A court in Cologne, Germany, has sentenced former middleweight and super middleweight world champion Felix Sturm to a three year prison term on tax evasion charges. Sturm was found guilty of trying to hide funds in Switzerland to dodge about one million Euros in taxes for the years 2008.
He was also convicted of doping for his 2016 world title fight against Fedor Chudinov. The 41-year-old Sturm denied the charge and suggested that he was affected by tainted meat. Authorities didn’t buy it, saying the substance “stanozolol” is not used in animals as clenbuterol is.
Sturm will get credit for eight months already served. He had been planning a comeback fight against Arthur Abraham.
Too bad. It does make one wonder how many other boxers are using PED’s. The rewards for success at a high level in boxing are so great that I would not be surprised that some world champions and top contenders are juiced. It is only human nature to seek an advantage. In addition, boxers may believe that their opponents are on the stuff and using it themselves is the only way to level the playing field.
Agree with that. Wonder whether it becomes a case of do it yourself or get left behind
Hmmmm, I recall another fighter with a slap on the wrist over eating some tainted meat. Politics and payoffs in the sport deemed this specific fighter a different kind of lighter punishment. Yet, some act like it never happened (snicker) and support him all the way to wealth and stardom.
Felix Sturm had his moments in boxing especially when he won in my eyes fighting Oscar De Lay Hoya back in the hey day. Oscar was gifted the decision. You may feel different on the outcome of the fight.
Some of us break the law and never get busted. Some of us break the law, get busted, and head to jail for a while with a haunting felony on one’s record. Some of us keep our noses clean and stay afloat in this murky water of written laws of the land. We are human and make mistakes. It’s how we respond to mistakes to improve from them, move on, and teach others. I have had plenty of stories to tell my children at the dinner table in hopes they learn from my past good/bad judgments.
So now he is a jail bird just like alot of American fighters.
I can understand the tax evasion charge, but since when did the courts in Europe start imprisoning people for using steroids?
Tax evasion? Corporations and the rich do tax evasion all the time but you never see them doing jail time.
JC hard to believe the fighters who seemingly had things going and screwed there lives up
Most boxers test the limits on what they can take and when it will be detected.
Hope other boxers learn from his lesson, dont skip out on taxes.
I never say a fighter was cheated in fights since the judges have the say, but his fight with DeLaHoya really seemed to be won by him. I wonder what his career would have looked like with that win.
What waste of talent. These boxers simply can’t stop going to jail.
People hated Floyd for wanting Olympic style testing that should have been implemented already. What is it going to take for boxing & MMA to get serious, someone dying?