What does a plasterer do when a boxer asks him for a job? Easy: Call his estate agent friend, get the guy back in the ring and make him a champion! This is, in a nutshell, the crazy story behind DOG Eventboxing, the promotional company of friends Oliver Heib and Bernhard Notar from the small German Federal state of Sarre, where pro boxing was as established as sunbathing in Alaska.
The fighter in question, super middleweight Juergen Doberstein, was returning home from Berlin in 2011, where he had tried his luck as a pro boxer, having been released from his contract. Disillusioned about the game and his future in it, a common friend send him to Heib’s plastering company in search of employment.
Heib had heard about Doberstein’s fighting exploits and sat down with him. Having been a world-class Rock’n’Roll dancer in his youth, Heib quickly noticed something:
“Although Juergen asked me for a job, I saw in his eyes that deep down there was the burning desire to succeed and become a champion in boxing.”
Later that day, Heib spoke with his long-time friend Bernhard Notar, an estate agent, about the boxer he met in his office and suggested the impossible:
“Why don’t we become boxing promoters and see if we can help Doberstein fulfil his dreams?”.
To cut it short, the idea was too crazy not to be tempting for Heib and Notar. Quickly DOG Eventboxing was founded and before 2011 was out, Doberstein had scored two wins on the road for them. In 2012, their first own promotions made sporting headlines in Sarre, as Doberstein first won the German super middleweight crown, followed by the IBF Youth title. Due to an affiliation with female flyweight Raja Amasheh, DOG Event promoted their first WBF fight last October, which saw Amasheh winning the Women’s Intercontinental belt.
“It is incredible how much support we get in our state,” Heib says, “although we still lose money. But the main thing is to be straight forward, have an excellent organization, and produce quality. We don’t strive to become important promoters in world boxing – mind you, we have successful businesses – but to do the best we can when staging shows and have everyone going home happy.”
This coming March, Heib and Notar are staging their third show, which will be the first in Sarre’s capital of Saarbruecken and feature three WBF title bouts. Jean Marcel Nartz, Vice President of the WBF, looks very much forward to it:
“Oliver and Bernhard are the kind of people boxing needs. There is none of the usual backstabbing that hurts the sport way too much with them. The cooperation with them is most cordial and we hope they will remain in the sport for a long time.”
