Saturday, December 18, 2021
Professional debut for Joscha Blin
His grandpa boxed Muhammad Ali
50 years ago Jürgen Blin entered the boxing ring against Muhammad Ali. Now his grandson Joscha is continuing the family’s boxing era. He competes in his first professional fight in the middleweight division. His coach sees “great potential”, but is that enough for a great career?
At the beginning of the boxing preparation, Joscha Blin doesn’t care about rituals before his fight. That has changed in the meantime: “First the glove goes on the leading hand, then last on the punching hand.” Before his professional debut, Blin doesn’t want to leave anything to chance: Today the 24-year-old competes in his first professional middleweight fight.
Blin feels the pressure before the first time: “Excitement is important to stay focused, but I am fully focused on the fight.” The opponent is the Czech Richard Walter. The name Blin is not new in the boxing world: Grandpa Jürgen Blin is a Hamburg boxer who fought against legend Muhammad Ali.
Joscha Blin will compete in one of the youth duels in Magdeburg. Next to him are fighters – led by cruiserweight Roman Fress – from Team Germany of the SES boxing stable. In the German championship in the light heavyweight division, Michael Eifert competes in the main fight against Niels Schmidt from Wismar.
Everyone knows his grandpa
A major fight in the future? Blin wouldn’t refuse that. Even as a little boy he let off steam on a punching bag in the nursery, and he accompanied his father to training. “I was taught at a young age how to stand, how to hit, what a leading hand is, what a hitting hand is”. Blin’s father and uncle also boxed. But none of them followed in Grandpa’s footsteps.
Jürgen Blin, 78 years old, was Hamburg champion, German champion and European champion. If Blin is chatted as a boxer, the name Muhammad Ali is always involved. The man from Hamburg fought against him on December 26, 1971 in Zurich. On round seven he was knocked out “That was the only fight I knew about beforehand: you can’t win it,” said Blin once. As a child, Joscha Blin lived in a small town. Many know his grandpa. “I was always asked about him.” Teachers asked him if he was the grandson. Blin was impressed when he first saw Grandpa’s fight.
It’s not just the difference in weight that distinguishes the two: the young blin is a southpaw, the old blin is a normal boom. “This makes the fighting style different because I’m standing with the other foot in front. My left is the hitting hand.” But they have one thing in common: “I was told by the coach that I had a lot of power in my fists and that was a bit in my blood.”
The grandpa himself trusts his grandson to take the big step into the professional world. “He’s fine, I believe he’ll win.” The date of the fight is special: almost exactly 50 years ago Jürgen Blin got into the boxing ring against Ali. So far, however, Grandpa has not come around the corner with advice. At the moment he is “in the tunnel”, says Joscha Blin about himself. “At the moment I’m so deeply involved with the coach, I talk to him a lot and only listen to the things he says to me.” The young blin is trained by Georg Bramowski, the long-time assistant to the veteran Ulli Wegner.
“Big potential”
Blin was never in a club. “I noticed it all at home and gathered my experience there.” He met Bramowski in the corona lockdown. Blin was trained in individual training by the German master Lukas Schulz. “I was given the opportunity to go straight into professional business.” A coach saw “great potential” in him and so it came to a lightning debut. When he’s not boxing, he works in his father’s ski hall in Bispingen, Lower Saxony.
Grandpa keeps his fingers crossed.
(Photo: www.imago-images.de)
A little more than eight weeks before the fight, Blin started intensive preparation for the fight. For the first two weeks, basic endurance was on the program, training twice a day, and once there was a rest day on which there was only one training session.
For some contemporaries, the sport is sometimes a bit daunting. But Blin doesn’t think that boxing has a problem with young talent in this country. “The image is still a little tarnished, but boxing is a great sport that is not about violence, but a lot about technique and strategy.”
Blin dreams of a career as a professional boxer. “My goal is to box for a title at some point.” He is aware that there is still a long way to go. For his boxing promoter Ulf Steinforth from the organizing SES boxing stable, it is still too early to say in which direction the young Blin is headed: “But I would like him to have a career similar to his grandfather.” Jürgen Blin also watches the grandson’s fight on television. “I would be happy if he made it big,” says Grandpa.