By Alexey Sukachev

Porsche Arena, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany - In high impact contest, former WBO super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz (47-4-1, 27KOs) and former WBA/IBF middleweight champion Felix Sturm (39-4-3, 18KOs) fought their way to a twelve round split draw. Sturm was coming off a decision loss to Sam Soliman and moving up for the first time from the middleweight limit. The scores were 115-113 for Stieglitz, 115-113 for Sturm and 114-114.

It was one the best German collision of 2014 and one of increasingly rare intra-state encounters. German fighters aren't expected to duke it out with each other. At least, if those fights take place indeed, that's always a surprise, even a sensation, given a recent (actually a long-time) trend of picking softer opponents for multiple title defenses on the native soil. That was the path, which both Robert Stieglitz and Felix Sturm followed for longest time spans of their respective careers.

Stieglitz, 33, is a two-time super middleweight titleholder, reigning for three years between August 2009 and August 2012, then again from March 2013 till March 2014. Both of his title reigns were marked as starting and ending points with a memorable trilogy against another German - Arthur Abraham - but were also filled with inferior fighters like Isaac Ekpo or Yuzo Kiyota.

Sturm, 35, reigned as a middleweight champion for more than ten years with short breaks (firstly in 2003-2004 with the WBO belt in his backpack, then in 2006 and in 2007-2012 with the WBA belt in possession, and finally in 2013-2014 with the IBF title) but faced fellow countrymen only twice - Sebastyan Sylvester in 2008 and Khoren Gevor in 2009.

Both combatants were eager to prove each other superiority. TBRB #3 ranked 168lber Stieglitz, a naturally bigger fighter of the two, moved forward and tried to bully a slimmer, calmer opponent. He was very aggressive in the opening round, but Sturm, while inactive on the offensive, was superior with his defensive moves.

In the second, former middleweight king has found a soft spot in Stieglitz's defense, and that was a hole for his right hand. He landed it in succession in round two. He also took the third stanza albeit it was much closer. Stieglitz paid back in the next couple of rounds with supreme aggression. The combat was very intense and fought in spurts, both belligerents giving their all. Stieglitz hurt Sturm with a sneaky left hook in the fifth but that was a rare accident.

TBRB #8 middleweight Sturm found some resources to become even more

flexible in the midst of the fight, as rounds six to eight belonged to

him. He was effectively repulsing Robert's attacks and was quite

effective with both his jab and his right hand.

Sensing the fight was tending into Sturm's favour, Stieglitz pressed up again in the ninth and started to throw lengthy, powerful series to hurt Sturm. Sturm was nowhere near any danger, but he felt signs of fatigue and he couldn't compete with the same level of intensity in the championship rounds, still taking the last stanza on a sheer will.

After all was said, done and given, judges scored is a split draw as it was announced by Jimmy Lennon Jr. Franck Michael Maass had it 115-13 - for Stieglitz, Egidiu Piseddu awarded it 113-115 - to Sturm, while Holger Wiemann saw a dead even fight: 114-114. BoxingScene had it slightly 113-115 - for WBA #5 super middleweight and IBF #4 middleweight Felix Sturm. Stieglitz was ranked #1 by the WBO and #12 by the IBF, coming in.

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"Killer Queen" Susi Kentikian (34-2, 17 KOs) defended her WBA flyweight title for the fourth time in one of her sweetest and toughest career performances. Kentikian scored a very close unanimous decision over 39-year old Japanese veteran Noko Fujioka, who suffered her first loss and is now 12-1, with 6 KOs).

Fujioka, a two-time, two-division female champion, was coming down in weight, abandoning her WBA super flyweight title for a chance (and money) to fight one of the German's finest. She also held WBC minimumweight title before. Scores were: 96-94, 97-94 and 97-93 - for the Germany-based Armenian in what was en even fight indeed.

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22-year old IBF Youth cruiserweight champion Dennis Ronnert (22-0, 15 KOs) got his third win this year, and the first one coming by way of knockout. IBF #8 German also acquired a vacant German International cruiserweight title with a quick demolition of Hungarian journeyman Laszlo Hubert (39-15, 27 KOs).

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Hard-hitting but fragile German heavyweight Steffen Kretschmann (19-2, 17 KOs), who suffered two kayo losses in 2009/2010 to Russian veteran Denis Bakhtov, stopped Georgian David Gegeshidze (13-7-1, 3 KOs) in four rounds to retain his German international heavyweight title.

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IBF #12 Montenegrin light heavyweight Konni Konrad (21-1-1, 10 KOs), 29, effectively outpointed rugged Latvian opponent Olegs Fedotovs (18-17, 12 KOs) over eight rounds with a unanimous decision.

Konrad's (real name of the boxer is Mevludin Cokovic) only loss was in May 2006 against future world champion Denis Inkin (who is retired since 2009). Konrad had missed four years off the ring since that loss, then had another two-year long break before finally getting back to the ring. Fedotovs suffered his fourth consecutive loss.

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Other results:

Maurice Weber (21-1-1, 8 KOs) UD 8 Gary Abajian (25-19-1, 9 KOs)

Tom Pahlmann (6-0, 2 KOs) UD 6 Jindrich Velecky (19-30, 18 KOs)

Domenic Von Chrzanowski (15-0-1, 8 KOs) TKO 3 Miroslav Kvocka (9-41-1, 3 KOs)

Alex Born (6-0, 2 KOs) TKO 1 Aleksandar Jankovic (7-27, 6 KOs). Jankovic was down twice.