Blue reigned in the marquee on this Sunday morning. It is clear that a white and blue sky is part of the Eichstätt folk festival. But this time there was more: a sky blue boxing ring and the Eichstätt boxing club in the blue corner. The star of the day, Randy Botikali, came onto the stage with blue streaks – which he would later leave as a radiant winner after the main fight..
The showmen were still gathering at the fairground rides, but the beer tent was already well filled. “There wasn’t this much going on last year,” said one spectator. Waiters balanced beer, apple spritzer and chicken, and instead of brass music, there was rock music for the ears. Next to the stage: circling arms, twitching fists, cracking necks: the athletes were warming up. BC Eichstätt had invited Paruba Ostrava from the Czech Republic to a competition. 1,000 guests didn’t want to miss it. One of them was Mayor Josef Grienberger. “It couldn’t be better,” he said in the ring, looking out into the crowd.
Gruber attacks, blood spurts
It started: Three rounds of three minutes each were scheduled. In the first weight class up to 60 kilograms (kg), Ostrava’s Hussein Anwari landed a thunderous blow to the head – for the first time, a murmur went through the audience. Enrico Haas in blue, however, was able to hit back in rounds two and three. The fair verdict: Haas won on points.
Then it was time to put on head protection. Three fights in the U19s were scheduled. In the first of these, BC fighter Nur Zakarie was declared the winner – which caused the Czech coach to shake his head. Some spectators also saw Francesco Polak in red in the lead. Fabian Gruber’s triumph was a clear one. The guest boxer from 1860 Munich worked Erik Balaz so hard that his blood splattered on the referee’s table. The coaches threw in the towel after the second round. The third U19 fight was canceled at short notice because age limits were not adhered to. Instead, Shadan Gul in blue and Patrik Vojtisek had a sparring match. Since this took place outside of the scoring system, there were no points and no referee. But the fight was so wild that a referee had to be called in at short notice: Maria Sedaia from the blue camp stepped in and brought the uncontrolled fight (“you know that’s boxing,” shouted a spectator) to a close with clear announcements. For this, the young woman received a thunderous round of applause.
Patrik Stefan, the Czech with the beautiful technique
In fight five (up to 71 kg) things got martial: Nick Schiemann’s upper arm (another guest boxer from 1860) was adorned with a skull, while his opponent Rene Hruska declared the ring a “war zone” on his vest. Hruska knew how to involve the technically better boxer Schiemann in an open fight. The Munich lion was rightly ahead on the scorecards, but the Czech kept looking for a way forward. Despite the point victory for the BC, this was met with much applause from the fair and knowledgeable Eichstätt audience.
There was no doubt about the only victory for the guests from Paruba Ostrava: Patrik Stefan (up to 67 kg), two-time Czech vice-champion, took advantage of his greater reach in the duel with Bempe-Amet Niazi, showed the best technical performance of the day and thus took the deserved point victory.
There followed a break and a reunion between Alexander Angermann and his former Bundesliga team from BC Eichstätt, including a photo opportunity. After nostalgia, it was time to return to the moment. And Eichstätt’s Alik Mhoyan (up to 71 kg) seemed to enjoy it. Like a rock in the surf, he always stood face to face with his opponent Seva Yurievski, and here and there brought his lead hand to the finish: point victory for BC.
The exact opposite of calm was offered by Yasse Cisse in the cruiserweight division (up to 86 kg). After his left uppercut in the first round, everyone present heard for the first time that a fight was being fought on wooden boards, because Dominik Wenglarzy hit the wood so hard that a dull thud reverberated through the tent. The towel flew, the technical knockout in the first round was perfect.
Lightning liver hook and a right swing
Then it was time for the really heavy guys (up to 92 kg). Martin Kerime in blue had a cut above his left eye. The ring doctor had to come for the first time. After the bleeding had stopped, Kerime marched off like a raging bull. His opponent Mateusz Kovallzyk held his ground and both collided. This time Kovallzyk was bleeding, but not above it, but in his eye, which is why the referee stopped the fight. The point score gave Kerime the victory.
Two fights were still to come: Multiple Bavarian champion Deni Filipovic (up to 75 kg) entered the ring for the BC. But he didn’t stay there long. A lightning liver punch visibly took Wladimir Skalsky’s breath away and left him so dazed that he gave up.
In the grand finale, Botikali (up to 71 kg) took to the stage. He gesticulated towards the audience, bringing the spectators on board, who cheered when he hit his opponent Martin Mach in the second round with a jab and then a right swing – victory by technical knockout in the second round. Botikali said afterwards: “I’m not satisfied. The tension wasn’t what it should have been.” The Munich native, who trains at the federal base in Heidelberg, is next up at an international tournament in Mongolia. Then he will concentrate on the German championships. “A great audience,” he said of his performance in Eichstätt, “I love you. Stay healthy.”
Organizer Gerhard Heubusch was happy after the event: “I am very satisfied with the event. You could see, especially in the extreme heat, that the boxers were really well trained. That was an advertisement for boxing.”
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Maria Sedaia (bottom right) became the referee of hearts.
