11.06.04 – Hamburg – Universum Box-Promotion filed an official protest at the World Boxing Organization against the decision of the judges in the fight between Felix Sturm and Oscar de la Hoya. Middleweight champion Sturm was defending his title last Saturday against his challenger de la Hoya at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas. All three judges scored the contest 115:113 in favor of de la Hoya (7:5 rounds).
“Almost every boxing expert in Germany and in the USA disagreed with the result”, promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl said. “They all saw Felix Sturm as the winner. We believe that the official decision was incorrect. Perhaps the judges in Las Vegas were distracted by the overwhelming presence of the upcoming big fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Bernard Hopkins which was already scheduled. Going into the fight everybody was certain that de la Hoya would beat Felix.”
Strong objective arguments for the suspect that Felix Sturm was the true winner are delivered by the punchstat of Compubox.
Based on their numbers Felix Sturm landed 234 of his punches whereas Oscar de la Hoya only landed 188 times. Sturm had an even clearer edge with his punch accuracy. The German landed 43% of his punches whereas the American only landed 24%.
Very questionable round scores were the third, the tenth and the twelfth. Those rounds were scored in favor of de la Hoya in Las Vegas. But in each of those rounds Sturm was landing more punches and landed on a higher rate. Sometimes the German landed more than half of the punches he threw. The “Golden Boy” on the other side was sometimes missing with five punches before landing one. In the last two rounds, from which de la Hoya was officialy winning the twelfth, he was unable to land one single jab on his opponent.
“What should count most in boxing are the punches you land on your opponent”, Kohl said. “According to the punch statistic Felix landed more punches than de la Hoya in nine of the twelve rounds.”
Not only that: According to Compubox Felix Sturm even connected with the second highest number of punches ever landed against de la Hoya, second to Shane Mosley who beat the “Golden Boy” in June 2000.
Another indication on who was the true winner at the MGM Grand Arena: Whereas Felix Sturm got away almost unmarked, Oscar de la Hoya suffered severe face injuries in what may have been the toughest fight of his career.
You can look at the official score cards and the Compubox punchstat now on www.boxing.de!