The Wizard of OZ – Geale Unifies Title

The headline above reads “The Wizard of Oz”, well Daniel Geale is the wizard as for the 2nd time he won a world title in Germany BY DECISION. Lets not beat about the bush here, this is a huge achievement by Geale as getting 1 verdict in Germany is hard enough. But 2 decisions??. Back in May last year the New South Wales man came away with a split decision over another German Sebastian Sylvester, a fight that Geale deserved to win although there was a terrible score of 118-110 against him (Geale won 118-110 and 118-112 on the other cards).

That terrible score must have worried Geale before this trip as Sturm in 2 of his last 3 fights retained his titles vs Mathew Mackin and Martin Murray via controversial circumstances. Brit Murray was at ringside last night hoping that Sturm would retain his title as Murray felt he merited another shot at the German after holding him to a draw in December. His plans are now up in smoke as the hard working Aussie ripped away Sturm’s WBA crown.

What has to be said about this fight was that Sturm and Geale were well matched. Both have similar skills, good jab, strong body attack and will to win although it was Geales work rate that was the difference in this very close fight. There must have been 6-7 rounds in this fight where the action was so close that they could have went to either fighter OR scored 10-10. The general view was Geale doing more of the work but Sturm landing the cleaner blows.

I gave Sturm the first 2 rounds, only just though. Geale was working hard moving side to side giving himself angles to land his blows. Sturm was landing the harder cleaner punches though, the jab being the primary weapon. The long-time German champion was having a decent 3rd as well before seemingly being hurt late in the round as Geale concentrated in walking forward instead of the angles of the first 2 rounds. The 4th was one of those rounds i mentioned before where it could have went either way, i scored for Sturm although many went with the work rate of Geale. I scored this round to Sturm because of the cleaner blows, something Sturm has had to master as his punch output is never that high.

After the slowest round of the fight, the 5th, Geale again pushed forward knowing that he would need to take the title as he was the away fighter. I had Geale winning rounds 6,7,8 and 9 although going on what i read on twitter and on the fans forums, many felt that Sturm won the 8th?. My reasoning for giving Geale the 8th was that Sturm was landing far too many punches on the gloves. The crowd though were cheering loudly thinking Sturm had landed, something that can sway the fans watching on TV or more importantly the ringside judges.

In his successful titles defences vs Macklin and Murray, Sturm came on strong near the end of the fight. Judging by his effort in rounds 10 and 11 it looked as if Sturm was doing this again. The fight was very close at this point, infact close right through the fight. Entering the 12th it was all up for grabs. Sturm started strong for the first 30 seconds then Geale took over with that impressive work rate. Late in the round he drove Sturm back with jabs and right hands followed by a body attack that was consistent from the first bell. With 30 seconds left both champions just let fly, off balance and going for the home run punch Sturm and Geale went for it, the crowd went crazy urging their hero (Sturm) forward. It wasnt to be as Referee Luis Pabon jumped in between the 2 fighters to end what was a very good Unification middleweight world title fight.