (19-0, 16 KOs) has a fight coming soon against Nicaragua’s Francisco Fonseca (25-2-2, 19 KOs) on Friday Feb. 14, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The Golden Boy Promotions show will be streamed by DAZN.

“I’m ready for this fight,” Garcia said quickly.

Some say it has been a rather quick road for the fighter from Victorville known as the Flash. But if you ask Garcia, it has been too slow.

“I think he (Garcia) will be world champion this year,” said De La Hoya, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions.

Years ago, De La Hoya arrived with the same hoopla but his travel to the top seemed even faster. By his fifth pro fight he was matched with Jeff Mayweather. Yes, those Mayweathers. At the time Mayweather had fought 27 professional fights and had only two losses. De La Hoya stopped him in four.

In his eighth pro fight De La Hoya met Troy Dorsey, a tough Texan who had formerly held the IBF featherweight world title and who would later win a super featherweight world title. De La Hoya stopped him in one round.

Two years after winning the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, the Golden Boy met WBO world titlist Jimmi Bredahl at the Olympic Auditorium and after dropping him several times finally stopped him in the 10^th round. It was De La Hoya’s first world title and he was 21 years old.

Garcia is now 21 and ready to test the loaded lightweight division waters. For a while he was fighting at super featherweight, a division loaded with talent. But lightweights are the Maginot Line when it comes to boxing’s big hitters. Everybody can punch in the 135-pound limit lightweight division.

When Garcia met Romero Duno last November in Las Vegas many expected the speedy Victorville fighter to get his come-uppance. Instead the lanky slugger lit up the strong Filipino fighter and dropped him into the ether world.

It was mesmerizing stuff.

Now he’s back with a load of credibility after shutting down detractors with his devastating knockout win over Duno. It wasn’t supposed to be that easy. Just like it wasn’t supposed to be that easy when De La Hoya raced by world champions like Secretariat did in the Kentucky Derby decades ago. It’s not supposed to be that easy, but for some it truly is.

Garcia seems to be headed for a journey so remarkable that he has other world champions like WBC titlist Devin Haney eyeing him for their next challenges. It barely results in a yawn for the fighter who will be facing a very credible foe in Fonseca next month.

“I’m not even the champion and he’s calling me out,” said Garcia with a whatever kind of look.

Other fighters and promoters can see what Garcia represents and want to get a slice of it too. Its intangible yet most of the boxing world can sense something is coming and Garcia might be part of it.

That’s called star power and it’s difficult to explain. Some have it, many want it and others have no chance of ever attaining it.

Time will tell how far Garcia’s star power will venture.

One man lived that life and, in a sense, still lives that life and that is De La Hoya. Even he senses a déjà vu moment with Garcia.

“It’s why we made him one of the richest young prospects in boxing today,” De La Hoya said.

Expect several thousand ardent fans of Garcia to fill the seats on Valentine’s Day. How else can you explain it but, star power.

Photo credit: Al Applerose

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

The Much Maligned Boxing Judge

Published

13 hours ago

January 21, 2020

Ted Sares

Identifying bad judges is pretty easy, but that’s not the purpose of this essay. To the contrary, the emphasis here is on fine judges and the many ways they can be unjustly labeled.

Now to name a few of today’s best boxing judges is to risk excluding others and that’s admittedly unfair but space is limited. Quickly coming to mind, however, are these judges, all currently active: Julie Lederman (pictured), Steve Weisfeld, Glen Feldman, Dave Moretti, Glenn Trowbridge, Joe Pasquale, Max DeLuca, Hubert Earle, Benoit Roussel, Burt Clements, Tom Shreck, Don Trella, Gary Ritter, Patricia Morse Jarman, Pat Russell, Pinit Prayadsab, Raúl Caiz, Jr., and, of course, the South African legend Stanley Christodoulou.

Boxing judges, unlike referees, are far easier to criticize because the average fan can score a fight using whatever criteria he or she selects and the view from a TV is pretty good. This contributes to the relatively high number of maligned boxing judges.

Being a boxing judge is a thankless endeavor where attention is received only when something controversial and/or negative occurs. And once a judgment is made about a bad job, that judgment influences future perceptions. This is known as “confirmation bias.” Thus, when a boxing commentator like the outspoken Teddy Atlas launches into a tirade over the judging in a particular fight, he may be engaging in confirmation bias—a kind of “See, I told you so.” Those who might criticize based on one poor performance may feel their suspicion of botched judging confirmed. Thus, the tagged judges’ reputation may be unfairly tarnished in the future.

Out-of-town fighters going to Texas to fight are aware of the risks based on the post-fight rants of Paulie Malignaggi, Atlas and many others. If so, the solution is to use out-of-state judges or avoid Texas altogether.

However, even if the elite judges make one “questionable” call in the eyes of fans and certain boxing commentators (or have an off day) they can be labeled as “bad” judges while simultaneously serving as a dart board for Bob Arum’s selective and quite nasty criticism.

No judge is perfect. They deal in a subjective world. Even the legendary IBHOF member Harold Lederman was harshly criticized for his scoring in the Maurice Harris vs. Larry Holmes fight in 1997. And even his daughter Julie has served as a target for some of Arum’s especially vicious criticism.

“She is the best judge in our household”—Harold Lederman

“You have people who are concentrating for three minutes, looking at nothing but the gloves, nothing but the punches. These other people are judging from TV, they’re judging from twenty rows back and they don’t see the effect of the punches all the time.”—Dave Moretti

“It’s easy to criticize boxing judges. But it’s not that easy to have a sound basis for the criticism. One needs to see the fight the judge saw to be in the position to rightly criticize. Critics should temper criticisms in light of the situations boxing judges are in when judging fights. And judges should likewise understand criticisms from the boxing public, however baseless these may seem. — Epifanio M. Almeda (PhilBoxing.com)

All it Takes Is One Bad Apple

In the recent Jesse Hart vs. Joe Smith Jr. fight in Atlantic City, a somewhat under-the-radar judge got it terribly wrong. Two judges had it for Smith, 98-91 and 97-92, but the judge in question shockingly had it 95-94 for Hart. He was scorned, tagged, labeled and God knows what. The criticism took on the form of a tsunami.

Bob Arum had this to say: “That judge should be banned from scoring a fight — and I promote Hart. How can you ever score that fight for Jesse Hart? It was a terrific fight, good for boxing, good action fight, and then you have a damn judge who screws it up.”

Al Bernstein added, “…He should never be allowed to judge again….”

A look at his past record as a judge since 2015 doesn’t reveal anything untoward. But he has now been tagged—perhaps justifiably so– and if he somehow gets through this and slips up again, there will be one very loud “we told you so.” It’s the nature of the beast; It is what it is.

The Pod Index

Matt Podgorski (a former boxing official) came up with a method to evaluate the performance of judges worldwide by determining the percentage of instances his or her scores are consistent with the other two judges working the same fights. He calls it the Pod Index. “Boxing and MMA judges are often evaluated based on whether or not they have had a controversial decision. This is a poor way to assign and regard professional judges,” said Podgorski in an interview with former RingTV editor Michael Rosenthal.

Matt’s Disclaimer: “We are not claiming that judges with low Pod Index scores are bad judges. The Pod Index is simply a measurement of round by round variation compared to other judges.”

Steve Farhood

farhood

2017 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Steve Farhood is a lot of things: analyst, writer, historian, commentator, and an unofficial judge for Showtime fights. If he were an official judge, his Pod Index score would undoubtedly be at or near the top. Steve seldom gets it wrong. He may be the best “judge” in boxing.

Ted Sares can be reached at tedsares@roadrunner.com

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Jeison Rosario’s Upset Crowns This Week’s Edition of HITS and MISSES

Published

1 day ago

January 20, 2020

Kelsey McCarson

Jeison Rosario’s Upset Crowns This Week’s Edition of HITS and MISSES

There’s was plenty of quality boxing action available for consumption this weekend in the U.S., particularly on Saturday evening because of the competing cards put forth by the PBC on FOX and Top Rank on ESPN crews that have become chief rivals over the last year.

But what were the biggest HITS and MISSES seen during all the action? That’s what you’re here to find out.

HIT – Jeison Rosario’s Stunning Upset for two 154-pound Titles

Nobody expected Rosario to dethrone unified junior middleweight champion Julian Williams on Saturday night at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, but the massive underdog overcame the situation anyway to vault himself to the top of the junior middleweight division. The thing that saved Rosario was his stunning power. He appeared to be out-boxed by Williams early in the fight, but that changed just as soon as it became apparent Williams was slinging only his fists while Rosario was working with sledgehammers. Now the division has become more crowded than ever at the top with all roads amazingly leading to Rosario, the little known 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic who now owns the WBA and IBF titles.

MISS – Chris Colbert’s Fail to Impress

Junior lightweight prospect Chris Colbert was given a great chance by the PBC to impress fight fans on national television on the undercard of Williams-Rosario, but the talented 23-year-old didn’t make the most of the opportunity. Sure, Colbert was taking a step up in competition by taking on former world titleholder Jezreel Corrales for a vacant interim belt, but Colbert mostly came across as a talented fighter who just doesn’t seem quite capable of putting it all together yet. Colbert won the fight, but it wasn’t interesting or noteworthy in any way. Judging by how the PBC has worked in the past, he’ll get plenty more chances to shine, but I’m not sure anyone but the people who stand to gain monetarily from the fighter’s success will be looking forward to it.

HIT – Eleider Alvarez’s Epic KO of Michael Seals

Former light heavyweight titleholder Alvarez scored the early leader for knockout of the year against Seals in the main event at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. The fight was fairly lackluster until the explosive ending in the seventh round. It was an important victory for Alvarez, who was coming off losing his title to Sergey Kovalev via decision last February. Alvarez is 35, so it was imperative for him to get back to action and remind people he’s still a viable contender in the 175-pound ranks. And there’s no better way to do that in boxing than by thunderous knockout.

MISS – Felix Verdejo’s Fresh Start Starts Stale

Verdejo is still only 26 years old, but after defeating Manuel Rojas in a lightweight bout at Turning Stone, the once highly regarded prospect doesn’t appear to be any closer today than he was yesterday to living up to the tremendous promise he once possessed. To be completely fair to Verdejo, it was only his first fight under new trainer Ismael Salas and the fighter still has time on his side. Still, there appears to be plenty of work to do if Verdejo is ever to become a world champion. In fact, he didn’t look all that materially different from the fighter who was knocked out in 2018.

HIT – Floyd Mayweather Wins Prestigious BWAA Award

I honestly had some concern that Mayweather wouldn’t win the BWAA’s Fighter of the Decade award before it was announced on Friday via press release. After all, Mayweather lost the previous decade’s top honor to Manny Pacquiao in 2010, and Sports Illustrated had just named Andre Ward its Fighter of the Decade winner the week prior. It’s only one person’s opinion, of course, but I think there would have been something wrong with Mayweather not picking up the honor at least once in the last two decades. After all, he’s quite easily the generation’s best overall fighter and he’s transcended the sport to mainstream celebrity status, too. Congrats to Mayweather for winning the well-deserved honor.

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / TGB Promotions

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0