The biggest arena in Hamburg, as the main fights two world championships in the middle and super middleweight, before to the tuning in of the audience a heavyweight European Championship. No, that's not the program with which the Universum Box-Promotion is celebrating its big comeback on Saturday (November 9, starting at 11 pm on ZDF). These were the fixtures, as in July 2010 for the last time a universe event was broadcast live on public television.
In its heyday, Universum was the largest boxing stable in Europe. Promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl and head coach Fritz Sdunek have made Dariusz Michalczewski, Felix Sturm, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko world champions.
Kohl has long withdrawn from the business, Sdunek has died in the meantime. Universe fell apart, in 2013 the insolvency proceedings were opened. Meanwhile, Ismail Özen-Otto, son-in-law of mail-order company Michael Otto, has brought the boxing stable back to life. His main contenders are Artem Harutyunyan, Toni Kraft and Agron Smakici. These are names that only hardcore boxing fans know so far.
Target: "double digit market share"
"Even the old universe started off small," says Özen-Otto at a press conference in his training gym near the Port of Hamburg. "Our goal is to grow slowly and build something new." He knows his boxers are not stars yet. Nevertheless, Harutyunyan must immediately convince the TV audience at ZDF.
Özen-Otto has spent a "double-digit market share" as a target. It is quite possible that he will reach this value. Finally, the event will be broadcast directly after the "Current Sports Studio", which will interest many people on Saturday after the Bundesliga top match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. But it remains a big task for Harutyunyan.
The 29-year-old, who only denies his eighth professional fight, is looking forward to it and feels, according to his own words, no particular pressure. "I already knew that from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and everybody looked at me because Germany had not won a medal for twelve years," says Harutyunyan. "I stood up and brought home a bronze."
I do not want to hear "construction fight"
Self-confidence is therefore not lacking in the new universe team. And also there are promising approaches. All main fighters had to undergo voluntary doping controls in advance. That too, as amazing as it sounds, is far from being a standard in professional boxing. Özen-Otto says it was not without pride that he cost over 45,000 euros.
An important and necessary step, but is that enough to convince the boxing fans and win new spectators for the sport?
Özen-Otto can not yet present world and European championships. As far as his boxers are not yet easy. Instead, Harutyunyan defends against the Russian Islam Dumanov his international title of the International Boxing Organization (IBO). Neither the unknown opponent nor the insignificant belt are real arguments to look at the fight. Nevertheless, it could be interesting because Harutyunyan and Dumanov are about equidistant from the world class. "I do not want to hear the word" construction fight ", Özen-Otto emphasizes again and again.
No home advantage
Instead, Universum relies on purely German duels at eye level. Universe boxer Toni Kraft gets to deal with Sauerland fighter Leon Bauer. Antonio Hoffmann beats Nick Klappert. Even for his main fighter Özen-Otto would like a German opponent committed, but neither Timo Schwarzkopf nor Rico Müller, who are placed in the national ranking before Harutyunyan, wanted to box against the native Armenians.
Christian Charisius / dpa
Toni Kraft, Artem Harutyunya, Ismail Özen-Otto and Leon Bauer (from left)
This shows what problems Özen-Otto encounters. As much as he tries to bring about a paradigm shift in boxing, it's hard to convince the rest of the industry of his ideas and actually realize the best possible fights. Even Özen-Otto's promise that there will be no home advantage at his events could be difficult to implement. What sounds natural, would actually be an innovation in boxing. Questionable judgments have severely damaged the image of sport in the past.
The question is, how does the promoter want to prevent his decisions from making wrong decisions? After all, he is not responsible for the judgments, but the associations and judges. "At least no representative of the boxing stable will be sitting at the official's table and constantly checking the scores, as was the case with Universum, Sauerland or the Klitschkos," says Özen-Otto.
The manager as a consultant
At this moment, Bernd Bönte, the longtime manager of the now retired Klitschko brothers, speaks up and intervenes: "The Klitschkos never had such a thing." Özen-Otto and Bönte engage in a short verbal battle. It is about interpretation sovereignty and perceived truths.
Bönte is a bit offside. He is an external consultant of ZDF and is supposed to rate the universe combat missions. The TV managers have committed Bönte, because the station had nine years no contact with professional boxing and is dependent on expert advice.
But is Bönte really an independent expert? With a newly founded company, he looks after a number of young aspiring boxers, including Leon Bauer, who will contest the second main battle on Saturday - against Toni Kraft, promoted by Özen-Otto.
Editor's note: The author worked from 2006 to 2013 for Arena Box-Promotion, first in the press department, later as managing director. Today, he is a volunteer for the Association of German Professional Boxers and the World Association WBC (World Boxing Council) operates and writes as a freelance journalist, among others for the SPIEGEL and the trade magazine "Boxing".