Boxing

THE STATE OF THE BOXING GAME IN GERMANY

By Olaf Schröder

16.06 - In a time that every sports fan seems to care for nothing else but football, it makes sense to have an in-depth look at the sport of boxing in Germany. The season break allows for taking a breather, but at the same time everybody prepares to jump back into the ring, both literally as well as figuratively. Here then is a run-down of the status quo of all weight division in Germany. For readers that are interested to keep abreast of German boxing, it's worth to check out www.german-boxing.de, which features the only German rankings in existence. Updated every monthly, all boxers holding a German licence are listed.

At heavyweight, thanks to the proliferation of sanctioning bodies - or, like one is inclined to say: The biggest desease of boxing - it's like with busses: You wait forever, but when the champions do finally come, they come by the dozen. Luan Krasniqi, 20-0 (10), is the first German European champion since Jürgen Blin lost the title in 1972. However, the chances of him ever dominating the world look about as slim as those of Timo Hoffmann, 24-2 (14). And despite the fact that four alphabet crowns have found a home in Germany, neither WBB champion Willi Fischer, WBF beltholder Alexander Jacob (who came out of retirement as a last-minute-sub to win the crown) nor IBU titlist Adnan Serin is anywhere near world-class - in fact all of them would be hard pressed to rule Europe. Of course, we do have world-class foreigners plying their trade in Germany like the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, the WBO champion, but will either of them achieve the breakthrough in the all-important US market? There are at least as many doubters as there are believers. The most talented and unbeaten guys coming up are also non-Germans like Cuba's Juan Carlos Gomez, the ex-WBC cruiserweight ruler, Sinan Samil Sam or Cengiz Koc, the latter of the Turkish duo however possessing German citizenship, or Romanian Constantin Onofrei. Thus, even though the heavyweights represent the most active division with 38 boxers listed in the most recent ratings, we are still waiting for the next, true Max Schmeling.

When German champion Rüdiger May and International German champion Alexander Petkovic clash over 12 rounds next month with the WBC International title on the line, we will find out who the best temporary cruiserweight in Germany will be. Whether we will find out who the next star will be, however, remains in doubt as neither has or looks a sure bet to set the world on fire. Berlin-based Lee Manuel Osie seems the best of the rest, but is not considered a true hometowner yet, Firat Arslan was too inactive recently and too tentative in the ring when it mattered, Turhan Altunkaya has contested only one 8-rounder in his 8th year as a pro and doesn't seem too serious about boxing anyway. Conclusion: The cruiserweight divison looks bleak and is a far cry away from the days of German world title holders Bott, Rocchigiani or Michalczewski (only briefly).

Above mentioned Dariusz Michalczewski is still "The Man" at lightheavyweight and after settling his differences with Graciano Rocchigiani is without a peer in Germany, possibly in the world with the exception of a certain Mr. Jones from Florida. Thomas Ulrich is rebuilding from his knockout loss to Glencoffe Johnson and gets a defining fight when challenging European champion Yawe Davis in August. It will be on to world level or back to the drawing board, respectively retirement for Ulrich. German champion Norbert Nieroba already seems to slip slowly but surely into retirement and only unbeaten Stipe Drews, Robert Stieglitz and Zsolt Erdei look good bets for the future. In the long run, Kai Kurzawa is worth watching and the only of those four who is truly German.

The toast of the moment, of course, are the supermiddleweights. Sven Ottke is IBF champion, Danilo Häussler European champion, Markus Beyer the No. 1 WBC contender and Jürgen Brähmer the man of the future. Add Mario Veit, whose only loss in 35 was a quickie KO by Joe Calzaghe, and you have five top guys with a combined record of 128-2 (61). Any nation in the world can beat that statistic? The flip side of the coin, however, is that there seems nobody on the horizon to crack those Top 5 for quite some time.

You think we are as strong one division south by just peaking at the German ratings? Well, peak again, because something's wrong with our middleweights beyond their glossy records. Armand Krajnc is not German anyway, his former victim Bert Schenk doesn't seem to have the edge anymore - if he ever had it, that is - because he's fighting guys on his comeback that are actually worse than those he fought when turning pro, unbeaten Dirk Dzemski keeps collecting minor belts like stamps, but when you have a hard time in a NBA title bout and whispers about weak whiskers swirl around, where is the future at age 30? Stephan Trabant is almost 10 years younger, is the IBF junior world champion for what it's worth, but has yet to find his way to a boxing ring in '02. The only new face is former Olympian Felix Sturm (aka Adnan Catic), but at 11-0 (5) it's too early to tell really.

Our two top fighters at superwelter are both 10-0 and their names are Lukas Konecny (son of 42-year-old current International Czech cruiserweight champion Milan) and Koren Gevor. No matter how good they turn out to be, they will have a hard time catching the imagination of the German masses simply because they are not German.

European welterweight champion Michel Trabant sets the standard in his division and a talked-about fight for the WBO title should tell us more about him. Is he just a lazy guy with some guts who had the luck of catching Christian Bladt on a bad night to win the title or, as some of his earlier performances suggested, can he really fight and make fans feel controversial about him? The jury is still out. On the national front, International German champion Turgay Uzun, 8-3-2 (4), is decent, but little more.

The welterweight situation is almost mirrored at lightwelter with Oktay Urkal leading the pack by far. With his heroic struggle against Kostya Tszyu it would be a shame if he didn't get another chance. And despite having no punching power, Urkal is nobodies pushover at the highest level. For International German champion Faik Inan, 7-0 (1), the future remains open, but he should upgrade his activity level if he is ever going to achieve anything.

Not since the long gone-by days of René Weller did Germany have a better pack of prospects at lightweight as today. Kevin Wieding, Andreas Kotelnik and Thomas Lesnik are all undefeated in 11, ten and nine fights respectively. They are young, too, and the future lies in their hands. If only people would notice the little guys… That was exactly the problem of WBO champion Artur Grigorjan: He defended his title numerous times in Germany, never lost a fight - but still nobody on the street has ever heard of him. Instead of going for a WBC, WBA or IBF championship and fighting men that one has actually heard of, his promoters opted to keep him in the shadow until they don't need him no more. That time seems to have come, as rumours of a challenge to Paul Spadafora popped up. Great management…

Don't look below lightweight in Germany, however. There are only three more active boxers listed and even though they are all undefeated, they are also far away from contesting any kind of meaningfull title.

 


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