By Dean Parr

In his last outing, Norwegian featherweight Andreas Evensen, 23, stopped the EBU ranked Gianpiero Contestabile in the fifth round.  Evensen dominated his Italian opponent, but has not gotten carried away after the performance.

Andreas caught up with BoxingScene.com and exclusively told us that he had, “Been working very hard before this fight”, and he was glad that, “All the hard work in the gym paid off”.  However, he acknowledges that he is not at the top level yet but that a win over Gianpiero Contestabile was - “A step towards it”.

Evensen is a compact counter-puncher with a very similar style to that of his namesake Andreas Kotelnik; Evensen compiled an amateur record of 42-10.  The longer distances suit him, and he is extremely accurate.  His cousin convinced him to take up the noble art and, as of now, Evensen has been boxing for roughly nine years.

His professional record is 10-1 (2 early), with his only loss coming in a bout with Benoit Gaudet, a Canadian who in his most recent outing fought dominant WBC super-featherweight champion Humberto Soto. Benoit was stopped in the ninth round of that one. 

However, at the time of his fight with Gaudet, Evensen was only 21, and he took the contest on three week's notice.  In fairness to him as well, all three judges only had him losing by two points, showing that he was giving the older, more experienced Gaudet many problems.

When speaking about the loss, Evensen was philosophical.  “My loss to Benoit Gaudet still haunts me to this day, and I would love to get a new chance with him,” declared Evensen. 

“At that moment, in 2007, it was a chance to measure my skills against one of the top ranked boxers at super-featherweight, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could beat him, even at such an early stage of my career.”

Andreas reckons he, “did an okay job, but of course not enough,” in the Gaudet fight.  He is, however, not singularly focused on meeting Gaudet again.  Evensen declared that he is, “Prepared to fight anyone in my weight class”, and while Evensen didn't drop any names he did state that he would love to fight a champion.

Evensen doesn't mind traveling for fights either.  He has fought in a wide variety of places, ranging from the UK to Spain, because in his homeland of Norway boxing is an illegal sport that is widely disliked.  His dream is, “To box for a world title in my hometown in front of a huge and fanatic crowd”.  However, this is unfortunately far from likely due to the fact boxing is outlawed in Norway, and there are no plans to renege upon this law.

While world titles are the long term goal, Evensen has a short term goal.  “My ambition is to win, win, win!  Every fight I get win!” he declared.  The fight anyone, anywhere, and anytime mindset is very refreshing, compared to some modern day fighters who fight journeymen in their hometown for twenty fights before trying to achieve anything meaningful.  After all, how many 6-0 prospects would agree to fight someone with Benoit Gaudet’s caliber on three weeks notice?

Andreas attributes much of his success to his coach Helge Waeroey; he wanted to thank him for, “Working so hard for me in a country where what we do is not legal and is frowned upon”.  He continued: “Together we have made the EBU rankings, and I promise you it will not stop there!”

Evensen certainly has all the tools to get where he wants to be.  If he remains dedicated he will definitely be a contender on the European stage in the next couple of years.  So remember the name Andreas Evensen - he may be coming to a country near you soon.  Andreas signed off by telling us that he, “Always wants to entertain”, when he's fighting.