Abass Baraou once promised Chancellor Angela Merkel that he would become world boxing champion. Now he is the first German to hold the belt of a recognized association in seven years. But he doesn’t just want to be a role model as an athlete.
Leaving Las Vegas as world champion is still every prizefighter’s ultimate dream. The gambling metropolis in the American desert has been considered the Mecca of professional fistfighting for decades. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Mike Tyson cemented this reputation with their memorable title wins, as did Floyd Mayweather, Oscar de la Hoya and “Sugar” Ray Leonard in the easier categories. Many other greats could be named, but so far there has not been a German among them. That’s history now. Because Abass Baraou joins the gallery of champions. The strange thing about the premiere, however, is that the 30-year-old didn’t have to let his fast fists fly in Las Vegas.
What sounds a bit dubious can be easily explained by the regulations of the world associations. On August 23rd, Baraou dethroned the favored Cuban Yoenis Tellez, 25, in the super welterweight division as the so-called interim world champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA) in the arena of the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida. In order to receive the unrestricted status of a champion, the reigning titleholder of this weight class, the American Terence Crawford, had to at least get into the ring 21 days later in Las Vegas for the planned “duel of the giants” in the super middleweight against the Mexican Canelo Alvarez. When the gong sounds for the first round, the WBA had assured Baraou in writing that he would be the sole titleholder in the limit of 69.853 kilograms.
Baraou didn’t miss the opportunity to be there for the unification fight for the World Championship belts of the four recognized world associations. He absolutely wanted to experience first hand the moment of his enthronement as world champion, to which the son of Togolese parents, who was born in Aalen in the Ostalb district, had geared everything since the beginning of his boxing career 17 years ago. Amid a record crowd of more than 70,000 spectators, he was sitting in the front row at Allegiant Stadium on the evening of September 13th when, as the bell rang, his entire body was suddenly filled with a feeling of joy the likes of which he had never felt before.
Lots of difficulties after switching to the professional camp
Even six weeks after this “beautiful shock feeling,” he still feels inspired by it. With a beaming smile, Baraou tells WELT AM SONNTAG during a visit home to Oberhausen, where his mother moved with him, then nine years old, when she separated from his father, who lived in London: “I still can’t describe this feeling today, I was so beside myself with happiness. Las Vegas certainly also contributed to this. To be named the real world champion there, of all places, is something very special, even if I was there “I didn’t have to lift a finger.”
Baraou describes the way he fought his way through the shady boxing business to the World Cup throne as “crazy and crazy”. With which he finally kept his promise to Angela Merkel. During her visit to the Federal Training Center in Kienbaum in July 2017, he assured the Chancellor while handing over a boxing glove: “I will be world champion.”
As a sports soldier and amateur boxer with the rank of European champion, Baraou wanted to realize his wish in the same year. But as third place in the World Cup, he wasn’t granted that. But he didn’t lose sight of his vision, regardless of the many difficulties he faced after switching to the professional ranks.
With admirable tenacity, passionate sacrifice and an unwavering belief in himself, Baraou made courageous decisions whenever he felt resignation and his career stalled. So he said goodbye to the Sauerland boxing stable in Berlin, where he made his professional debut in April 2018 under coaching legend Ulli Wegner, and after the controversial point defeat – his only one in 18 fights – against his compatriot Jack Culcay in August 2020, he moved to London to continue his development in a new environment under the renowned coach Adam Booth.
When his performance development also stagnated on the British island, he asked where he could go to the USA in order to make his ambition a reality. His Irish manager Paul Gibson finally brought him together with Cuban trainer Jorge Rubio, who runs his own boxing gym in Miami, in the spring of 2023. After the first flying visit to the sunny state, Baraou decided: “I’m packing my things and starting over again overseas.”
Negotiations for a “Big Fight” in Las Vegas
It’s not just his World Cup triumph that proves that he was absolutely right with his decision. Under Rubio, Baraou says, above all, he regained the fun of boxing. And he continues to enthuse: “Jorge has made me a more versatile athlete, he always challenges me at the highest level, because that’s what I need and want. To give the ultimate unconditionally, that’s what I was born for, that’s what I live for, that’s what I bleed for.” And that’s also because he wants to be his own role model, as he doesn’t believe in other people’s hero worship. “I would be happy if a father would say to his son: ‘You have to be like Abass, not just as a boxer, but also as a person.’”
He deserves full credit for his role as a role model – and not just since he has proven himself to be a world-class boxer. When Baraou talks about the racist hostility that he had to endure at a young age during integration in his country of birth, whereby he never let it discourage him, but rather tirelessly strived to be successful for Germany as an athlete one day, it shows an exemplary character. His World Cup success still requires special recognition.
Not only because it is the first unrestricted title win by a German boxer in more than seven years and the only one in the super welterweight division since 1976 – at that time Eckhard Dagge had immortalized himself as the title holder. In fact, Baraou is only the second fighter in this country to be crowned champion overseas. Max Schmeling was the first to achieve this. The heavyweight defeated local hero Jack Sharkey by disqualification in the fourth round on June 12, 1930 in New York.
But what happens next at Baraou? It is unlikely that he will be seen in action again this year. Negotiations for a “Big Fight” in Las Vegas, which is his most fervent wish, are now in full swing. “And it looks like there will be an announcement about this in the next few days,” says Baraou without giving details. In any case, it is an “incredibly pleasant situation” for him to be no longer the hunter, but the hunted, who now decides for himself who he can box against next and then also for a lucrative exchange.
