Adnan Ćatić (born 31 January 1979), known as Felix Sturm, is a Bosnian-German

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

title from 2003 to 2004, the WBA middleweight title twice between 2006 and 2012, the IBF middleweight title from 2013 to 2014, and the WBA (Super)

super-middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pounds ...

title in 2016. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History ...

, Sturm won a gold medal at the 2000 European Championships in the light-middleweight division.

Amateur highlights

*1997 2nd place at Light Middleweight in German National Championships, losing to

Jürgen Brähmer Jürgen Brähmer (born 5 October 1978) is a German professional boxer. He is a two-time former light-heavyweight world champion, having held the WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing b ...

on points *1998 German National Light Middleweight champion, defeating Jorg Rosomkiewicz *1999 competed at the World Championships in Houston, United States; as a Light Middleweight. Results were: **Defeated Andrei Tsurkan (Ukraine) points **Lost to Yermakhan Ibraimov (Kazakhstan) points *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 Dilshod Yarbekov (born May 1, 1974 in Samarqand) is an Uzbek boxer, who has won medals at the Asian and World Championships in the middleweight category. He is an Honored Sportsman of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Achievements *1994 – Asia ...

(Uzbekistan) points **Defeated Richard Rowles (Australia) TKO 3 **Lost to

Jermain Taylor Jermain Taylor (born August 11, 1978) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, ''Ring'' magazine, a ...

(United States) points He finished his amateur career with a record of 143 wins and 10 losses.

Professional career

Early years

On 27 January 2001, Sturm made his debut as a professional boxer facing Antonio Ribeiro from

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. Six months earlier he had qualified for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, but lost his fight to future middleweight champ

. After 16 successful matches, Sturm won the

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

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Sturm vs. De La Hoya

On 5 June 2004 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

, 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 Harold Lederman (January 26, 1940 – May 11, 2019) was an American boxing judge and analyst. He began his career as a boxing judge in 1967 and joined the cast of ''HBO World Championship Boxing'' in 1986, and was there until HBO dropped boxing ...

scored the fight 115-113 for Sturm.

Compubox CompuBox is the name of a computerized punches scoring system run by two operators. CompuBox is used in boxing matches around the world. Background The system is based on a computer program, originally named FightStat, developed by Jon Gibbs in ...

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 The Nevada State Athletic Commission (also known as the Nevada Athletic Commission or NSAC) regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of Nevada, including licensure and supervision of promoters, boxers, kickboxer ...

to no avail.

WBA champion

On 11 March 2006, Sturm defeated

Maselino Masoe Maselino Francis Masoe Fao (born June 6, 1966 in Apia, Western Samoa) is a retired Samoan boxer who represented American Samoa at three Olympics starting with the 1988 Summer Olympics. As a professional, Masoe made history becoming the first Sam ...

for the WBA middleweight title by a unanimous decision. Sturm then lost his title against former champion

Javier Castillejo Francisco Javier Castillejo Rodríguez (born 22 March 1968), commonly known as Javier Castillejo, is a Spanish former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2009. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the ...

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 Randy Griffin (born June 7, 1976) is a professional boxer. While best known as a middleweight, he began as a light heavyweight Gregg, Steve. ''Ward Outbattles Burton in War'' . The Boxing Times. July 13, 2001. Accessed November 11, 2007. an ...

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 Sebastian Sylvester (born 9 July 1980) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2011 and held the International Boxing Federation, IBF middleweight title from 2009 to 2011. Professional career In March 2007 Sylvester ret ...

. 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 Khoren Gevor ( hy, Խորեն Գեվորգյան; born Khoren Gevorgyan on 16 March 1980) is an Armenian-German professional boxer. He is a former European middleweight champion and multiple time world title challenger. Biography Gevor was born ...

Nürburg Nürburg () is a town in the German district of Ahrweiler, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is also the name of the local castle, Nürburg Castle, which was built in the High Middle Ages. The name is derived from Latin ''niger'', meaning ...

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 Matthew Macklin (born 14 May 1982) is a British-Irish former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2016, and has since worked as a boxing manager and commentator. He challenged three times for middleweight world titles between 2011 and 2 ...

and Sebastian Zbik, Sturm lost his WBA title to Australian Daniel Geale. Geale's IBF title was also on the line.

IBF champion

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.

Super-middleweight

WBA (Super) champion

In 2016, Sturm defeated

Fedor Chudinov Fedor Chudinov (born 15 September 1987) is a Russian professional boxer. He held the WBA (Super) super-middleweight title in 2016, having previously held the regular title from 2015 to 2016 and the interim title from 2014 to 2015. He is the brot ...

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 Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and ...

Doping allegations

Sturm broke the silence two months later with a post which he shared via

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

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.

Comeback

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.

Personal life

Sturm was born Adnan Ćatić in

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is o ...

, Germany. His parents, Ćamil and Zahida, are

ethnic Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzeg ...

who hail from

Blagaj Blagaj is a village in the south-eastern region of the Mostar basin, in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stands at the edge of Bišće plain and is one of the most valuable mixed urban and rural built environments in ...

, 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

Professional boxing record

Television viewership

Germany

US pay-per-view bouts

References

External links

* *
Adnan Catic (Felix Sturm) profile
at leverkusen.com
Felix Sturm – Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturm, Felix 1979 births World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Organization champions International Boxing Federation champions German people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent German sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in boxing Sportspeople from Leverkusen Olympic boxers of Germany Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Living people German male boxers Bosnia and Herzegovina male boxers Light-middleweight boxers World middleweight boxing champions World super-middleweight boxing champions