Arthur Abraham vs Edison Miranda | 23 Sep 06 | |||||
Arthur Abraham vs Shannan Taylor | 04 Mar 06 | |||||
Nikolai Valuev vs Larry Donald | 01 Oct 05 | |||||
Avetik Abrahamyan (Armenian: Ավետիք Աբրահամյան; born 20 February 1980), best known as Arthur Abraham, is an Armenian-German former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF middleweight title from 2005 to 2009, and the WBO super-middleweight title twice between 2012 and 2016.
Avetik Abrahamyan was born in Yerevan, Soviet Armenia on 20 February 1980 to parents Grigor and Sylvia Abrahamyan. He moved to Germany with his parents and brothers in 1995 at the age of 15. As a teenager, Abraham showed an interest in cycling and eventually became the North Bavarian and Franconian Youth Champion. However, after watching an exciting Mike Tyson fight, Arthur was inspired to become a boxing star too. In 1999, Arthur and his brothers returned to Armenia for military service. After 2002, all the brothers had finished their military service and returned to Germany in 2003.
Abraham appeared in Cologne, Germany for an exhibition match against entertainer Oliver Pocher on 24 October 2009 in a bouncy, castle-like "ring" and fought with huge, air-cushion-like boxing gloves. On 9 April 2010, Abraham took to the dance show Let's Dance on RTL with partner Nina Uszkureit, but left after the first episode of the show in order to concentrate fully on his boxing career.
In the film Max Schmeling (2010), he played a supporting role of boxer Richard Vogt, Schmeling's last opponent. Just as in real life, Ulli Wegner was in his corner.
German actor and producer Til Schweiger invited Abraham to act in his film Crime Scene (2013). Til and Abraham had been friends for a long time. Abraham played a pimp that is a leader of a gang that controls the shadow business in the film.
Abraham was among the panel of judges for the "Miss Germany" beauty pageant in 2012 and 2013.
On 9 January 2013, the RA Ministry of Diaspora hosted a presser for Abraham. Minister Hranush Hakobyan praised Abraham as a role model and awarded him the "Poghos Nubar" medal.
Abraham sent a letter of condolence on the death of Vladimir Yengibaryan to his family.
His family members call him "Avo", short for Avetik. Abraham married his wife Lusya Hovhannisyan. They have 3 children: Grigor, Maria, Diana. His younger brother Alexander is also a professional boxer.
Abraham plans on opening a boxing school in Armenia following his future retirement. He will also have foreign-language classes for students at the boxing school, such as English and German, to help have success internationally.
He received German citizenship in August 2006, while also retaining his Armenian citizenship.
On 21 September 2008, Abraham and fellow boxer Vic Darchinyan were honored by Armenian President Serge Sargsyan during a 20th anniversary celebration of the nation's independence. Both men were awarded with medals "For the great services for Armenia" of the first degree.
2003-2018 |