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Happy Birthday, Wilfried Sauerland! The Hall-of-Fame promoter was born
70 years ago in Wuppertal, Germany. With his day of birth being the 29th
of February, he has only been able to celebrate 17 “real” birthdays thus
far. However, during non-leap years, he actually celebrates twice – on
the 28th and the 1st. “We had a big party when I turned 65, and we will
have another big party when I turn 90,” he said. “This time I am just
celebrating a little with my family and friends in South Africa. I am
very grateful to be full of energy – and I will need every bit of it
since we have a big month coming up, with King Arthur´s Super Six fight
against Andre Dirrell in America and Marco Huck´s second defence of his
WBO Cruiserweight Title in Berlin.”


Operating from the famous Max-Schmeling-Gym in Berlin, Wilfried
Sauerland currently manages over 30 fighters, including Super Six World
Boxing contestants King Arthur Abraham and Mikkel Kessler, former WBA
Heavyweight Champion Nikolai Valuev, 2004 Olympic gold medal winner
Alexander Povetkin, WBO Cruiserweight Champion Marco “Captain” Huck, IBF
Middleweight Champion Sebastian Sylvester as well as WBA/WBC Female
Welterweight Champion Cecilia Braekhus, amongst many others.


It was Wilfried Sauerland who ignited a true boxing boom in Germany
during the nineties when he led “The Gentleman” Henry Maske to stardom.
Thanks to the tireless work of General Manager Chris Meyer, Sports
Director Hagen Doering as well as Sauerland´s two sons, Kalle and Nisse,
Team Sauerland these days delivers 12 first-class shows per year and has
a long-term TV contract in place with German public TV giant ARD. The
deal has just been extended through 2015, with Team Sauerland becoming
the first boxing stable to sign a comprehensive agreement with the
German NADA, agreeing to extensive random training and fight testing.


Team Sauerland truly has turned into a global operation, with events
being staged across Europe and the TV rights being distributed to over
120 countries all over the world. Team Sauerland – namely Kalle
Sauerland – played a major role in organising SHOWTIME´s groundbreaking
Super Six World Boxing Classic, the hotly-anticipated tournament which
will determine the best super-middleweight fighter.


Wilfried Sauerland´s success story actually started over 30 years ago.
Having fallen in love with the sport as a small child when his father
took him to Dortmund´s Westfalenhalle to see Heinz Neuhaus in action,
September 30, 1978 eventually marked the beginning of an astonishing
career – a career Sauerland had never envisioned.


In the seventies, he lived in Lusaka, Zambia and had started his own
business, selling industrial equipment mainly to government
organizations. Later he specialized in the sale, spare parts
manufacturing and service for brewery bottling and soft drink plants,
with offices in Lusaka, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Togo, Benin and the Ivory
coast. Sauerland had sponsored football teams in Zambia when he was
approached by his friend, the Zambian foreign minister Rupiah Banda (who
is now the president). Banda inquired whether he could help a promising
young amateur boxer named Lottie Mwale and get him international
exposure. Sauerland agreed and started to guide the boxing career of
Mwale. He promoted his first show in Zambia on September 30, 1978. More
than 70,000 fans attended the show, and after his first-round KO of
Lonnie Bennett, Mwale went on to become a national hero in his home country.


Sauerland never looked back. Two years later, he staged his first show
in Germany. In front of 600 fans in Cologne, his fighter Chisanda Mutti
knocked out Uwe Meinicke in the third round. But the strong fighters
from Africa, like Mwale and Uganda’s John Mugabi (who in 1989 won the
WBC light-middleweight title), found it hard to attract huge crowds in
Germany, leaving Sauerland in the need of local fighters. Germany´s René
Weller, who later won the European lightweight title, and Manfred
Jassmann soon pleased the German fans, as did Graciano Rocchigiani, who
under Sauerland won the IBF super middleweight title in 1988.


However, it was “The Gentleman” Henry Maske who then ignited a gigantic
boxing boom in Germany. The fights of the IBF light heavyweight
champion, who reigned from March 1993 to November 1996, as well as from
heavyweight Axel Schulz generated record viewing figures for TV station
RTL. Packed stadiums and reliable partners finally allowed Sauerland to
make up for the financial losses he had suffered before. Things really
took off from there, with boxing turning into one of the most popular
sports in Germany, attracting an incredible fan interest and gigantic TV
interest.


Even after the retirements of Schulz and Maske, the boom would continue.
Team Sauerland moved from Cologne to Berlin, where under the guidance of
head coach Ulli Wegner more than 20 boxers work out in the
Max-Schmeling-Gym. Sven Ottke fascinated the German public by winning
all of his 22 world title fights before retiring as the undefeated
WBA/IBF Super-Middleweight champion in March 2004. Markus Beyer also won
the WBC super-middleweight title three times. Nowadays, the likes of
King Arthur Abraham, the undefeated IBF middleweight champion, WBA
Heavyweight Champion Nikolai Valuev and 2004 Olympic gold medal winner
Alexander Povetkin fascinate boxing fans all over the world. In March
2009, the “First Lady” Cecilia Braekhus – Team Sauerland´s first-ever
female fighter – lived up to her billing and won the WBA/WBC female
welterweight titles. In summer 2009, Team Sauerland added three world
champions to its roster – the Viking Warrior Mikkel Kessler,
cruiserweight talent Marco “Captain” Huck (WBO) and Sebastian Sylvester,
who succeeded King Arthur as the IBF Middleweight Champion.
Up-and-coming youngsters like Karo Murat and Alexander Frenkel as well
as IBF Intercontinental Champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez are certain to
continue the success story in the future, while Kessler and Abraham seek
international glory in the Super Six World Boxing Classic.


Wilfried Sauerland takes special pride that nearly all his boxers joined
him from the amateur ranks and were turned into European and World
Champions by the joint efforts of his team. His two sons, Kalle and
Nisse, have long been integrated into the company and successfully
manage the day-to-day business, with their father still providing
invaluable insight from what truly has been an astonishing career – a
career that earned him a place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame
in December 2009.


For more information about Team Sauerland, please visit www.boxen.com.