2024 - World boxing champion Dilar Kisikyol fights for a better world

Dilar Kisikyol, 31, world lightweight boxing champion, trains women with Parkinson’s disease – and also fights for disadvantaged people on other fronts.

Saturday was supposed to be their big day: Dilar Kisikyol wanted to defend her world boxing title in Munich. But a tiny virus was stronger than them. Dilar was flat with Corona and has now recovered, but is not yet fit enough to get through the long fight against Argentine Marisa Gabriela Nunez. The fight must be postponed. Dilar now hopes that it will work in December.

“Boxing shows me what I’m capable of. In the ring I’m completely on my own, and that helps me deal with setbacks,” says the professional boxer, appearing anything but stubborn. Although the broken fight was a hard blow for who must be the world lightweight champion up to 61.2 kilos, she exudes a good mood when we meet in the hall of the Hamburg Boxing Association. I would like to get to know her and her Parkinson’s group. Dilar (“in sport, people use first names”) trains everyone On Wednesday, ten sick women between the ages of 43 and 80 – on a voluntary basis.

Dilar’s concern: combining boxing with social work

As the women gradually arrive and are greeted warmly, Dilar explains that she learned to fight at an early age. Very early. She was born in Leverkusen as a triplet, the smallest of the three siblings: “I was born weighing 1,500 grams and pushed myself through in the first few seconds,” she says. But even after that, she learned to assert herself and go her own way. The trained social worker would like to pass on this skill:

“Because I assert myself in a male domain, I want to be a role model for girls and women so that they don’t let themselves be defeated.”

Female empowerment is important to her, just like inclusion and integration, these are the three cornerstones of her heart project “You fight”, which she set up to combine social work with boxing.

Dilar integrates me into her Parkinson’s group faster than I can say “knock out”.: “Have you ever boxed?” she asks me. When I say no, she says “Okay, then you’ll train with me today.” She gets me a bottle of still water and boxing gloves – “they stink the least, I’ve only had them twice worn” – and I feel as if I have always been there shadow boxing against the trembling: uppercuts, sidecuts, one, two, one, two, we stand opposite each other in pairs, sometimes I box against Ute’s glove fists, sometimes against Heike I mean, let’s throw a ball to each other. Every now and then a medication alarm goes off – the fact that one of the women has to pop a pill is an opportunity for others to “snap” in the corner of the ring, as they say in Hamburg. Dilar jokes: “They always go to the café together after training, but today they’re having their coffee party here!” Everyone laughs.

“It was like love at first sight”

“We always have a lot of fun,” says Ute, but above all she appreciates the commitment and caring cooperation. The 72-year-old initiated the group in 2021 with two other women. After watching a documentary on Belgian television about the benefits of boxing for Parkinson’s patients, she asked the Hamburg Boxing Association, which had just made Dilar its women’s and inclusion representative. A perfect match: Even at the first meeting it was “like love at first sight”. “Dilar is a treasure for us! She is almost always in a good mood, is very refreshing and very caring when dealing with us.” Ute says it’s almost as if she had a late daughter, or rather a granddaughter: “When Dilar was looking for an apartment, I went with her and said I was the grandma.”

But boxing training is not only perfect for the soul, but especially for the body suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Movement disorders, stiffness, tremors and unstable posture can be symptoms of the disease. That’s why women benefit from flexible whole-body training: “Boxing is universal, it challenges arms and legs,” says Dilar. The combination of coordination, concentration, endurance and strength helps them to feel better. “The nice thing is that anyone can do it, even while sitting.” Everyone has developed well in the past two years.