By Ruslan Chikov

Promoter Ahmet Oner of Arena Box recently explained his view on why German promotional company Universum suffered such a serious decline in the last couple of years. In the opinion of Oner, there were miscalculations in their strategy for televised events and they led to ZDF walking away at the end of the deal. Universum has since restructured their stable of fighters and the company has new ownership.

"The most interesting thing with Universum is that before signing a contract with ZDF - they did everything right. And after they signed [the contract] they began to do everything wrong. They matched weak boxers in frivolous title fights against even weaker opponents. They brought in the East Europeans, whom no one wanted to see in Germany. In the wake of Halmich's fame, they relied on women's boxing, which ended in perfect failure. [The women fighters] did not sell, they had to give away tickets to make a good impression for [the TV audience] so the fighters weren't boxing in empty halls. All of this led to what is happening today, where it's impossible to arrange a show [in Germany] and make a profit. The viewer doesn't want to pay for tickets and the television networks are fed up with boxing after years of being deliberately misled," Oner told Figo Sport.