Felix Sturm

Bosnian German boxer

1999 German National Light Middleweight champion, defeating Jorg Rosomkiewicz
2000 1st place at Light Middleweight at European Championships in Tampere, Finland. Results were:
Defeated Karoly Balzsay (Hungary) points
Defeated Miroslaw Nowosada (Poland) points
Defeated Dmitri Usagin (Bulgaria) points
Defeated Andrei Mishin (Russia) 3 1
Represented Germany at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Results were:
Defeated Dilshod Yarbekov (Uzbekistan) points
Defeated Richard Rowles (Australia) TKO 3
Lost to Jermain Taylor (United States) points

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

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.

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.

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 2 November 2008, Sturm retained his WBA middleweight title via unanimous decision (118 110, 118 110 and 119 109) over Sebastian Sylvester. He improved to 31 2, with one draw, while Sylvester fell to 31 3. On 11 July 2009, he defended his title against Khoren Gevor in Nürburg 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, Sturm lost his WBA title to Australian Daniel Geale. Geale's IBF title was also on the line.

In 2013, Sturm 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 (twice) and 111–117.

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.

Sturm 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 (two weeks). 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.

On 19 December 2020, Sturm had his first fight since February 2016. Sturm dominated opponent Timo Rost throughout the fight and earned a unanimous decision victory, winning wide on all three scorecards. Two of the judges scored the fight 100 90 and one judge scored it 99 91.

Sturm was born Adnan Ćatić in Leverkusen, Germany. His parents, Ćamil and Zahida, are ethnic Bosniaks who hail from Blagaj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, having emigrated to Germany in the 1970s. For marketing reasons, Ćatić started as a professional boxer under the stage name Felix Sturm. In addition to German citizenship, he also has Bosnian citizenship. In May 2020, Sturm was jailed for tax evasion.

No. (Number)ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes52Loss42–7–3Istvan SziliMD1226 Mar 202251Win42–6–3James KraftUD1019 Jun 202150Win41–6–3Timo RostUD1019 Dec 202049Win40–6–3Fedor ChudinovMD (Majority decision)1220 Feb 201648Loss39–6–3Fedor ChudinovSD129 May 201547Draw39–5–3Robert StieglitzSD128 Nov 201446Loss39–5–2Sam SolimanUD1231 May 201445Win39–4–2Darren BarkerTKO2 (12), 7 Dec 201344Win38–4–2Predrag RadoševićTKO4 (12), 6 Jul 201343Loss37–4–2Sam SolimanUD121 Feb 201342Loss37–3–2Daniel GealeSD121 Sep 201241Win37–2–2Sebastian ZbikRTD (Corner retirement)9 (12), 13 Apr 201240Draw36–2–2Martin MurraySD122 Dec 201139Win36–2–1Matthew MacklinSD1225 Jun 201138Win35–2–1Ronald HearnsTKO7 (12), 19 Feb 201137Win34–2–1Giovanni LorenzoUD124 Sep 201036Win33–2–1Khoren GevorUD1211 Jul 200935Win32–2–1Koji SatoTKO7 (12), 25 Apr 200934Win31–2–1Sebastian SylvesterUD121 Nov 200833Win30–2–1Randy GriffinUD127 Jul 200832Win29–2–1Jamie PittmanTKO7 (12), 5 Apr 200831Draw28–2–1Randy GriffinSD (Split draw)1220 Oct 200730Win28–2Noé González AlcobaUD1230 Jun 200729Win27–2Javier CastillejoUD1228 Apr 200728Win26–2Gavin ToppTKO6 (10), 2 Dec 200627Loss25–2Javier CastillejoTKO10 (12), 15 Jul 200626Win25–1Maselino MasoeUD1211 Mar 200625Win24–1Jorge SendraUD1218 Jun 2005 24Win23–1Bert SchenkTKO2 (12), 5 Mar 200623Win22–1 Hacine CherifiKO3 (8), 4 Dec 200422Win21–1Robert FrazierUD1218 Sep 200421Loss20–1Oscar De La HoyaUD125 Jun 200420Win20–0Ruben VaronUD1220 Dec 200319Win19–0 Héctor Javier VelazcoSD (Split decision)1213 Sep 200318Win18–0Roberto Mario VecchioTKO5 (12)12 Jul 200317Win17–0 Tshepo MashegoUD1010 May 200316Win16–0 Javier Alberto MamaniUD108 Mar 200315Win15–0Lorant SzaboUD (Unanimous decision)823 Nov 200214Win14–0 Anton LascekTKO3 (8), 5 Oct 200213Win13–0Terry TockKO114 Sep 200212Win12–0Gyorgy BugyikTKO2 (6)20 Jul 200211Win11–0 Didier Nkuku MupekoPTS66 Apr 200210Win10–0Robert DavisPTS615 Dec 20019Win9–0Mario LuppKO1 (6)24 Nov 20018Win8–0 Francesco PerniceTKO4 (6)3 Nov 20017Win7–0Anthony IvoryPTS629 Sep 20016Win6–0 Mustapha StiniPTS421 Jul 20015Win5–0 Zdenek ZubkoKO2 (6)16 Jun 20014Win4–0 Ramdane KaouaneTKO (Technical knockout)1 (4)5 May 20013Win3–0 Bendele IlungaPTS47 Apr 20012Win2–0 Slavomir DendisKO (Knockout)1 (4)24 Feb 20011Win1–0 Antonio RibeiroPTS (Points decision)427 Jan 2001

Date Fight Viewership (avg. (average)) Source(s) Felix Sturm vs. Maselino Masoe 5,970,000 Felix Sturm vs. Randy Griffin I 5,000,000 Felix Sturm vs. Randy Griffin II 3,900,000 Felix Sturm vs. Jamie Pittman 5,880,000 Felix Sturm vs. Giovanni Lorenzo 5,270,000 Felix Sturm vs. Ronald Hearns 4,740,000 Felix Sturm vs. Matthew Macklin 4,550,000 Felix Sturm vs. Sam Soliman II 3,580,000 Total viewership 43,230,000

Date Fight Billing Buys NetworkDe La Hoya vs. SturmCollision Course380,000HBO Total buys 380,000