Can't say i'm too bothered bout this one, due to Macklin being fucked over a deserved victory in Germany last time out, but I will watch as it's on sky sports this friday night (why a friday night btw?), and i'd like to see how Murray fairs compared to Macklin.
:: I just threw it out there in the hope that somebody not following, and in a fit of Anti-German sentiment, would think that this was really on :: Yeah I know...this is some new Murray, doubtless he will go to Germany, win 4 clear rounds, look good in another couple, and get sliced to bits in the final round and arrive home to great fanfare about how he was "robbed" etc. He'll do OK, but he'll lose, legitimately.
Sturm has made one helluva career for himself. He's had to work so hard to over-come that robbery loss to ODH - poor guy. He just wants his chance to be the best.
Richie Woodhall does!!! And he would never talk shit about a non-British fighter!!!! I gave Macklin 5 rounds, tops. He won the first 2 but then lost the third and it was tit for tat then to around the 9th or 10th, Spurm dominated the final few sessions and had him backing up badly in the 12th, had him all over the shop. Macklin never adapted, it's the same hard-charging, "hope-I-get-you-out-before-I-gas-myself" routine. Spurm was showing the jab-uppercut, Macklin was showing pressure which became decidedly less effective down the stretch. Close fight, a good fight, but the only real beef is the width of one of the judges cards.
Win or lose it was a pretty homosexual effort on the part of Spurm, considering his advantage in size and strength and the apparent inability of ODH to hurt him. I never claimed the fight wasn't close. Or that a case couldn't be made for Spurm's winning. What I did argue was that a case for ODH's winning could be made, and that the suggestion it was a blatant robbery were exaggerations based on the fight having been close when the expectation had been that ODH would win easily.
Dunno what the hell you were watching, Sturm outboxed and outclassed De La Hoya for the entire fight. DLH alternated between hitting Sturm's elbows and eating jabs like M&Ms. Mostly the latter. DLH won 4 rounds, at best.
For those of you who have yet to see Spurm's next opponent, Martin Murray. Here's his last fight. Murray will have a height advantage over Spurm, but not sure about reach. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0NHmVo1gkIM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Murray got a Draw in Germany vs the Spurminator. Haven't got round to watching the fight, but fair play to Murray.
Preeeeettty close, as I predicted. Sturm basically has a repetitive but effective style which features basic fundamentals: experience, seasoning, a good jab, an uppercut, the ability to finish strongly. He's a very limited guy, but he's got just enough to get past these average {Macklin} or inexperienced {Murray} guys they put him in with.
Haven't seen it, but I know Spurms style to death. A guy like Murray could fight 50 rounds with Spurm, and Spurm would win 20, draw 15 and lose 15. It's desperate stuff, its predicatable, routine stuff, Spurm is the Italy of boxing. He always does enough for people to be not able to say he lost outright.
It's weird that Sturm is barely good enough to beat these inexperienced, British level fighters, yet arguably beat Oscar ::
I was just thinking that!!!!:clapagain: It's part of the allure, its part of the reason why Sturm is able to say he didn't lose to these guys. He did, after all, whip Oscar, so how is somebody like Macklin going to beat him??? It's very simple, to beat Sturm, you need to drape him over the ropes after breaking his jaw, like Castillejo did. Castillejo, himself no chump, also dropped a decision to him. I don't blame you for not liking him, he ducked Arthur Abraham, much like Tapia ducked Mark Johnson. He's basically a porn-star boxer, he takes his clothes off and runs around moving his hands for the entertainment of the Bosnian-Germans who put up money to see his gym-made body slap out a decision over the latest goon they have imported for him to struggle with. He goes beyond being a home-town fighter, he's a home-town fighter for a small percentage of the home-town. When he wins, he doesn't get home-town decisions, he get's home-borough decisions.
There's no pretension of world-class about him, he doesn't even pretend to be good. His one trip to America was so Oscar could beat him and legitimize the fight with Hopkins as being for the WORLD MW Championship. He's no Hatton, he's not a carefully matched guy slowly building up to Super-Fights, he's just a fraud who makes money by selling to the Bosniaks the illusion of having a "World Champ".
I don't know why a draw was called, I really don't. There were some close rounds, but not too many IMO. Sturm was the one backing Murray against the ropes, doubling up his jab, being more consistent. Murray fought well, but I don't think he did near as much as people thought. He kept a high guard throughout and let his hands go, but only in spurts. Sturm in most of the rounds started the aggressor and ended the rounds the aggressor. I had it 8-4, Sturm.
Spurm probably won. He probably beat Macklin too. But to listen to Roary McCrory, John "Bawling" Rawling and Duke McPalsy, you would think they assault the kid in his dressing room and made him fight from a wheelchair. :dunno:
Germany sure is weird. When their guy clearly loses, they give him the decision, and won their guy wins, they have it a draw etc ::
