Boxing preview: Dimitri Sartison v Robert Stieglitz

The “Super 6” was supposed to sort out the Middleweight division by putting 6 of the best against each other in a round robin type competition to find the best fighter at 168lbs. Due to all the multiple pull outs, injuries, delays and scheduling complications it's been a somewhat a failed experiment, mainly because at the end of it we still won't know who is the best in the division. What we have learned is that Jermain Taylor shouldn't have been in the competition, Arthur Abraham isn't a great Super Middleweight, Andre Ward looks to have something about him, Carl Froch is taking the mantle from Glen Johnson as a road warrior (and when the two meet we are in for a cracking fight) and that those outside of the Super 6 are probably in a solid place. Last weekend Lucian Bute beat Brian Magee in a contest that was tougher than many expected it to be to retain his IBF title and add the WBC Silver Title to his collection and in a few weeks we'll have a unified champion at the division. The Super 6, for all it was worth, has left us none the wiser on who is the best and tied up some of the best for far too long.

April 9^th is one of those days that those remaining in the Super 6 will all be thinking about. Not one of the “Super 6” (or rather Fab 4) fights, though Robert Stieglitz, the WBO Champion faces WBA champion Dimitri Sartison in a unification bout that somewhat over shadows the whole idea of the Super 6. Although neither man can genuinely claim to be the division's #1 fighter they will be the divisions only unified champion (until the Super 6 final) and that will say a lot.

Stieglitz is the more experienced professional with 41 fights behind him and a record of 39-2 (23). He is originally from Russia though has been based in Germany for his entire professional career, in fact 35 of his fights have taken place in Germany with 39 of them taking place in Europe. He's a skilled operator with plenty of power on his shots though he does lack true KO power and also lacks a solid chin, both of his losses coming by stoppage. Stieglitz's losses have come to 2 decent fighters in Alejandro Berrio (second meeting) and and Librado Andrade though both fighters are somewhat limited and beatable, at best both are a step behind world level.

To date the best wins for Stieglitz have been against Alejandro Berrio (TKO11) and Karoly Balzsay (also TKO11) though as champion he has been a little bit safety conscious in choice of opponents. He has defended against Ruben Eduardo Acosta, Eduard Gutknecht and Enrique Ornelas and despite looking impressive at times with good movement, good hand speed and credible power he can be put into places he doesn't like. Ornelas forced the action and really had Stieglitz troubled late on despite being limited himself. At 5'11'' he's not particularly tall for the division and at 29 he is still quite young and could probably recover better from a loss (despite it being his 3^rd) than Sartison would though he certainly wouldn't want to find out.

Dimitri Sartison has the professional record of 27-1 (17) giving him a slightly better KO ratio though neither man is a mega puncher. Like Stieglitz he's from outside Germany originally (he was born in Kazakhstan) though has fought primarily in Germany with 22 fights there and 6 outside of Germany (though all in Europe). Again he's skilled though is a long way from genuine top tier world level as shown when he travelled to Denmark to face Mikkel Kessler in his only loss to date. Kessler won pretty much each of the opening 11 rounds clearly with a knock down coming in the 11^th and a knock out in the 12^th. Although he's by no means chinny, losing to Kessler is no big shame and he was tough enough to almost last the distance with the Dane the fact he was completely dominated by him says it all.

To date Sartison hasn't really got a big victory, the best wins he has to offer are probably over Gusmyr Perdomo (UD10) and more recently Khoren Gevor (UD12), the latter being his only defence to date. Sartison's route to the title has been a rather peculiar one, his loss to Kessler for the title he currently holds was followed by a few meaningless wins then he was given another chance to win the title. The odd thing about it was that the WBA had sanctioned the Andre Ward v Mikkel Kessler fight for the “Super” version of the title (Kessler's first fight in the Super 6) on the same night they had sanctioned Sartison's title tilt against Stjepan Bozic. Ward of course beat Kessler by Technical Decision whilst Sartison would stop Bozic to leave the WBA title split.

Although Sartison at a little over 5'9'' is tiny for a Super Middleweight he seems to carry weight around his waist and at 31 this will be his sink or swim moment. His amateur record is relatively impressive though, as we saw recently with Odlanier Solis, an amateur record means little, and Sartisons record as an amateur wasn't really comparable to Solis'.

Although both are skilled good fighters, they are both “only” good fighters. Neither man does anything exceptional though neither man does anything terrible, they are just “good” all rounders whilst Kessler for purposes of comparison is a “great” all rounder. Whilst the 3 losses combined between the 2 fighters have stoppages this is actually likely to go the distance as both men have only lost to better punchers than each other. Though Stieglitz is the better all rounder, he's younger and bigger and should probably take the decision in a close but technical battle. Although both men could hurt each other, it's not likely to be a hugely exciting fight.

The Super 6 may be 3 fights away from crowning their own unified champion though the Super Middleweight division is now in more of a mess than it was before the Super 6. Why Showtime didn't get Kessler (WBA), Froch (WBC), Bute (IBF), Stiegltiz (WBO) all involved in some way is a mystery. An 8 man straight knock out would have been less complicated and much more direct if they wanted to include Ward and Dirrell and maybe Andrade and Bika or Johnson (instead of Taylor and Abraham), though of course it was the idea of Kalle Sauerland to get his fighters some exposure in the US. Lesson learned hopefully by Showtime.

Since this was originally written Dimitri Sartison has been pulled out of the fight and replaced by Khoren Gevor.