Towering Aussie southpaw Jamie "Mr. Business" Pittman came into last night's WBA Middleweight challenge against reigning champion Felix Sturm with an armload of regional title belts and an undefeated record as the pair clashed at Burg-Waechter Castello in Dusseldorf, Germany.

For the first two frames, the 26 year old challenger found a home for his efforts against the perplexed Sturm, who was coming off three difficult title defenses in 2007 and is not used to facing neither a taller opponent nor a southpaw.

But Pittman's good run was short-lived as a clash of heads produced a severe laceration above the New South Wales stylist's right eye and soon Sturm was finding a home for his precise left jab as Pittman was unable to see from the injured eye.

The big hearted challenger from Down Under gave it his best but was unable to overcome the handicap and the champion produced knockdowns in the fifth and sixth frames before stopping Pittman for good at 2:34 of the seventh round.

Sturm retains his title for the third time in his second reign as WBA Middleweight Champion and sees his record to 29-2-1 (13) while Pittman, fighting for the first time outside of Australia, suffers his first loss and goes to 16-1 (7).

WIBF Light Flyweight Champ Julia Sahin, 20-0 (2), was also on the bill and the 34 year old from Cologne banged out a hard fought defense over Puerto Rican southpaw Yahaira Martinez, 7-2 (4), after ten rounds.

Super middle Juergen Braehmer, 31-1 (25), won his fourth in a row, stopping France's Karim Bennama, 17-10-2 (4), in the ninth of a scheduled ten rounder while fighting at light heavyweight and Hamburg's middleweight hot prospect Gennady Golovkin, 11-0 (9), posted a solid eight round points win over competitive Canadian light middle Ian Gardner, 20-3 (8), who over the last seven years had only lost to future world champions Chad Dawson and Arthur Abraham after stepping up in weight.

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Boxing News Tags: Arthur Abraham, Chad Dawson, Felix Sturm, Gennady Golovkin, German Boxing, Ian Gardner, Jamie Pittman, Juergen Braehmer, Julia Sahin, Karim Bennama, Yahaira Martinez