Professional Career
On 27 January 2001, Sturm made his debut as a professional boxer facing Antonio Ribeiro from Angola. Six months earlier he had qualified for the Olympic Games in Sydney, but lost his fight to future middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.
After 16 successful matches, Sturm won the WBO Inter-Continental middleweight title on 10 May 2003. On 13 September 2003, he replaced the injured Bert Schenk in a WBO title bout against Argentinian Hectór Javier Velazco and won the match. Sturm defended the title against Rubén Varón Fernández from Spain.
On 5 June 2004 in Las Vegas, Sturm faced Oscar De la Hoya in a defense of his WBO middleweight championship. All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for de la Hoya, while Harold Lederman scored the fight 115-113 for Sturm. Compubox counted Sturm as landing 234 of 541 punches, while counting De La Hoya as landing 188 of 792. Sturm protested the decision with the Nevada Athletic Commission to no avail.
On 11 March 2006, Sturm defeated Maselino Masoe for the WBA middleweight title by a unanimous decision. Sturm then lost his title against former champion Javier Castillejo via TKO on 15 July 2006 but won it back from Castillejo in a rematch on 28 April 2007 by a twelve round unanimous decision in Oberhausen, which he earned after defeating Gavin Topp by TKO in the sixth round.
Sturm became a three-time world champion after defeating Castillejo in the rematch.
He also fought Randy Griffin twice, drawing with him in their first fight and winning their second fight by unanimous decision.
On November 2, 2008, Sturm retained his WBA middleweight title via unanimous decision (118-110, 118-110 and 119-109) over Sebastian Sylvester. He improved to 31-2, with one draw, while Sylvester fell to 31-3.
On July 11, 2009 he defended his title against Khoren Gevor in Nuerburg, Germany in 12 rounds.
After over a year of inactivity Sturm came back to defend his WBA title against Giovanni Lorenzo, with the winner becoming the WBA "Super" champion. Sturm defeated Lorenzo by a twelve round unanimous decision with the judges giving a comfortable 117-111 twice and 118-111 on the scorecards.
On the 25th of June 2011 he defended his title in the Lanxness Arena against Matthew Macklin of Ireland. Sturm won the fight on a controversial split decision.
He finished 2011 battling to a draw against undefeated British contender Martin Murray.
In his latest fight on April 13, 2012, Sturm beat Sebastian Zbik via brutal TKO in the 9th round something WBC Champion Julio César Chávez, Jr. was not able to achieve.
Sturm took on IBF Champion Daniel Geale in a fight that was arguably his toughest challenge since Oscar De La Hoya in 2004, on September 1, 2012, in Oberhausen, Germany. After 12 tough rounds, he lost the fight by split decision, his first loss in 6 years.
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