Sven Ottke

He was a good (not great) fighter that mostly fought bums. Very protected. Never fought outside of Germany. Never faced the best fighters in his division. He was a small cut above the ESPN level. Went life and death with Charles Brewer. Had almost no power, and fought a very displeasing style. Absolutely NOT Hall of Fame worthy. His only genuine contribution to the sport was knocking out bigmouth Anthony Mundine. But, quite frankly, that probably wouldn't have happened again if those two fought 50 times.

 

Good boxer with excellent foot work but low on power .never fought outside Germany and this accounts for his undefeated record.very dull.

 

Very protected fighter.Got a few gifts too

 

lost at least 5 times, weak compared to even minor titleholders like calzaghe during otkes reign

 

A very good, safety first fight who unfortunately never ventured out of the protective confines of Germany,..his national security blanket. He would have been exposed big time and soundly defeated by Joe Calzaghe...on neutral soil...and I suspect that if they had fought in Germany it would have resulted in one of the greatest scandals in boxing history had the German officials had robbed JC.

 

Calzaghe was a great fighter....

 

From his boxrec page:

• Ottke retired in 2004 with a record of 34-0. Though Ottke retired undefeated, the legitimacy of his record will always be in question due to controversial decisions he received in his home country of Germany against Charles Brewer, Thomas Tate, Glen Johnson, Byron Mitchell, Mads Larsen, and Robin Reid.

Lol, i mean Ottke was a skilled boxer and he would be more respected , if he would have faced some good fighters and his record might have some losses if he did it (almost a sure thing) but at least he will be respected.
BTW he was a pretty good amateur, unlucky to run on the great Ariel Hernandez in two olympic runs.

 

Haters are gonna hate. Winners win. Champions champ.

 

no its ottke who gets called out, not others.

dont get me wrong he won a recognised title, but to claim he unified and made so many defences with all those obvious losses.... na.

guy was a eurochamp really, who managed to win a world title briefly before losing it.

 

no blueprint

 

Ottke was a very good fighter ... he just didn't have any real power to speak of. That was his big flaw. Also, when it came to his appearance, he didn't exactly strike fear in men.

He was sort of doughy, and he was kind of balding. That, plus the lack of power, didn't leave people quaking in their boots.

But he was a very good boxer.

He won 250 of 300 amateur fights. He was a three-time Olympian (losing to the eventual gold medalist twice). He fought at both the middleweight (165 ilbs) and light heavyweight (178 lbs) divisions as an amateur. He was a true super middleweight.

He was nearly 30 years old when he turned pro so he was moved quickly.

He won the IBF Super Middleweight title in his 13th pro fight, defeating Charles Brewer who was a respected champion. And he went on to make 21 successful title defenses and unify the IBF and WBA belts.

He's often compared with Joe Calzaghe, who also retired undefeated, because they reigned at super middleweight for much of the same time and both made 21 successful defenses of their middleweight belts ... although they never unified against each other.

Calzaghe became a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but Ottke rarely gets mentioned. Which is kind of surprising, and I've argued this with people who actually cast ballots for the Hall of Fame, because there really isn't much separating the two fighters.

Ottke and Calzaghe fought many of the same guys in title fights.

Both defended against Charles Brewer (and had problems with him), both defended against Byron Mitchell (and had problems with him), both defended against Robin Reid (and had problems with him), both defended against David Starie, Tocker Pudwill and Rick Thornberry.

Ottke defended against Glen Johnson (who would become the world light heavy champ - after knocking out Roy Jones and beating Antontio Tarver), Silvio Branco (who would become the WBA light heavy champ), Anthony Mundine (who held the WBA Super Middleweight title several times), Armand Krajnc (WBO Middleweight champ), perennial contenders Thomas Tate and Mads Larsen, as well as the notorious James "The Harlem Hammer" Butler (who killed Max Kellerman's brother with a hammer).

Calzaghe seemed to pull away from Ottke in the minds of most when he faced Kessler and then Hopkins and Jones at light heavy. Although, it could be said future light heavy champ Glen Johnson certainly proved he was better than the Roy Jones who had Calzaghe down in the first. And future WBA light heavyweight champ Silvio Branco wasn't a slouch. Neither was Mundine back in the day.

So there wasn't a whole helluva lot separating the two. Calzaghe fought slightly better men overall as a pro, but Ottke was the vastly superior amateur boxer of the two.

I'd have picked Calzaghe to win if they'd met. But if people think Ottke met bums, then they weren't paying attention. His (Ottke's) accomplishments (three-time Olympian, unifying the IBF and WBA belts, making 21 title defenses) are better than a lot of people in the Hall.

Ottke was a fine champ.

 

To be fair, Calzaghe had a tough win over Brewer, a controversial win over Robin Reid and Byron Mitchell nearly stopped Calzaghe.

So, if those guys weren't "good fighters" when Ottke faced them ... I don't know how they were suddenly good fighters when they gave Calzaghe hell, too.

 

And how many times did Joe Calzaghe fight outside the UK in his 46 pro fights?

Two? Three?

Zero times outside the UK in his first 38 pro fights.

He was a hardly a road warrior.

 

Three time Olympian. Unified two titles. Made 21 title defenses.

You're badly mistaken. You could make the argument he was more accomplished than Virgil Hill, who is also in Hall.