Newz Forum: BOXING: Sven Ottke retires

Sven Ottke retained his WBA and IBF super middleweight titles with a one-sided win over Sweden's Armand Kranjc and then announced his retirement.The decision by the 36-year-old German surprised even his manager.Ottke was simply too fast for Kranjc, charging in and landing a variety of punches before dancing out of range.His final fight appeared to rebuke the speculation that he was losing the nimble footwork and speed that has marked his career.



Very few new about it and it seems it was a decision he and his wife decided already sometime ago. Not even Mr. Wilfried Sauerland could hold the emontion of the moment when some tears showed on his face, including Ottke's long time trainer Mr. Ulli Wegner, who was awarded by the Champion with the keys of a brand new Z4 BMW as present for all his support and cares during his whole professional career.



To give just some figures Ottke became a professional fighter on March 22nd 1997 after a long and successful amateur record. On October 24th 1998 he beat Charles Brewer to become new IBF World Champion. After this he made 16 successful defenses of his IBF Title against some Top fighter like Thomas Tate (wtko11), Glencoffe Johnson (wud12), Silvio Branco (wud12), James Crawford (wko8), James Butler (wud12), Anthony Mundine (wko10), Joe Gatti (wtko9) until March 15th 2003 when he fought against WBA Champion Byron Mitchell winning by majority point decision and becoming Unified World Champion.


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