Things you didn't know about Chris Eubank Jr. next opponent Wanik Awdijan
Two-time IBO World super-middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr. (30-2, 22KOs) faces Wanik Awdijan (28-1, 11KOs) over 10-rounds at middleweight this weekend in Jr's second fight of the year, as he aims to build back up towards a world title shot again.
Awdijan is Eubank's third scheduled opponent within a month after Sven Elbir and late replacement Anotali Muratov both withdrew from the intended October 2 fight date. Now the 160-pound pair meet this Saturday, October 16 in Newcastle, live on Sky Sports.
As it's Awdijan's first fight in the UK, BBN decided to find out some interesting info about the visiting fighter right here:
Wanik Awdijan Facts
26-year-old Wanik Awdijan was born Vanik Avdiyan on April 5, 1995 in Yerevan, Armenia, but now resides in Nuremberg, Germany. His family fled the wartorn country when Wanik was just six-months-old.
His parents say he first started boxing aged three!! He grew up with boxing but also began playing basketball early at the age of six, but gave it up when he was 12-years-old to focus solely on boxing.
His biggest boxing idol growing up was Manny Pacquiao, also Floyd Mayweather too, but always preferred the Pac-Man for his style and aggression.
He was the youngest professional boxer in the history of German boxing when he turned pro at 16. As a youngster, he always trained with much older boxers and found he was often superior to them, so he turned pro as soon as he was old enough without having a single amateur bout. Instead of an amateur career, he was educated in boxing through many rounds of sparring, bettering professional fighters when much younger and less experienced than them.
The globetrotter often travels all over Europe to spar. He has sparred much heavier fighters in preparation for Chris Eubank Jr.
Although this is Awdijan's first fight in England, he has fought outside of his native Germany before, once in Austria and once in Czech Republic, winning both bouts abroad on six-round points decisions. Despite being relatively unknown to UK fight fans, Wanik is a big name in Germany and a highly-regarded prospect with a huge fanbase and a social media following of well over 100k.
Awdijan had been put forward as a potential opponent to Eubank at the same time as Anatoli Muratov was under consideration, but has only now been given the chance. The Germany-based middleweight hinted on social media that the Briton was trying to avoid him to which Eubank Jr. responded, "He couldn't make the weight. He wanted to come in at 12st, so we found someone else."
He has been trained and managed by Florin Catuna of CPI Promotions since September 2020, who also manages unbeaten super-welterweight Jamshid Noorista and talented female contender Jessica Schadko, who lost to Irish star Katelynn Phelan in 2020. Previously, he was with SES Boxing.
He is a previous winner of the IBF Youth middleweight title, which is a belt formerly held by fellow countryman Felix Sturm, who went on to become a two-weight world champion. Wanik won on points – 97-93 twice and 100-91 – and claims he won the title with two broken hands.
He is the ranked No.9 middleweight in Germany on BoxRec. The current top-ranked German middleweight is world title contender Vincent Feigenbutz (33-3, 29KOs). BoxRec also rank Awdijan in the top 100 middleweights in the world.
The only blemish on his record came in his eighth fight way back in 2014. He was stopped in the fifth round of a scheduled six in his home town of Nuremberg by Frenchman Kevin Thomas Cojean, who went on to become a French light-heavyweight champion.
He counts his IBF Youth title as the biggest achievement of his career so far, and it was his first time working with governing bodies with weight regulations and rehydration rules, which he said he found to be really strict.
His dream and ultimate aim in boxing is to win all four middleweight world titles.
10 of his 11 knockouts came in the first half of the contests.
Despite never experiencing a single amateur bout, he is very light on his feet and has a bit of an amateur style. He has very fast hands, owing to his various training techniques punching with weights in a swimming pool, as just one of many examples. He has a nice, eye pleasing style, and his flashy, blisteringly fast right hand is his best weapon. He says himself that his right hand is his biggest threat and compares himself to George Groves.
In his last fight, in July this year, he defeated 4-0 Iago Kiziria, a 30-year-old from Georgia, via split decision over eight-rounds.
He often takes his team away to Italy for training camps to train at high altitudes in the mountains. He chooses to stay in a hotel that is situated at the highest peak at over 3200 metres.
He is a sponsored Adidas athlete, the German multinational sports clothing corporation signed him up in 2017, but he has worn his favoured brand of Adidas since his very first fight in 2012.
In a previous appearance, he entered the ring wearing a Darth Vader mask, flanked by a pair of Stormtroopers! He explained why: "I'm a die-hard Star Wars fan, so it was just a bit of fun."
His favourite Star Wars character is Darth Maul and he dressed up as the villain for a fancy dress day at school when he was a young child. His mother did his face paint perfectly for him and he went to school that day with a double-edged lightsaber! He toyed with the idea of wearing a Mandalorian mask for his next fight with Eubank Jr. but decided against it as this is a serious opportunity for him.
He also loves Marvel and DC movies, as well as the first few Fast & Furious films and the John Wick franchise.
He is still very proud of his Kurdish roots, despite only living in Armenia for six months. He represents his country of birth whenever he fights and always has the flag displayed prominently on his training and fight kit.
Wanik is a very smart guy and speaks seven languages – Kurdish, Armenian, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish. The multilinguist says he learnt English from watching Star Wars movies!
He confesses to love playing on the Playstation and XBox. His favourite game is Destiny and he loves it so much he has been playing it for the past seven years!
He has been happily married since November 2020 and the couple have a young six-year-old daughter together.
Stats
Fights: 29
Rounds: 144
Won: 28
Lost: 1
Drawn: 0
KOs: 11
KO Ratio: 37.93%
Age: 26
Height: 6'2"
Stance: Orthodox
You can follow Wanik Awdijan on social media:
Instagram: wanikawdijan_official
Facebook: Wanik Awdijan
Twitter: @WAwdijan
Watch Wanik destroy a recent opponent (22/05/2021) in just one round:
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