Who is Sven Elbir?
Facts you need to know about Eubank Jr.’s next opponent Elbir
Brighton boxer Chris Eubank Jr. (30-2, 22KOs) heads back to the ring for the second time this year to face German middleweight Sven Elbir (18-1, 14KOs) over 10-rounds at Wembley Arena on October 2, live on Sky Sports.
As it’s his first fight in the UK, as well his first fight outside of Germany, BBN decided to find out some little-known facts about Elbir right here:
Early Life
Born Zeynel Elbir in Wedding, Berlin, Germany, to Turkish parents, Sven is currently 27-years-old. 2014 World Cup winner Jerome Boateng is also from the same town as him.
Islamic
Sven is Islamic and participates in the Ramadan every year, where a person of faith fasts for 30 days to become closer to Allah, just like British boxer Amir Khan does.
Amateur Career
In 2012, he won the Berlin Championships as a Bundesliga boxer of Hertha BSC. He beat his ‘arch-rival’ in the semi-finals for the second time that year to earn the No.1 super-lightweight ranking.
Alias
The Berlin boxer is known to fans as ‘Batman’.
Team ‘Batman’
Elbir is trained by Varol Vekiloglu and managed by Winfried Spiering, and trains with Uensal Arik (34-2, 28KOs), who is the current ABC Asian Boxing Council Silver middleweight champion. Sven has even cornered Arik in his title fights before and the pair are very close. He is part of the Wiking Boxteam German Future Team and sponsored by Fitnessdepot. He has a brother called Elvis, who helps with his fitness training, and has also worked with trainers Hartmut Schröder and Ronny Gabel in the past.
He has sparred with fellow German national and former IBF Inter-Continental middleweight champion Ronny Mittag (31-4-4, 16KOs) many times before.
The Relentless Lion
Sven's trainer Varol Vekiloglu (21-8-1, 13KOs) is a former pro boxer himself, and won IBF International cruiser and IBF European light-heavyweight titles during his career between 2006-2015. He once fought future world champ Krzysztof Glowacki, losing in round nine, towards the end of his career in 2013.
Pro Life
None of Elbir’s first eight opponents made it past the second round between October 2014 to July 2016. His first time going the distance was against a former K1 World Champion Bakhtiyar Isgandarzada (11-22, 4KOs), which he won via UD6.
After almost a year out of the ring, he secured three points wins in a row, starting with Isgandarzada in June 2017, followed by a third-round KO victory, which preceded his one and only career defeat to Patrick Wojcicki (14-0-1, 5KOs), which was his first ever title shot. He lost a unanimous decision (only two rounds down on two judges' cards) over 12-rounds for the IBF Inter-Continental middleweight title.
Three fights later, in September 2019, he claimed his first piece of silverware as a pro with the IBO Continental middleweight title, then he became WBA International middleweight champion in his 18th fight and is still the reigning champion. Brits John Ryder and Jack Arnfield are former holders of this title, which earned Sven a No.15 ranking with the World Boxing Association.
KO Count
He has knocked out 14 of his 18 victims, which equates to a respectable 78% KO ratio.
He has lost one contest, but never been stopped.
All but one of his knockouts have come within the first half of the contest, 12 of those within just three rounds. Of his six first-round KOs, two came within just 50 seconds!
Eubank Jr.
He has given three reasons why he believes he beats Chris Eubank Jr.: 1. He's hungrier 2. Training under Roy Jones Jr has actually taken Eubank Jr back a step because they're not a good match style-wise 3. Because he's the underdog.
Rankings
WBA: #15
IBO: #41
BoxRec (Germany): #2
BoxRec (World): #41
Stats
Age: 27
Debut: 03/10/2014
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 175cm
Reach: 184cm
Bouts: 19
Rounds: 73
Wins: 18
Wins by KO: 14
KOs: 73.68%
Losses: 1
Losses by KO: 0
Draws: 0
No Contests: 0
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