German Boxing, Coming To The International Stage

I’m torn on this. I was reading boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko’s blog at www.KlitschkoBlog.com after his fight with Britain’s David Haye (July 2nd), where it stated that Mr. Klitschko (the younger of the two heavyweight champion brothers) dominated the 12-round bout.

Um, I watched that fight — and this champ, whose adoptive hometown is Hamburg, might have won the match, but dominate? Nah, I don’t think so.

I agree that at times Haye boxed like a little kid afraid for a mother’s slam on his face for stealing candy from the kitchen table. But this didn’t make my beloved Wladimir dominate the match.

However, I won’t be a Monday morning quarterback on this sport that’s often called barbaric.

And German fans are rough; sometimes they’ll boo you as soon as they look at you, even if you are a local boy (sorry, Wladimir you might have won but the thousands of Germans in attendance still booed you). I thought that only happened in Philadelphia, USA where they’ll consistently boo their own team, let alone an opposing one.

At least the Germans aren’t known for throwing snowballs at Santa Claus (yes, that really happened in the City of Brotherly Love).

I only brought this up to talk about how boxing in Germany is yet another sport to add to the long list of other blood pumping, adrenaline rushing activities.

A few famous boxers from Germany have been making international headlines (read: title fights) recently besides Wladimir. His older brother Vitali, also a heavyweight champ, is another professional boxer that has made Germany his home base.

Vitali fights Tomasz Adamek in Wroclaw, Poland on September 10th. With any luck, I’ll give you my analysis of that Klitschko fight on September 11th. ;-)

Arthur Abraham would be another champ (an IBF World Middleweight Champ, to be exact) whose title reigned from 2005 to 2009. He’s proud to be Armenian, but he’s also proud to call Berlin home.

Just so you know, you’ll find quite a few amateur and professional boxing gyms in Germany’s capital. It might be off the beaten path, but why not come into one of ’em, you never know who you might find training. Right?

It would also be a disservice to leave out German boxer Felix Sturm, whose win against Irish boxer Matthew Macklin in a split decision bout not too long ago in Cologne has been controversial to say the least.

Say what you will, German Sturm did get to keep his WBA belt; and he got to do it in front of his hometown crowd.

I look forward to a much anticipated rematch.

—Marcus