Felix Sturm


Adnan Ćatić, best known as Felix Sturm, is a German former professional boxer of Bosnian origin who competed from 2001 to 2016. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2003 to 2004, the WBA middleweight title twice between 2006 and 2012, the IBF middleweight title from 2013 to 2014, and the WBA super-middleweight title in 2016. As an amateur, Sturm won a gold medal at the 2000 European Championships in the light-middleweight division.

Amateur highlights

He finished his amateur career with a record of 143 wins and 10 losses.

Professional career

Early years

On 27 January 2001, Sturm made his debut as a professional boxer facing Antonio Ribeiro from Angola. Six months earlier he had qualified for the Olympic Games in Sydney, but lost his fight to future middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.
After 16 successful matches, Sturm won the WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title on 10 May 2003. On 13 September 2003, he replaced the injured Bert Schenk in a WBO title bout against Argentinian Hectór Javier Velazco and won the match. Sturm defended the title against Rubén Varón Fernández from Spain.

Sturm vs. De La Hoya

On 5 June 2004 in Las Vegas, Sturm faced Oscar De La Hoya in a defense of his WBO middleweight championship. All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for De La Hoya, while Harold Lederman scored the fight 115-113 for Sturm. Compubox counted Sturm as landing 234 of 541 punches, while counting De La Hoya as landing 188 of 792. Sturm protested the decision with the Nevada Athletic Commission to no avail.

WBA champion

On 11 March 2006, Sturm defeated Maselino Masoe for the WBA middleweight title by a unanimous decision. Sturm then lost his title against former champion Javier Castillejo via TKO on 15 July 2006 but won it back from Castillejo in a rematch on 28 April 2007 by a twelve round unanimous decision in Oberhausen, which he earned after defeating Gavin Topp by TKO in the sixth round.
Sturm became a three-time world champion after defeating Castillejo in the rematch.
He also fought Randy Griffin twice, drawing with him in their first fight and winning their second fight by unanimous decision.
On November 2, 2008, Sturm retained his WBA middleweight title via unanimous decision over Sebastian Sylvester. He improved to 31-2, with one draw, while Sylvester fell to 31-3.
On July 11, 2009 he defended his title against Khoren Gevor in Nuerburg, Germany in 12 rounds.
After over a year of inactivity Sturm came back to defend his WBA title against Giovanni Lorenzo, with the winner becoming the WBA "Super" champion. Sturm defeated Lorenzo by a twelve round unanimous decision with the judges giving a comfortable 117-111 twice and 118-111 on the scorecards.
After defeating top contenders Matthew Macklin and Sebastian Zbik he lost his WBA title to Australian Daniel Geale. Geale's IBF title was also on the line.

IBF champion

In 2013 he became Germany's first four-time world champion by defeating Darren Barker in Stuttgart. Barker was in no condition to continue after suffering a serious hip injury. Barker's IBF title was on the line. One month later the Englishman announced his retirement from boxing.
In mid 2014 Sturm lost his title against Sam Soliman via unanimous decision. Soliman won by official scores of 110-118 and 111–117.

Super-middleweight

WBA (Super) champion

In 2016, Sturm defeated Fedor Chudinov by way decision, becoming a two-weight world champion. Later after the fight, the doping samples that were taken from Sturm before the fight were suddenly challenged, however, the sample documents were not complete, as the location, time of arrival was not documented. Due to this inaccuracy, Sturm was not stripped of his titles. He then relocated to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Doping allegations

He broke the silence two months later with a post which he shared via Instagram where he complained about being treated unfairly by the doping investigators. Sturm wrote that he was only informed two months after the first doping sample about the results and that he wasn't told why it took longer than usual. After engaging a lawyer who requested all the required documents from the investigators he noticed that the last page was missing, "...where is written, when my sample arrived at the laboratory, who received it and who analysed the sample.", it was written in that social media post. He allegedly didn't get an answer after submitting further inquiries and was denied the right to let the b-sample be analysed by another laboratory. Sturm claimed that the WBA refrained from suspending him because of these irregularities.

Professional boxing record

No.ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes
49Win40–6–3 Fedor Chudinov1220 Feb 2016 König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, GermanyWon WBA super-middleweight title
48Loss39–6–3 Fedor ChudinovSD129 May 2015 Festhalle, Frankfurt, GermanyFor WBA super-middleweight title
47Draw39–5–3 Robert StieglitzSD128 Nov 2014 Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Germany
46Loss39–5–2 Sam SolimanUD1231 May 2014 König Palast, Krefeld, GermanyLost IBF middleweight title
45Win39–4–2 Darren BarkerTKO2, 2:097 Dec 2013 Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, GermanyWon IBF middleweight title
44Win38–4–2 Predrag RadoševićTKO4, 2:176 Jul 2013 Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
43Loss37–4–2 Sam SolimanUD121 Feb 2013 ISS Dome, Düsseldorf, Germany
42Loss37–3–2 Daniel GealeSD121 Sep 2012 König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, GermanyLost WBA middleweight title;
For IBF middleweight title
41Win37–2–2 Sebastian Zbik9, 3:0013 Apr 2012 Lanxess Arena, Cologne, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
40Draw36–2–2 Martin MurraySD123 Dec 2011 SAP Arena, Mannheim, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
39Win36–2–1 Matthew MacklinSD1225 Jun 2011 Lanxess Arena, Cologne, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
38Win35–2–1 Ronald HearnsTKO7, 0:4819 Feb 2011 Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
37Win34–2–1 Giovanni LorenzoUD124 Sep 2010 Lanxess Arena, Cologne, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
36Win33–2–1 Khoren GevorUD1211 Jul 2009 Nürburgring, Nürburg, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
35Win32–2–1 Koji SatoTKO7, 2:4625 Apr 2009 König Palast, Krefeld, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
34Win31–2–1 Sebastian SylvesterUD121 Nov 2008 König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
33Win30–2–1 Randy GriffinUD127 Jul 2008 Gerry Weber Stadion, Halle, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
32Win29–2–1 Jamie PittmanTKO7, 0:365 Apr 2008 Burg-Wächter Castello, Düsseldorf, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
31Draw28–2–1 Randy Griffin1220 Oct 2007 Gerry Weber Stadion, Halle, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
30Win28–2 Noé González AlcobaUD1230 Jun 2007 Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, GermanyRetained WBA middleweight title
29Win27–2 Javier CastillejoUD1228 Apr 2007 König Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, GermanyWon WBA middleweight title
28Win26–2 Gavin ToppTKO6, 1:082 Dec 2006 Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany
27Loss25–2 Javier CastillejoTKO10, 2:4715 Jul 2006 Color Line Arena, Hamburg, GermanyLost WBA middleweight title
26Win25–1 Maselino MasoeUD1211 Mar 2006 Color Line Arena, Hamburg, GermanyWon WBA middleweight title
25Win24–1 Jorge SendraUD1218 Jun 2005 Pula Arena, Pula, CroatiaRetained WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title
24Win23–1 Bert SchenkTKO2, 2:015 Mar 2006 Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle, Leverkusen, GermanyRetained WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title
23Win22–1 Hacine CherifiKO3, 2:064 Dec 2004 Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany
22Win21–1 Robert FrazierUD1218 Sep 2004 Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle, Leverkusen, GermanyWon vacant WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title
21Loss20–1 Oscar De La HoyaUD125 Jun 2004 MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, USLost WBO middleweight title
20Win20–0 Ruben VaronUD1220 Dec 2003 Ostseehalle, Kiel, GermanyRetained WBO middleweight title
19Win19–0 Héctor Javier Velazco1213 Sep 2003 Estrel Hotel, Berlin, GermanyWon WBO middleweight title
18Win18–0 Roberto Mario VecchioTKO5 12 Jul 2003 Wilhelm-Dopatka-Halle, Leverkusen, GermanyWon vacant WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title
17Win17–0 Tshepo MashegoUD1010 May 2003 Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Stuttgart, GermanyRetained IBF Youth middleweight title
16Win16–0 Javier Alberto MamaniUD108 Mar 2003 Preussag Arena, Hanover, GermanyWon vacant IBF Youth middleweight title
15Win15–0 Lorant Szabo823 Nov 2002 Westfalenhalle, Dortmund, Germany
14Win14–0 Anton LascekTKO3, 2:005 Oct 2002 Főnix Hall, Debrecen, Hungary
13Win13–0 Terry TockKO114 Sep 2002 Volkswagen Halle, Braunschweig, Germany
12Win12–0 Gyorgy BugyikTKO2 20 Jul 2002 Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
11Win11–0 Didier Nkuku MupekoPTS66 Apr 2002 Universum Gym, Hamburg, Germany
10Win10–0 Robert DavisPTS615 Dec 2001 Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany
9Win9–0 Mario LuppKO1 24 Nov 2001 Universum Gym, Hamburg, Germany
8Win8–0 Francesco PerniceTKO4 3 Nov 2001 Hansehalle, Lübeck, Germany
7Win7–0 Anthony IvoryPTS629 Sep 2001 Universum Gym, Hamburg, Germany
6Win6–0 Mustapha StiniPTS421 Jul 2001 Tivoli Eissporthalle, Aachen, Germany
5Win5–0 Zdenek ZubkoKO2 16 Jun 2001 Kisstadion, Budapest, Hungary
4Win4–0 Ramdane Kaouane1 5 May 2001 Volkswagen Halle, Braunschweig, Germany
3Win3–0 Bendele IlungaPTS47 Apr 2001 Universum Gym, Hamburg, Germany
2Win2–0 Slavomir Dendis1 24 Feb 2001 Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Hamburg, Germany
1Win1–0 Antonio Ribeiro427 Jan 2001 Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle, Munich, Germany