I saw the interview with Abraham regarding this on YouTube, he said it and made it clear that he's not showing disrespect to Sturm at all but because the interviewer asked him if they ever considered Sturm. Abraham claimed that his promoter offered Sturm 1.5 million Euro to take this fight and they turned it down.
I'll be honest here Sturm knows he will get KO'd, there is no way in hell Sturm will handle Abraham's power, maybe he will do slightly good early but late Sturm will most likely fade and get caught with bombs he won't be able to handle. Abraham TKO8 and that's the reason why they didn't accept to fight him. :smoke
Might be a recent interview, but this is old news that has been posted on this site before. Pavlik/Abraham have an HBO date in January. Only way Sturm parts with his belt is if he gets a live mandatory.
I've seen a few of his, wasn't that impressed with any, the only impressive fight was DLH and even that was slightly close, I had it 115-113 Sturm.
I thought Sturm did pretty well against Oscar as well, I had it 116-112 easily. But guys, give the man a break. You all know how this business works. He sure ain't a powerful neck breaker but he definitely has some decent skills which is perfect for the euro stage and quite close for the world class. I think the man knows his limits. He had a lot of trouble in keeping his title against an old Castillejo so I can understand why he wouldn't want to lose his title against a prime dangerous Pavlik or Abraham. Sturm is probably not even in the top 5 middleweight head to head. He is merely exploiting a world championship belt to get a life out of it (in Germany he is considered a hero like Arthur since the De La Hoya fight). I personally compare him to the other German champion Markus Beyer, whom Kessler got his WBC belt. A protected fighter who wouldn't fight outside his country, with normal skills, trying to keep as long as possible an ABC belt for money and notoriety. I definitely understand both of them.
The problem is Sturm lost every confidence he had in his loss to Castillejo. He was winning this fight easily but the audence booed because he boxed and did not slug it out, so he changes tried to slug with Casitllejo and got knocked out. Since this time he is afraid when he faces somebody who can punch just a little bit. He freezes against them, look at the fights. Sturm has great footwork but against good punchers he just stands there with his guard up and let them punch. He has the talent and ability to outbox Abraham but since he has no confidence he would get beaten. His pomoters know this too and now just try to make as much money of him as they can.
Lewis-Holy I DLH-Sturm Chavez-Whitaker DLH-Whitaker all happened in Germany right? Idiot. Both are German citizens and fight for German promoters, so even if you would be right you would be wrong. Idiot.
There are about 5 million people watching his fights. Believe me he makes good money. Additinally, his next opponent is fellow German and European champ Sebastian Sylvester which will be very big over here.
Maybe Castillejo is a bit underrated here, I know he was already old when he fought Sturm the first time but he was a powerfull puncher with a good chin. Castillejo is tough as hell and comes to fight, always dangerous (even if Sylvester brutally knocked him out in his last fight). If Sturm runs, jabs and clinches the whole 12 rds against Abraham, I might give him a small chance, only a small chance to get the decision. I still favour Abraham though in that fight, if he catches the weak-chinned Sturm with something good he will hurt him and probably KO him. One must also remember that even if both have german passes, Abraham is the more popular guy in Germany, so if it's close Abraham might probably get the nod. Sturm knows this and wants no part of Abraham, even if that fight was huge in Germany and would generate a lot of money. Anyways, Sturm will have his hands full with Sebastian Sylvester already, I slightly favour Sturm but Sylvester will come to fight so we'll see...
After he "beat" Oscar, I really didn't think Sturm would go down the isolated Euro path. Pretty disappointing...