Sven Ottke - The Robbery Years.

I've seen Ottke fight several times, and I don't think I've ever scored a fight for him that went the distance. Brewer (the first fight), Mitchell, Reid, Starie, Larsen, even Glen Johnson - all of them were close-ish fights, but I thought those guys all deserved no less than a draw.

That story of Ottke's career is that he would look to win only about five rounds of every fight, and then just survive. That was how he was able to monopolize his title for so long. It can be a lot harder to beat a guy when he's only fighting to keep the fight close, and not actually going out of his way to win.

I don't know how many of his decisions (if any) qualify as outright "robberies", but most of them were questionable at the very least. I find myself consistently scoring fights 7 rounds to 5 against him. It's as if he came into every fight with the judges giving him an extra 2 or 3 round edge before the fight even started. And he fought accordingly.

IMO, the guy was basically a fraud.

Having said that, Calzaghe-Ottke was a fight that should've happened, and they both share equal blame for it not coming off.

 

I've watched that fight about 3 or 4 times (believe it or not) and I always have Johnson with an edge each time. I just don't see Ottke doing enough in enough rounds. Johnson at least was more aggressive and tried harder.

 

I want to score fights against Ottke but the ***** knows his craft well.

He stiffles aggression just enough for it to be ineffective, he throws just enough to get rounds and he controls the ring just well enough to make a fight tip in his favour.

He has always been a "just enough" fighter. As much as I hate to admit it I honestly feel he didnt get that many gifts, I thought he just won or did enough to make an arguement for him to win in most of his fights.
And trust me Ive put myself through just about all of Ottke's title defences, it wasnt pretty.

 

I'd say Reid was the only blatant robbery of the lot, the rest are debatable and could be argued either way. Although he was boring as hell, he was actually a pretty good fighter who fought to his strengths very well. I can't stop laughing at the Mundine KO though, it looked like a light little slap but seemed to pack the power of a Hearn's right cross. It l twisted Mundine's head in a strange position and it was goodnight.

 

I like how Ali did just enough in a equal number of fights later in his career, ones on a far larger stage none the less.

Where's his ****ing criticism?

I guarantee you no fight Ottke was never involved in was any worse then Young/Ali.

Lester Bromberg from Ring magazine scored the fight 11-4 for Young. Before even reading that, or how Dundee also said it was Ali's worst fight, I scored the fight almost exactly the same.

You think some of those decisions are bad, go watch 15 round robberies. That much more disgusting.

 

C`mon dude it wasnt THAT bad! Kevin was just so out of his depth. I mean the guy was just a club fighter! Joes Job was to finish him off not ask the 3rd man to say stop! But i guess it was similar to Ali Quarry in the sense that Quarry/Kevin were completely outclassed.

 

True but you dont get points for aggression per se. You get points for blows landed. Plus the Germans would have favored there boy. Sven had a very amateur style in the pro`s and always did enough to score points without getting to involved. It made for awful viewing but it was effective.

 

When I saw the word robbery I thought you were reffering to his fights against Brewer,Mitchell,Larsen and Reid.

In the Reid fight he was particularily pathetic,looking to the ref ever 20 seconds for help. I thought he was going to burst in to tears at any time. One cannot respect a fighter who behaves in this gutless fashion. When Ottke retired nobody noticed.

 

The guy looked like a dodgy German porn star.

 

The last one is funny :rofl

Ottke wasn´t that featherfisted, he just didn´t commit to his punches, when he did he could punch. Mundine knows

btw. Abraham was Ottke´s sparringpartner back then.

Ottke-Calzaghe would have been a good fight. A trilogy would go 2-1 to Joe C and they all would be pretty close.

Good to see him getting some respect, most of the time I´m the only one defending him and I don´t even like him.

 

How can you seriously believe Ottke could ever beat Joe Calzaghe. :verysad

 

Because Calzaghe is not as unbeatable as some of his nuhuggers thing and Ottke has the right style to trouble him.

 

He doesn`t have the power to KO Joe and how could he possibly out work him over the distance. Maybe he could whinge continually to the ref like he did in the Reid fight and maybe win by DQ!

 

Mitchell, the 2 Brewer fights, Reid, Thomas Tate fight had a bizarre ending. I also remember a Danish fight who was clearly robbed...

 

Mitchell, Brewer I could have gone either way. Tate and Brewer II were clearly won by Ottke, Reid was a robbery. The fight with Larsen should have been a no contest, in that fight both did nothing. Larsen surely has not earned a win in that fight, he threw hardly a punch in any round. Ottke wasn´t much better though.