Just before two o'clock in the morning of Sunday morning, Ismail Özen-Otto stood in the crowded VIP area of the "Kuppel" event center in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld and explained why, in his view, the just ended fight night of his Universum Box Promotion was a complete success. It was so loud that the few remaining journalists grouped around him very closely and still hardly understood him.
Özen-Otto was satisfied with the course of the evening. Of course there are some possibilities for optimization here and there, but overall it was a successful event. He did not want to give a final assessment. "I would be pleased if you form your own opinion," he said firmly believing that the universe comeback could hardly be rated badly.
In fact, Özen-Otto has presented four entertaining and varied main fights. None of them had world level, but the promoter had not previously announced that. Instead, there were two duels - Antonio Hoffmann against Nick Klappert in Superwelter and Toni force against Leon Bauer in super middleweight - who would have been good German championships. But it was not national titles this evening.
"We knew we were taking a big risk"
The fact that the universe has "set standards" with the event, in which every other German boxing stable has to be measured ", as press spokesman Ali Ertan Toprak whispered about Özen-Otto's shoulder, actually only shows that Toprak has been relatively few in the past few years Visited stables. The sporting level was no higher than for example in Ulf Steinforth's SES boxing, the promotion of ex-boxer Alexander Petkovic and others.
The special feature of the universe event: three of the four main fights won not the home, but the guest boxers. "We knew that we were taking a lot of risks with all our preparations," said Özen-Otto. "Our boys were not the favorites, so it's clear that you can lose, of course we would have liked different results, but that's boxing."
An unusual assessment: Because defeats diminish market value, promoters actually watch out for their own fighters to win. For this they either hired opponents who had no real chance of winning. Or they hoped that associations and judges would favor the home boxer in tight decisions. Both have hurt the sport so much that in the meantime hardly any German TV station wants to broadcast boxing matches.
"No building fights, no home judgments"
That's why Özen-Otto had to name the problems clearly to convince the ZDF to go into boxing again after a nine-year break. "There are no strikes and no home judgments with us," he said in advance at every opportunity. The announcement he has put into action - with the consequences mentioned: Hoffmann and Kraft lost in entertaining battles against their German opponents Klappert and Bauer on points. Heavyweight Agron Smakici even went knock on the first lap against Kazakhstan's Zhan Kossobutskiy.
After all, super lightweights Artem Harutyunyan celebrated another victory for the new universe in the only live televised fight. The 29-year-old, who won the 2016 Olympic bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, scored just over ten rounds against Russia's Islam Dumanov.
"On the way there"
Özen-Otto was visibly relieved after the verdict. "Artem saved us the evening," he said. The good 2000 spectators in Hamburg gave him with their applause right. The hoped-for audience, however, did not reach the event. Özen-Otto had set a "double-digit market share" as a goal. According to preliminary GfK figures, 820,000 people watched the main battle live on ZDF, which represented a market share of 8.2 percent. A significant slump compared to the previously running "Current Sports Studio", which had followed almost three million viewers.
In order to reach a larger audience, you probably need more than the "fighting at eye level" summoned by Özen-Otto and your own boxers who are welcome to lose. At the beginning of 2020, Universum will get another chance to prove itself to ZDF. Only then do those responsible want to take stock. The problem: Özen-Otto probably will not find world-class fighters by then. That is currently hardly available in Germany.
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".
