According to Der Bild, former middleweight and super middleweight title holder Felix Sturm was sentenced to three years in German prison by the Cologne Regional Court. Age 41, Sturm wasfound guilty of some, but not all the charges he faced for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion. Sturm was found guilty of withholding a total of around $1.1 million from the tax authorities in the years 2008 to 2010 and 2013. On the other hand, Sturm was acquitted of tax evasion allegations for 2011 and 2012. 

 

Sturm has not fought since 2016, but there was talk of him coming back to face another former champion, Arthur Abraham. Sturm-Abraham would have been a German super fight, one of the biggest domestic fights ever, but the two missed each other due to working for rival promoters. Sturm is 40-5-3, with a WBO middleweight reign from 2003 to 2004. That ended with a controversial loss to Oscar De La Hoya, who had already agreed in advance to a four-belt unification fight vs. Bernard Hopkins if he beat Sturm. The judges cooperated with De La Hoya's plan. Sturm had a long run as a secondary WBA title holder, which eventually matured into a full WBA title. He also held the IBF middleweight title in 2013-2014, and the WBA super middleweight title in 2016. Sturm had many big European fights, but his accomplishments have been marred by issues with performance enhancing substances.