Huge surprise: The German boxer Felix Sturm lost the duel with Istvan Szili on points. He missed his chance to fight for the world championship.
Felix Sturm unexpectedly missed his sixth chance at a boxing world championship. The 43-year-old lost the elimination match on Saturday in Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle against Hungary’s Istvan Szili, who was four years his junior, and thus missed the duel with Brit Lerrone Richards for the IBO World Championship belt.
Szili secured it, and the majority of the judges saw him ahead after twelve rounds. The super middleweight Sturm has already been world champion five times, but with the important associations WBA, WBO and IBF.
“Unfortunately, the fight was very messy”
“It was a tough fight. Something completely different from what I expected. Unfortunately, it was very dirty, the referee unfortunately let it go. But I’m a sportsman and accept the verdict,” said Sturm. He did not want to commit himself to a possible end to his career. “I’m talking to my family now, I’m still healthy. We’ll sit down with the promoter and then make the right decision.”
As early as the third round, Sturm was marked by the fight, but not by a goal from Szili. The referee interpreted an action by the Hungarian as an accidental headbutt, which caused a cut in a storm. The ex-world champion continued boxing in his typical wait-and-see style, trying to gain control of the fight. However, his cutman had difficulty stopping the bleeding over his left eye, and the seventh round had to be stopped with 38 seconds left. Only with the consent of the ring doctor was Sturm allowed to continue the fight.
Sturm wobbled in the eighth round
Szili became more and more offensive, worked on Sturm with furious punch combinations. Shortly before the end of the eighth round, the Hungarian got through with a hook, and Sturm wobbled alarmingly for the first time. Contrary to Sturm’s hopes, Szili didn’t get tired in the final rounds and confidently pushed his style through to the end. Ten seconds before the end of the fight, Szili threw up his arms in triumph.