Saturday night, WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm (34-2-1, 14KO’s) returned from a fourteen month layoff to defeat Dominican Giovanni Lorenzo (29-3, 21KO’s) over twelve rounds at the Lanxess-Arena in Cologne, Germany. It was a sweet victory for Sturm, who is fresh off a long dispute with former employees Universum.

I expected Giovanni Lorenzo to push forward aggressively with Sturm countering and boxing Lorenzo from distance, but the fight was the other way around. Sturm was the aggressor, pushing forward, using fast and accurate jabs and power punches and hooks to body and head to dominate his foe, and Lorenzo simply had no answer.

In the 6th round Lorenzo was hurt, but showed he can survive a critical situation, covering up and hanging on although from there the writing was on the wall and Lorenzo wasn’t even in the fight.

The fight was a little surprising, not because of the result but the body language of both fighters, the aggressive style of Sturm, the fast jab and big heart. He showed far more aggression and desire than he had done in his past two fights. Tonight he was fresh and seemed to be back to his very best.

Maybe taking a little time out helped Sturm, although after the fight he claimed he was only at 75% tonight. If that’s the case what can we expect from Sturm when he reaches 100%?

Sturm also said he will fight again in December. Who’ll be his next opponent is too early to say, but he is not expecting it to be a big name like Pavlik, Williams or Martinez. He said those fights are difficult to make and money is the biggest issue. He is ready to take fights in the US but will also try to fight here in Germany, especially in his new hometown of Cologne.

In short we can expect some exciting fights from Felix Sturm in the future!

The undercard was organized by Arena Box-Promotion. Having his pro debut on this card was Erkan Teper, who faced the veteran Marcell Zeller. A big first fight if ever there was one. It was a big risk for promoter Öner to match Teper against a man with such experience, but Öner once more showed his good judgement, as Teper stopped Zeller in the fourth round with a TKO. Teper was too fast, too strong and too hungry for Zeller.

Also on the card the 27 year old IBF Inter-Continental middleweight champ Benjamin Simon defended his title without any problems against Magomed Abdurakhmanov. Abdurakhmanov was never a danger for the physically stronger and faster Simon.

1. Giovanni Lorenzo: I’ll break Sturm’s big nose!
2. Felix Sturm returns after long layoff
3. Sturm vs. Lorenzo heating up