In the tenth fight of his professional career, the future world champion Felix Sturm competed against the American Robert Davies, who had only won one of his previous 14 duels. Sturm won on points. In the tenth fight of his professional career, the future world champion Wladimir Klitschko competed against the American Gilberto Williamson, who had previously lost twice. Klitschko won early. (Williamson boxed a few weeks later against Vladimir’s older brother Vitali, who would also become world champion.)
A talented boxer’s first few bouts are often not about that: boxing. It’s often more about gaining a few experiences, but above all a flawless record that should sound scary – and which should be worth a lot of money later in the big fights. A talented boxer’s first few bouts are usually all about business.
Abass Baraou is 25 years old and wants to become world champion one day. In his tenth professional fight this Friday he will face Jack Culcay, who is nine years older, who was already world champion and who wants to become world champion again. Baraou says: “I’m not interested in my statistics. But I also don’t come just to gain experience.” He says, “I’m just excited about myself in this fight, how I’ll dominate it.”
The German boxing teams have realized that they can no longer afford everything
Baraou and Culcay are not among the best-known athletes in Germany, their duel in super welterweight will not attract millions in front of the television (Sport1 will broadcast from 9 p.m.). And yet their duel is trend-setting: it could free German boxing from its lethargy, because a duel like this has not existed for a long time: a duel in which it is not predictable who will win. The agile, experienced Culcay who wants to position himself again for a world championship fight? Or Baraou with his quick fists, who could come on a steep path to the first world championship fight?
“Boxing matches at a bad level take place all the time,” says Horst-Peter Strickrodt, the manager of the Berlin Agon team. With the duel between his boxer Culcay and Baraou from the Sauerland team, he wanted to “get rid of what has ruined German boxing in recent years: that everything was hyped, that every duel was awarded a title, but that immediately one of the fighters fell over like anything else. ” The viewer, says Strickrodt, “at some point just felt ripped off, he’s now really mad”. At some point, says Strickrodt, no more channels wanted to broadcast boxes, the money ran out, the level dropped even more. Now Strickrodt also sounds angry: “With the duel between Jack and Abass, we want to try to reorient German boxing.”
Strickrodt does not name Sauerland as the culprit for the decline in German boxing, he is too polite for that. He doesn’t even have to emphasize that – at Sauerland they also know that they can no longer allow themselves everything. “Under normal circumstances we probably wouldn’t have talked about this duel,” says Frederick Ness, who negotiated with Strickrodt as Sauerland advisor, “but we know that this duel serves German boxing as a whole. We know that there is a lot of catching up to do. “
The two sides had already talked about a duel in February, at that time Sauerland did not want to rush anything. Ness also admits that the Corona crisis resulted in “constellations that might otherwise not have happened”. This includes that the German boxing teams work together, if only because there are no travel requirements or quarantine rules. Ness speaks of discussions about further high-quality duels: “We have to move closer together in German boxing if we want to offer something again.” Strickrodt says: “The question is: Do we want to rethink German boxing? Then we have to continue with it right after this duel.”
Who will win on Friday? Ness says the odds are fifty-fifty; Strickrodt believes that “the famous form of the day” could be decisive. Baraou says: “I am excited to see how the day will go. But I am sure that I will enjoy it.”
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