Sven "the legend" Ottke
Posted: 13 Oct 2006, 10:33
As this weekend will produce a (truly) united super-middleweight champion for the first time ever, let's for a moment comemorate the man who came closest to achieving this feat in the recent past: the great German super-middleweight Sven "the legend" Ottke.
After an extraordinarily sucessful amateur career, Ottke came to professional boxing late but soon won a belt against the -- at the time -- world's strongest super-middleweight beltholder, the US American Charles Brewer. Ottke defended the title a total of 21 times, against highly regarded opponents like Glencoffe Johnson, Anthony Mundine, Charles Brewer (refight), Thomas Tate (twice), James Butler, Silvio Branco -- many of them future beltholders themselves. At his peak -- around 1999/2000 - Ottke was near-impossible to beat, combining excellent defense with outstanding footspeed and ring generalship.
In 2003 -- when Ottke was already well beyond his peak -- he unified the WBA and IBF titles against Byron Mitchell. Another unification fight with the third major beltholder - Eric Lucas -- was in the works but did not come about after Lucas lost his title to Ottke's stablemate Markus Beyer. Ottke's following fights, against Mads Larsen and Robin Reid, showed that he had slowed markedly and he duly retired. Until the end, however, Ottke fought top-notch competition, in contrast to so many other paper-champs who take the easy route and accept only fights they are sure to win.
This weekend either Mikkel Kessler or Markus Beyer will achieve the feat that circumstances did not permit Ottke to achieve: unify the two major super-middleweight belts -- WBC and WBA -- and emerge as the truly unified champion of the division. Props to them. If Beyer wins -- and he certainly has a chance -- questions about his legitimacy will remain, however, as there have been too many lacklustre and doubtful performances in his career. These quibbles do not apply to the bout's favorite, however, the great Dane Mikkel Kessler.
If Kessler wins, he will be a worthy successor to Sven Ottke as the dominant fighter of the super-middleweight division.
Cheers,
P
After an extraordinarily sucessful amateur career, Ottke came to professional boxing late but soon won a belt against the -- at the time -- world's strongest super-middleweight beltholder, the US American Charles Brewer. Ottke defended the title a total of 21 times, against highly regarded opponents like Glencoffe Johnson, Anthony Mundine, Charles Brewer (refight), Thomas Tate (twice), James Butler, Silvio Branco -- many of them future beltholders themselves. At his peak -- around 1999/2000 - Ottke was near-impossible to beat, combining excellent defense with outstanding footspeed and ring generalship.
In 2003 -- when Ottke was already well beyond his peak -- he unified the WBA and IBF titles against Byron Mitchell. Another unification fight with the third major beltholder - Eric Lucas -- was in the works but did not come about after Lucas lost his title to Ottke's stablemate Markus Beyer. Ottke's following fights, against Mads Larsen and Robin Reid, showed that he had slowed markedly and he duly retired. Until the end, however, Ottke fought top-notch competition, in contrast to so many other paper-champs who take the easy route and accept only fights they are sure to win.
This weekend either Mikkel Kessler or Markus Beyer will achieve the feat that circumstances did not permit Ottke to achieve: unify the two major super-middleweight belts -- WBC and WBA -- and emerge as the truly unified champion of the division. Props to them. If Beyer wins -- and he certainly has a chance -- questions about his legitimacy will remain, however, as there have been too many lacklustre and doubtful performances in his career. These quibbles do not apply to the bout's favorite, however, the great Dane Mikkel Kessler.
If Kessler wins, he will be a worthy successor to Sven Ottke as the dominant fighter of the super-middleweight division.
Cheers,
P
