Last week ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner decided to quit his engagement with the German boxing commission (BDB). The BDB didn’t strip his license as falsely reported. Öner himself left the BDB as Wilfried Sauerland and the Klitschkos had done before him..
“I didn’t consider this to be a big thing”, states Öner. “That I laid down my BDB membership and my license was just a consequence of the mistreatment of BDB president Dr. Bodo Eckmann who pretends to represent all German boxers but only defends the interests of one German promoter, namely Klaus-Peter Kohl and Universum Box-Promotion. To my mind Dr. Eckmann is unworthy of leading a big and reputable federation like the BDB.
Of course, I knew that Sauerland had had problems with the BDB before but I thought they might change when I founded ARENA Box-Promotion. And although there are lots of great people working for the BDB who asked me to stay I had no other chance but leave after being attacked by Eckmann in public.
Of course, all my boxers leave the BDB with me. Now that they don’t represent ARENA or Sauerland they should maybe change their name in ‘Universum boxing commission’.
However this doesn’t affect my business in any way. I will continue to hold shows everywhere in the world. I don’t need the BDB and their licenses for that. If they don’t want our sanctioning fees I will pay them to some other commission. I don’t care.”
The quarrels between Öner and the BDB go back to February 2004 when Sinan Samil Sam lost his European heavyweight championship controversially to then stable-mate Luan Krasniqi.
“It was a good fight and Luan did a great job”, says Öner. “But Sinan won the fight. But what was even worse than the decision is that the BDB and Dr. Eckmann wanted to cancel Sinan’s license before the fight without any reason. There was no medical evidence for Sinan being not able to fight but Dr. Eckmann – a physician himself – wanted to prevent him from fighting anyways. I somehow managed to solve the problem back then but it led to Sinan losing the fight which cost me and him millions of Euros as he was on his way to the world championship back then. I haven’t addressed this issue for a long time as I didn’t want to bring any unease to the BDB. But know that I left them my attorneys are checking whether we can sue them and get compensation for the damages of that time. We may take legal action soon.”