At Middleweight, Three Heads Ain’t Better Than One

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Cliff Rold - Middleweight could be an exciting division, one with contests intriguing enough to raise an anticipatory sweat on the palms of fans and excited butterflies in their guts. [details]

[MANGLER]

No reason for Pavlik, AA, and Sturm not to fight each other. there's nothin else for em to do at 160. If pwill beats winky, I don't see him beatin AA or Pavlik. Sturm, maybe. If Winky wins, I doubt he's got anotha big fight performance in him beyond Pwill.

[giacomino]

As long as you have four governing bodies handing out belts you'll always have somebody like Sturm, who hangs around making decent money fighting at home against very beatable opposition and never really tries to take on the division's best. About one out of two divisions has somebody like Sturm. Abraham has fought his share of stinkers too, but at least he's taken on somebody who could test him on foreign soil (Miranda). There may very well be a middleweight unification fight in the future, but it won't involve Sturm unless it's in Germany and a total bum somehow stumbles into a title and Sturm figures he can get an easy payday.

[crold1]

As long as you have four governing bodies handing out belts you'll always have somebody like Sturm, who hangs around making decent money fighting at home against very beatable opposition and never really tries to take on the division's best. About one out of two divisions has somebody like Sturm. Abraham has fought his share of stinkers too, but at least he's taken on somebody who could test him on foreign soil (Miranda). There may very well be a middleweight unification fight in the future, but it won't involve Sturm unless it's in Germany and a total bum somehow stumbles into a title and Sturm figures he can get an easy payday.

I think that's a slightly unfair assessment of Sturm. Beating Sylvester said a lot because EVERYONE had SS in the top five and should have. Fighting at home sucks if you're getting wildly bad decisions but he's not. They're fighting where it pays.

[Dave Rado]

By Cliff Rold - As 2009 begins, there are questions again. Pavlik won his first two outings in 2008, first in a tough non-title rematch with Taylor at Super Middleweight and then in a walkover against Willie Standup (Gary Lockett). [details]

Garry Lockett's nickname is Willie Standup? Noel Falldown more like.

[Dave Rado]

I think that's a slightly unfair assessment of Sturm. Beating Sylvester said a lot because EVERYONE had SS in the top five and should have. Fighting at home sucks if you're getting wildly bad decisions but he's not. They're fighting where it pays.

I got the impression though that Abraham wanted to fight Sturm last year, but Sturm didn't want to fight Abraham (asking for far more money to do so than the fight could possibly have generated). And unlike Abraham, I haven't heard Sturm calling out Pavlik either.