Was Sven Ottke good?

[Ryn0]

34 had tried. 34 had failed.

Ottke was a highly skilled technician and defensive master nicknamed the phanom for a reason. He had a superb AM-pedigree with over 300 fights including wins over Michael Moorer, Chris Byrd, Ibragimov, Tarver etc.

He turned pro very late and succesfully continued his AM-style in the proranks. He couoldn't crack an egg and was spoilerish in his style. He won several controversial decisions, but his resume gets overly ridiculed on these boards probably due to knee-jerk reactions from posters who never saw him fight or perhaps they have listened too much to biased commentary.

What stands is that Ottke was the no.1 at 168 above Joe Calzaghe, who first became no.1 when Ottke retired. At least that's how I remember it. Ottke has notable wins over Brewer, Markussen, Glen Johnson, Mundine as well as close wins over Reid, Larsen and Mitchell.

It's not really a close fight when the referee warns you for landing a clean punch to the face....

Ottke was comprehensively beaten by Reid, it wasn't even a close fight. Lots of people who haven't seen Ottke fight have knee jerk reactions about his quality. They man wasn't a terrible fighter but his record doesn't deserve to have an 0 at the end of it.

[Tiozzo]

34 had tried. 34 had failed.
Ottke was a highly skilled technician and defensive master nicknamed the phanom for a reason. He had a superb AM-pedigree with over 300 fights including wins over Michael Moorer, Chris Byrd, Ibragimov, Tarver etc.

He turned pro very late and succesfully continued his AM-style in the proranks. He couoldn't crack an egg and was spoilerish in his style. He won several controversial decisions, but his resume gets overly ridiculed on these boards probably due to knee-jerk reactions from posters who never saw him fight or perhaps they have listened too much to biased commentary.
What stands is that Ottke was the no.1 at 168 above Joe Calzaghe, who first became no.1 when Ottke retired. At least that's how I remember it. Ottke has notable wins over Brewer, Markussen, Glen Johnson, Mundine as well as close wins over Reid, Larsen and Mitchell.

I understand why you take his defense, I do think he was a good fighter and that the bad takes over the good in his case when you listen to people here, but come on, he was protected as hell, he should have lost some fights, so saying 34 have tried and 34 have failed like Mayweather would say is a bit of a joke

[BattlingNelson]

It's not really a close fight when the referee warns you for landing a clean punch to the face....

Ottke was comprehensively beaten by Reid, it wasn't even a close fight. Lots of people who haven't seen Ottke fight have knee jerk reactions about his quality. They man wasn't a terrible fighter but his record doesn't deserve to have an 0 at the end of it.

That one is a myth.

Reid had been cautioned for holding and ramming his head into Ottke. When he rammed the head in Ottke's gut the ref had seen enough and deducted a point.

That was taking the ref's view.

So maybe the infractions by Reid wasn't enough to warrent a point deducted, but it's not the worst I've seen and it had nothing to do with Reid being penalized for landing a punch.

Watch from about 1.10 where Reid looks to be robbed of a legit KD although Reid might have tripped Ottke. After that Reid's fouling commences. I suggest taking of off the extremely biased brit commentators:

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[BattlingNelson]

I understand why you take his defense, I do think he was a good fighter and that the bad takes over the good in his case when you listen to people here, but come on, he was protected as hell, he should have lost some fights, so saying 34 have tried and 34 have failed like Mayweather would say is a bit of a joke

I don't even like Ottke and I actually watched him fight in the hope of seeing him being KTFO.

And yes. The 34 have tried bit was a pun at the floydstans.

[IMDAZED]

Not for nothing but if you don't think Sven Ottke was an elite fighter then I can't help you. Was he a pound for pounder? No. But he was damn good at what he did. Excellent footwork, boxing skills and very, very awkward. His 21 title defenses are overrated but even if it was just 10 defenses, that's still pretty impressive.

[The_Demon]

Na,ottke was a joke

[daggum]

he's the best super middle weight of all time. does that make him good? it's up to you cause that was a stinky division.

[Dirk Diggler UK]

Yes he was good. People go to extremes on here. Either you're an ATG or a bum. Ottke got some home cooking through his career but he was still a solid world class fighter.

[Tiozzo]

I don't even like Ottke and I actually watched him fight in the hope of seeing him being KTFO.
And yes. The 34 have tried bit was a pun at the floydstans.

I sympathize over the fact that your wish didn't come true

[Rick Grimes]

He was above average so i suppose you could say he was good, not as good as his resume suggests and definitely not HOF worthy.