“Unfortunately it was very unclean”
Sturm loses a lot of blood and his World Cup chance
03/27/2022, 12:36 am
Felix Sturm was boxing world champion in five associations during his career, but now he missed the chance of another belt: badly marked by a cut, he lost his elimination fight against the Hungarian Istvan Szili.
Felix Sturm unexpectedly missed his sixth chance at a boxing world championship. The 43-year-old lost the elimination match against Istvan Szili from Hungary, who was four years his junior, on points and thus missed the duel with the British Lerrone Richards for the world championship belt of the IBO association. 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 in the major associations WBA, WBO and IBF.
From the third round, Sturm was marked by the fight in front of 4000 spectators, 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.
Szili, who dominated the fight from the start, became more and more offensive, working 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. “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.”