‘Germans won’t put in hard work that boxing requires’
Former world boxing champion Sven Ottke who was speaking on behalf of Betting Sites slammed influencer boxing, claiming it gives him the shivers and has nothing to do with real boxing.
Ottke, who finished runner up on Ich bin ein Star in 2020, also went on to blame a lack of dedication among his countrymen as the reason why German boxing is presently in such a dire situation.
Influencer boxing has nothing to do with real boxing
Ottke, who retired undefeated as a professional boxer, has no time for the likes of KSI and Jake Paul who have made career moves from YouTubers to boxing and now earn millions of dollars per fight;
“It doesn’t make sense to me. That has nothing to do with boxing. So, an influencer. What the hell is an influencer? Excuse me, but what do they actually do? It gives me the shivers. Now they start to box, they punch the heavy bag three times, but they don’t really know anything about the sport.
You have to learn boxing from the bottom up. You can’t just say, alright, boxing is great, so I’ll just enter the ring. I’m sorry, but to me, that has nothing to do with real boxing.”
Germans won’t put in hard work that boxing requires
German boxing is in the doldrums in 2023 and Ottke reckons it’s because the current generation don’t have the attitude and persistence needed to excel at the sport of sweet science;
“I mean, we don’t really have any promising German boxers right now. Most have a migration background, I don’t think that Germans are willing to put the necessary effort in anymore. The current stage of German boxing is comparable to the pre-1988 era.
Whenever we had someone who made it, it was big, it was huge. But right now, we are so, so, so far behind.”
To beat Canelo you must control the distance
Mexican star Canelo currently dominates the same super middleweight division that Ottke was IBF champion of for five years. The German believes if the two had fought it would have been a thrilling match, although he refused to predict who would’ve emerged as the winner;
“I would’ve kept true to my style of boxing. He probably would’ve tried to pin me at the ropes or in the corner. But could he have done that? To beat him, you have to control the distance. Go inside, go outside, go inside, go outside.
I believe he punches extremely hard and has lots of tricks up his sleeve. No prediction, but it would’ve been a thrilling fight.”
Robin Reid judging was fair but he still hates me
Ottke’s controversial points win over British boxer Robin Reid in 2003 is widely considered to have been dreadfully refereed and scored. Ottke believes Reid harbours a grudge over the outcome to the present day and still wants a rematch 20 years later;
“Robin Reid was really mad, I felt like he wanted to kill me. He wanted to bring the fight to me but I was a counter boxer. I was very fast and I was able to avoid his onslaught.
He couldn’t deal with that. He hates me to this day. It’s actually funny, we talked about it earlier, he inquired about another fight with me recently.”
