Boxing stable from home in the USA: A boxing era ends with Sauerland


Boxing stable from home in the USA
A boxing era ends with Sauerland

The Sauerland boxing stable goes into the US marketing company Wasserman. This also ends the era of a boxing stable around stars such as Henry Maske, Graciano Rocchigiani, Sven Ottke or the legendary trainer Uli Wegner in German professional boxing. However, the new Sauerland boss is looking ahead.

The name Sauerland stood for the golden 1990s of German boxing – now it is history: The boxing stable, which achieved fame and fortune with stars like Henry Maske, Graciano Rocchigiani and Sven Ottke hand in hand with the private broadcaster RTL, is losing its independence . The life’s work of founder Wilfried Sauerland (81) goes on in the US sports giant Wasserman, which is based in Los Angeles.

For Kalle Sauerland (43), son of the founder and most recently managing director of the company, this is not the end of an era, but an important step into the future. “Wasserman is the dream partner for Team Sauerland”, says the junior, who will lead the new boxing division at Wasserman with his brother Nisse (41). “Their boxing expertise and experience are second to none, and we are excited to bring Wasserman Boxing to life,” said Casey Wasserman, CEO of the marketing giant of the same name.

His portfolio was more than impressive even without the boxing stable with the big name in Germany. Wasserman represents more than 2000 athletes from 42 different sports worldwide, including superstars like Steven Gerrard, Russell Westbrook, Rickie Fowler, Megan Rapinoe, Marshawn Lynch and Jamie Vardy. Now the boxers from Germany are added, all contracts that Sauerland had with the fighters are to be taken over.

The golden boxing days are history

But the Sauerland team, founded in 1978, has long since lost its radiance on the home market. Today the figureheads are Mairis Briedis (cruiserweight) and Chris Eubank junior (super middleweight). Boxing matches, not just from Sauerland, have largely disappeared from the German television landscape. Kalle Sauerland made the company more international, most recently he dedicated himself to the World Boxing Super Series, which he initiated.

At Wasserman he will be the new “Global Head of Boxing” and has already announced: “This deal marks the beginning of a new era in boxing. Our common goal is to become the world’s leading boxing company.” What that means for the home market is likely to be foreseeable, even if Sauerland emphasizes that he wants to bring major battles to Germany again.

What remains is the memory of great evenings of fighting in front of up to 20 million viewers. To the “gentleman” mask, “Rocky” Rocchigiani or the legendary trainer Uli Wegner, who was fired at the end of 2019. Sauerland organized more than 1000 fight evenings, more than 50 world champions were under contract with the Berlin boxing stable. The company’s departure from home underlines once again how much the importance of boxing in Germany has suffered. The golden 1990s, when Wilfried Sauerland revolutionized the boxing world together with Henry Maske and RTL in Germany, are finally history.

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