Former boxing world champion Felix Sturm approaches the hunt for a sixth world title full of motivation.
“I feel very good. Everything went very well,” said the 43-year-old in Dortmund on Thursday. The Leverkusen fighter will meet Hungary’s Istvan Szili (39) in the IBO super middleweight world championship eliminator on Saturdayat the same venue.
“If you have the chance to box for the world championship afterwards – I am 43, Istvan is almost 40 – you will be more motivated than ever in your life. That’s why I take the subject extremely seriously. He is the most important opponent for me at the moment,” Sturm said. The winner of the fight is scheduled to meet British IBO world champion Lerrone Richards in late summer. The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen is being considered as the venue.
Sturm had returned at the end of 2020 after a nearly five-year break from the ring and has since contested two fights, which he won. Prior to that, Sturm, who had served more than eight months in pre-trial detention in 2019, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, violation of the anti-doping law and assault in April 2020. That had been reduced to two years and four months at the end of the previous year.
