by Marius Vibe: Looked upon by some as one of the most heavily protected champions in boxing today, Robert Stieglitz didn’t disappoint to live up to his status tonight.
Defending his WBO Super Middleweight title against rugged journeyman Enrique Ornelas (30-7-0), Stieglitz (39-2-0) found himself in a difficult and closely contested fight. Early on, Stieglitz effectively outworked Ornelas, who seemed content to fight in bursts, while the younger German stayed on the offensive and landed some solid combinations..
The Mexican answered in the middle rounds, and found a home for his right, which repeatedly landed and opened up a cut under Stieglitz’ left eye. It was soon evident that it was Ornelas who landed the heavier punches, and Stieglitz seemed bothered by the Mexican’s power at times.
Towards the end of the fight, Stieglitz rallied quite effectively, and again showed a good work rate. Ornelas, who had repeatedly managed to hurt Stieglitz to some degree, was rocked a couple of times himself in the later rounds, before launching a massive offence against the younger German in the 12th and final round.
A very good and exciting fight, that I scored 114-114, a draw.
When the final scores were in, of course, all three judges had the fight 117-111, and a unanimous decision for Stieglitz.
Now understand this – I want to give some credit to Robert Stieglitz. He did do enough to keep his title in this fight. He did show some heart and avoid fighting in a negative way, although he was pushed on the defensive at times, and was cut.
What I think needs to be discussed. is
1) why is he defending his title against Enrique Ornelas? Ornelas is, from what I can see, only rated by the WBO, and why he’s as high on the list as #8 is a mystery.
2) how could anyone score that fight 117-111 in favor of Stieglitz? That would mean that Stieglitz won 9 out of 12 rounds, which is ridiculous to anyone who actually watched the bout with their eyes open.
3) why can no one do something about the extensive home town… no, scratch that… home country cooking that goes on in Germany, and has done so for years?
Now, some may argue that
1) the very fact that Ornelas proved so hard to beat tonight doesn’t prove that Stieglitz is overrated, but instead that Ornelas is underrated and that the WBO ranking was very accurate.
2) the work rate of Stieglitz was the defining factor in this match, and also Stieglitz was the champion and the challenger should thus actively take the title in a more convincing fashion, plus fights look vastly different when scored round by round ringside than for a know it all keyboard jockey like the author of this article, therefore the score was accurate.
3) it’s not worse in Germany than anywhere else.
But I’m claiming this:
Tonight, Robert Stieglitz fought a talented, but far from champion material Enrique Ornelas, who pushed Stieglitz into showing that Stieglitz also deserves to be called a “talented, but far from champion material” fighter. Just take a look at both fighters’ records, and take a close look at their fights if you can get hold of some footage.
It was a great fight, and both fighters got to show some good skills and excellent fighting spirit, which was entirely undermined by a biased scoring, that also managed to be unnecessary. A draw would’ve been fine. A majority decision to Stieglitz would’ve been fine. A 115-113 score to Stieglitz would’ve been fine – heck, even 116-112 to Stieglitz could’ve been defended if one were to try really hard. 117-111 sucks some of the glory out of the fight, and is insulting to both Robert Stieglitz and Enrique Ornelas.
And yes, Germany seems to be worse than anywhere else at the moment.
At this stage, I kind of feel sorry for Robert Stieglitz, who’s robbed of a chance to grow as a fighter. He’s got talent, sure, but he’s not getting any younger, and he’s being matched against unworthy opponents. One might argue that he’s being matched against all he can handle at the moment, on account of the Ornelas fight, but how about matching him against someone with a name, someone who’s ranked higher, but who’s got a style that suits him?
Right now, he’s being protected when there might be no need for it, and his legacy as a fighter is being damaged by the bad rep home country scoring provides for him. Like in this case, when I should’ve just been happy with having watched a good fight instead of moaning about it.
Stieglitz needs to get out there and take some scalps before it’s too late.
And if he absolutely must stay at home… for God’s sake, he should at least fight Dimitri Sartison or Khoren Gevor or something.