Fırat Arslan

Fırat Arslan
Data
Birth Name	Fırat Arslan
Weight class	Cruiser weight
nationality	German
birthday	September 28, 1970
place of birth	Friedberg (Bavaria)
style	Legal display
size	1.82 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	59
Victories	47
Knockout victories	32
Defeats	9
draw	3
Profile in the BoxRec database

Fırat Arslan (born September 28, 1970 in Friedberg ) is a German boxer of Turkish descent and former WBA world cruiserweight champion .

Career

Fırat Arslan didn't start boxing until he was 18 years old . In 1994 he took on German citizenship . He made his professional debut in January 1997 in Stuttgart . Until 2005 he trained without his own trainer and until 2007 without management.

He won his first thirteen fights, but then lost to the Zimbabwean Collice Mutizwa in 2000 . Mutizwa had only won one of his four professional fights at this point. In Arslan's next fight on May 19, 2001, he boxed against Rüdiger May for the German championship. Also in this encounter he was defeated on points.

In 2003 he managed a draw against the then undefeated Russian Vadim Tokarew , who broke his jaw. A little later, however, Arslan, weakened by illness, suffered his third defeat against the Czech Luboš Šuda in Prague .

In March 2004 he won the vacant German championship title through an early victory over Marco Heinichen , and in July of the same year he secured the EU title.

It was not until 2005 that he trained with his own trainer for the first time. He is friends with the boxer Luan Krasniqi , with whom he previously trained together. It is thanks to this growing friendship that Arslan received a management contract with the boxing stable Universum Box-Promotion in 2007 .

In an elimination match of the WBA he won on October 28, 2006 against the previously undefeated Russian Grigory Drozd and thus qualified for a title fight in this association.

On June 16, 2007, in front of 7,000 spectators at the Budapest SYMA - Sport & Leisure Center, he defeated the Russian Valery Brudov in 12 rounds on points, thus securing the title of WBA interim world champion previously worn by V. Brudov. This gave Arslan the right to fight for the world title.

On November 24, 2007, Arslan defeated the multiple world champion and previous title holder Virgil Hill from the USA in front of 4500 spectators in the sold-out Freiberg Arena in Dresden unanimously on points (118: 110, 116: 113, 117: 111) and was thus a regular WBA World cruiserweight champion . On May 3, 2008, he defended his title against the American Darnell Wilson in Stuttgart . He also won this fight unanimously on points (117: 111, 117: 111, 117: 111).

His 2nd compulsory defense in cruiserweight on September 27, 2008 in Hamburg against Guillermo Jones ended with the defeat of Arslans by technical knockout in the tenth round. Arslan had to take numerous blows at the beginning of the fight, which were not ineffective despite the double cover. Since Arslan was badly marked, the referee broke off the fight.

Due to a bicycle accident in June 2009, Firat took almost a year off from fighting.

On July 3, 2010 he boxed in Stuttgart for the interim world championship of the WBA against the Frenchman Steve Herelius , but lost at the end of the penultimate round when he suffered a circulatory collapse due to the temperatures in the hall of 40 degrees. Until then he had been clearly in the lead in terms of points and had already brought his opponent to the brink of precipitation. He was released from the hospital just one day later.

On April 1, 2011 Arslan won in Berlin by a technical knockout against Michal Bilak . On July 15, 2011, Arslan won his second fight against Luboš Šuda by technical knockout in the fifth round in the EWS Arena in Göppingen . Arslan secured the international IBF championship with the victory. He played his next fight against Orlando Antonio Farias for his former promoter Universum Box-Promotion on January 28, 2012 in Hamburg's Grand Elysée , which he won by technical knockout in the second round.

On May 11, 2012, he boxed against the EBU European champion and former amateur world champion Alexander Alexejew in Göppingen . The fight ended in a draw.

On November 3, 2012 Arslan boxed in Halle (Westphalia) against the reigning WBO cruiserweight world champion Marco Huck and lost on points (115: 113, 115: 113, 117: 111) unanimously. In the rematch on January 25, 2014 he was defeated in the 6th round by technical knockout.

On August 16, 2014 he only just lost to Yoan Pablo Hernández in Erfurt in the IBF World Championship fight. In the following year, two fights followed, one of them hosted by the WBC , which he won.

In 2016, two more fights followed, which he won. One of them hosted by the WBO . He was able to continue the winning streak in 2017 by winning 3 fights. Among them was the defense of the WBO title from the previous year.

Following this, he won three more fights in 2018, including the early defense of the WBO title, as well as the defense of the GBU title, which he won in the same year. He ended 2018 with a draw in which he had to defend the WBO title.

The year 2019 began for him with an early victory and defending the GBU title. In the same year there were two more fights for the then 47-year-old, which he also won early. In February 2020 he challenged the IBO title holder in his weight class with a fight against Kevin Lerena and lost.

successes

• WBA cruiserweight world champion 2007-2008
• WBA interim world champion 2007
• WBO Intercontinental Champion 2005
• EU champion 2004
• German champion 2004
• International German Champion 2003

List of professional fights

47 wins (32 knockout wins), 9 defeats , 3 draws
year	Day	place	Opponent / target	Result for Arslan
1997	January 25th	Maritim Hotelgesellschaft , Stuttgart, Germany	Zsolt Janko	Decision win / 4 rounds
	September 2nd	Elephant & Castle Center, Southwark, UK	Kevin Mitchell	Decision win / 4 rounds
	November 29th	Tenten Vannieuwenhuyze, Ingelmunster, Belgium	Roman Nicodem	Victory / KO 2nd round
1998	April 21	Estadio Nuevo Vivero , Leganés, Spain	Ladislav Olah	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	22nd of July	Outrup Speedwaybone, Outrup, Denmark	Patrik Akerlund	Points victory (polyphonic) / 6 rounds
	14th November	Rhein-Mosel-Halle , Koblenz, Germany	Wesly Dramasky	Victory / KO 2nd round
1999	27th of March	EnergieVerbund Arena , Dresden, Germany	Zoltán Kovács	Victory / KO 1st round
	June 19th	Wiener Stadthalle , Vienna, Austria	Frantisek Pacalaj	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	August 21	Freiberger Arena , Dresden, Germany	Zoltán Béres	Point decision win / 8 rounds
	October, 16th	Rhein-Mosel-Halle , Koblenz, Germany	Zoltan Petranyi	Victory / KO 3rd round
2000	May 27th	Rhein-Mosel-Halle , Koblenz, Germany	Yves Monsieur	Victory / KO 2nd round
	July 13th	Bethnal Green , London, UK	Chris Woollas	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	October 31	Novotel Hotel, London, UK	Tony Booth	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	December 8th	National Sports Center, London, UK	Collice Mutizwa	Point decision loss / 6 rounds
2001	May 19th	Maritim Hotelgesellschaft , Cologne, Germany	Rüdiger May German Championship (BDB)	Point loss (unanimous) / 10 rounds
	8th October	Metrodome , Barnsley, UK	Mark Hobson	Victory / TKO 7th round
2002	8th June	Fernwaldhalle, Giessen, Germany	Mihai Iftode	Decision win / 4 rounds
	15th June	Stadthalle Kandel, Kandel (Palatinate), Germany	Cosmin Pocora	Victory / KO 1st round
	7th of September	Neuwied Heimathaus, Neuwied, Germany	Mircea Telecan	Victory / TKO 2nd round
2003	May 24th	Neuwied Heimathaus, Neuwied, Germany	Bruce Özbek International German Championship (BDB)	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	August 16	Nürburgring , Nürburg, Germany	Vadim Tokarev IBF Intercontinental World Championship	Tie / point decision 12 rounds
	12th of December	Hotel Hilton, Prague, Czech Republic	Luboš Šuda WBA Interim Intercontinental Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2004	January 17th	Rhein-Mosel-Halle , Koblenz, Germany	Mircea Telecan	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	March, 20th	Maritim Hotelgesellschaft , Cologne, Germany	Marco Heinichen vacant German championship (BDB)	Victory / KO 5th round
	July 31	Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle , Stuttgart, Germany	Lee Manuel Ossie vacant EBU European Championship	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
2005	January 18th	Kugelbake Hall, Cuxhaven, Germany	Alexander Petkovic vacant WBO Intercontinental World Championship	Victory / TKO 7th round
	28th of May	Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle , Stuttgart, Germany	Wlodek Kopec	Victory / KO 1st round
	15th of November	Hohenstaufenhalle , Göppingen, Germany	Carlos Cruzat WBO Intercontinental title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2006	23. May	Sportna Dvoran Center, Ptuj, Slovenia	Gabor Halasz WBO Intercontinental title defense	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	28th of October	Porsche-Arena , Stuttgart, Germany	Grigory Drozd	Victory / TKO 5th round
2007	June 16	SYMA Sport & Leisure Center, Budapest, Hungary	Valery Brudov WBA Interim World Championship	Point victory (polyphonic) / 12 rounds
	November 24th	Freiberger Arena , Dresden, Germany	Virgil Hill WBA title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2008	May 3rd	Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle , Stuttgart, Germany	Darnell Wilson WBA title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	September 27th	Color Line Arena , Hamburg, Germany	Guillermo Jones WBA title defense	Loss / TKO 10th round
2010	3rd of July	Porsche-Arena , Stuttgart, Germany	Steve Herelius WBA Interim World Championship	Defeat / abandonment 11th round
2011	April 1st	Digibet Equestrian Park, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Germany	Michal Bilak	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	15th of July	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Luboš Šuda vacant PABA championship vacant IBF international world championship	Victory / TKO 5th round
2012	January 28th	Grand Elysee, Hamburg, Germany	Orlando Antonio Farias	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	May 11th	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Alexander Alekseev EBU European Championship vacant WBO Intercontinental World Championship	Tie / majority decision
	November 3rd	Gerry Weber Stadium , Halle (Westf.), Germany	Marco Huck WBO World Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2013	April 27	Sports hall Hamburg , Hamburg, Germany	Varol Vekiloğlu	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
2014	January 25th	Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle , Stuttgart, Germany	Marco Huck WBO World Championship	Loss / TKO 6th round
	June 7th	Sports and Congress Hall (Schwerin) , Schwerin, Germany	Tamas Bajzath	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	August 16	Erfurter Messe , Erfurt, Germany	Yoan Pablo Hernández IBF World Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2015	2.May	ASV Halle, Dachau, Germany	Gyula Bozai	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	November 7th	MHP Arena , Ludwigsburg, Germany	Paata Aduashvili WBC Eurasia Pacific Boxing Title Bout	Victory / KO 2nd round
2016	June 4th	Autohaus Dürkop, Kassel, Germany	Claudio Morroni Postage	Victory / KO 1st round
	17th of September	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Nuri Seferi WBO intercontinental title fight	Points win (unanimous)
2017	March 18th	Silence Hotel, Istanbul	Gezim Tahiri	Victory after giving up / 2nd round
	15th of July	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Goran Delic WBO intercontinental title fight	Victory / TKO 6th round
	October 7th	Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle , Stuttgart, Germany	Alejandro Emilio Valori	Victory / KO 7th round
2018	May 19th	Spor Salonu, Trabzon	Isaac Paakwesi Ankrah WBO intercontinental title fight	Victory / KO 1st round
	June 16	Wildpark Stadium , Karlsruhe	Pablo Matias Magrini GBU title fight	Victory / KO 1st round
	September 22	Haldun Alagas Sports Complex, Istanbul	Pascal Abel Ndomba GBU title fight	Victory / KO 2nd round
	November 17th	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Sefer Seferi WBO intercontinental title fight GBU title fight	Tie / majority decision 12 rounds
2019	April 13th	Ülker Sports Arena , Istanbul	Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo GBU title fight	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	June 22	Argensporthalle, Wangen im Allgaeu	Cesar David Crenz	Victory / KO 2nd round
	September 14th	Verti Music Hall, Friedrichshain	Sami Enbom	Victory / KO 3rd round
2020	February 8	EWS Arena , Göppingen, Germany	Kevin Lerena IBO World Championship title fight	Loss / TKO 6th round
(Source: BoxRec database )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ July 3, 2010 Firat Arslan against Steve Herelius: Technical KO in the 11th round
2. ↑ Huck vs. Arslan, the "Scandal Fight" , press report
3. ↑ Boxer Arslan misses age record. In: FAZ.net . February 9, 2020, accessed February 9, 2020 . 

Web links

• Fırat Arslan in the BoxRec database
• Homepage Fırat Arslans

predecessor	Office	successor
Virgil Hill	Cruiserweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) November 24, 2007 - September 27, 2008	Guillermo Jones