Pirog: We’ve Tried To Get Sturm, He Just Runs From Me
The WBO world middleweight champion, Dmitry Pirog (19-0, 15KOs) of Russia, has been trying to get a fight with WBA king Felix Sturm (36-2-2, 15KOs) of Germany. Pirog claims to have been chasing Sturm since 2010, when the Russian boxer shocked everyone by knocking out heavy favorite Daniel Jacobs in five rounds. In the opinion of Pirog, Sturm is more interested in making money and doesn’t care as much about furthering his craft as a boxer. The Russian champion was very disappointed with Sturm’s twelve round draw with the inexperienced Martin Murray from last Friday.
“We tried to negotiate with the Sturm immediately after my championship bout against Daniel Jacobs, but attempts to contact him have failed. It seems to me that Felix just runs from me. At the same time, constructive dialogue is possible with other top fighters in our division. Therefore, we agreed to a fight with the IBF titleholder Daniel Geale. Incidentally, the last performance of Sturm left me very unimpressed. In my opinion, the German is not progressing. It is likely, he became too interested in making money, and boxing, apparently, [has become a secondary] business to Sturm,” Pirog told FE.