By Nick Bellafatto
At least two of the judges got it right as IBF champ Daniel “The Real Deal” Geale (28-1, 15 KO’s) of Australia would in the majority of rounds put his punches together to outwork hometown fighter and longtime WBA title holder Felix “Leonidas” Sturm (37-3-2, 16 KO’s) at the Koenig Pilsener Arena, in Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. The final tallies were 116-112 and 115-113 for Geale, handed in respectively by judges Dave Parris and Stanley Christodoulou, with judge Eugene Grant somehow seeing it 116-112 for the German born Sturm who really lacked fire and was overall too conservative during most if not the entire bout.
And with judge Grant’ score being read off initially, the first thought to come to mind was the gift decision Sturm would receive in Germany over Matthew Macklin a little more than a year ago. It was at that time when under almost identical circumstances the Irish prizefighter Macklin would put in more work over the course of the fight, only to come up short on the scorecards. Suffice it to say that Geale was the better man tonight and rightfully got the nod, elusive when he had to be, and in close quarters the busier and more effective fighter throughout, despite the crowd cheering every time it appeared as though Felix had landed a blow even if that wasn’t the case.
With Geale now adding the WBA Super World title belt to his collection, he’s no doubt going to tune in to HBO tonight and watch undefeated and heavy handed IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, also ironically holder of another version of the WBA title in this mixed up game of boxing, as he takes on once defeated Polish pugilist Grzegorz Proksa. Why? Because Daniel Geale is now slated to face the winner of that bout by December 31st of this year as so ordered by the WBA itself, to in fact determine a solitary WBA champion.
Good win for Daniel who will at the very least become Ring Magazine’ number 1 rated middleweight in place of former number 1 Sturm, ultimately coming to rest beneath universally recognized 160 pound champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez of Argentina. But the truth be told, the Aussie did what should have been expected of him tonight, as Sturm didn’t put up much of a fight so that Geale was able to dictate the terms and control the pace of the action.
If “The Real Deal” is going to get by a most decorated amateur turned fearsome professional prizefighter in Kazakhstani born Golovkin, who by all accounts is expected to emerge victorious over his replacement counterpart this evening, WBO titlist Dmitry Pirog having pulled out due to a supposed injury, then Daniel Geale has his work cut out in a big way.
With Gennady destroying or soundly defeating fighters the likes of Lucian Bute, Yordanis Despaigne, Andre Dirrell, and Andy Lee, on his way to becoming an amateur world champion, the new multi title holder from down under will no doubt have to up his game considerably if indeed Golovkin is to become his next foe. With nearly an 87% knockout ratio against a plethora of mostly unrecognizable fighters, Gennady will be looking to remain undefeated while proving that he’s in fact the real deal himself, this at the expense of the man nicknamed as such. That is if the Kazak sensation gets by Proksa in less than a few hours.
