BOXSPORT takes a look back at Regina Halmich’s impressive career. The second part is about the show fights against Raab and her pioneering role in women’s boxing.
She defeated a male opponent in two exhibition matches: Stefan Raab. Halmich does not like to be reduced to these two spectacles and did not actually want to get involved in the first duel in 2001. “I was skeptical because I wanted to be perceived as a serious sportswoman. But he challenged me for days on television with his slogans, saying that he would unpack the cellulite whip and the like. Slogans against women that nowadays would be described as pure sexism. That was extremely outrageous,” she says, describing the path to the exhibition match.
Halmich “smashes Raab’s face in”
At the press conference in Cologne’s Maritim Hotel, Raab goes one better. He explains that he prepared for the fight by watching his girlfriends cook and clean. And writes a mocking song with rhymes such as “I’ll knock your teeth out first and then send you back to the women’s shelter”. Halmich counters with her own lines: “For me, it wasn’t the financial incentive, it was just that you can smash your face in, that’s what I want.” The match against the 37 kilo heavier entertainer has no bearing on her sporting career, but it has caused her popularity to explode.
Would a defeat have had any effect on her career? “If I had lost to Raab, I would have lost face, whether in sport or in my private life,” says Halmich firmly. However, she keeps her face and demolishes Raab’s, breaking his nose. “It was an excursion into a show world, but I also enjoyed it,” she says of the matches against the “TV Total” presenter in retrospect. She returns to this world for a rematch in March 2007. This time it’s a real spectacle: Raab arrives in a tank, 19,500 spectators are on hand in the Kölnarena, 7.74 million viewers watch the show on TV, where Halmich achieves a unanimous points victory over the entertainer.
Pay according to quota, not gender
With his disrespectful remarks about women’s boxing, Raab was not an isolated case at the time of their first duel. “I grew up with such remarks, had already acquired a tough, thick skin and realized that I had to deal with all this machismo, right up to the journalists who asked me the stupidest questions, typical women’s questions,” says the boxing queen, describing the fight for equality. She is also fighting it at the negotiating table.
ZDF does not want to broadcast her fights at all, and from 2004 only for lower pay. Halmich calls in the sports lawyer Christoph Schickhardt, who pushes through equal pay for her last fights. “He drew up my last contracts and ensured that I was paid according to quota and not according to gender. That was my financial breakthrough, which is why I can still make a living from boxing today,” says Halmich. “At the time, I wasn’t so aware of it all, but today I know that something very special happened. In principle, I was the first female boxer in Europe to earn so much money.”
As a local hero, she celebrates her farewell performance on November 11, 2007: In the DM Arena in Karlsruhe, she defeats Hagar Shmoulefeld Finer by Majority Decision, “Thank you Regina, you are the greatest!” is written with fire on a hanging on the hall ceiling. The anthem for Halmich, “She’s the Queen”, is sung by another power woman: Doro Pesch. As a heavy metal singer and former frontwoman of the internationally renowned band, she has also asserted herself in a male domain. “We both have a pioneering role – that’s what connects us,” says Halmich about the musician, with whom she has been friends for 25 years, who has written several songs for Halmich and is performing as a live act at her farewell fight. The record of Halmich’s highly successful career: 56 fights, 54 of them victories, undefeated WIBF World Champion from 1995 to 2007.
Halmich is a pioneer in sport
With Halmich’s success, women’s boxing is gaining momentum worldwide. Her previous “Hall of Fame” colleagues all turned professional after her. Slowly but steadily, things are changing in the sport. Women’s boxing will become an Olympic sport in 2012, and the first women’s main event recently took place in the legendary Madison Square Garden with Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano. Halmich also attributes this to the fact that a younger generation is in charge on the men’s side. “In my day, there was Wilfried Sauerland, Klaus-Peter Kohl, international people like Bob Arum – these are all men who were still struggling with women’s boxing.
The Sauerland brothers, who have taken over their father’s business, support it. Internationally, Oscar de la Hoya and Roy Jones Jr. are promoters. After the Taylor vs. Serrano fight, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson congratulated the two ladies on Twitter and Lennox Lewis bowed to them.” She sees one man in particular in a pioneering role: “You could say that Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn has taken over Klaus-Peter Kohl’s work to a certain extent. England is now the stronghold of women’s boxing.”
Now that the federations have also followed suit, Halmich also sees a dwindling importance for the WIBF: “At the time, it was the only significant federation that wanted to sanction women’s boxing. The four men’s world federations only followed suit when they saw what was going on here in Germany and what kind of ratings I had. But since the big four started with women’s boxing, the WIBF can no longer keep up, especially not all the small associations that have been founded.”
High profile, even outside the ring
Halmich is also known outside of boxing circles. Even during her career, she has taken on engagements such as the Raab fights and has graced the cover of “Playboy” twice. “When you get a request from ‘Playboy’, you always feel flattered as a woman. For me at least, ‘Playboy’ is still the most beautiful men’s magazine with the most beautiful women on the cover, so there’s a certain sense of entitlement,” she says of the traditional magazine. “For me, there was also the fact that I was always in the media as a boxer. Whenever I fought, I was always seen smeared with Vaseline, sweaty, without make-up and unflattering. The idea of being able to present myself as a woman was very appealing to me.”
What is important to Halmich, however, is when she accepts the request. “When you’re world champion and have achieved this level of performance, you can afford it. It would have been terrible if I hadn’t had any success in the boxing ring and then did a shoot like this.”
Thanks to her popularity, Halmich is now a self-employed entrepreneur and can choose her jobs. Above all, she gives talks in companies. “As a speaker, I talk about my career, what business and sport have in common, how to deal with setbacks, how to motivate yourself again and again, how to stay successful,” she says, describing her main activity. The boxing queen is also in demand as a presenter and interview partner. “I always have a lot to do. What makes me incredibly happy and what I wouldn’t have expected is that I still have sponsors. That shows me that the discipline I have after my sport is worthwhile and that I’m continuing to develop.”
“Get goosebumps”
Halmich has a close friendship with actress Tina Ruland, whom she met at an event in 2009. They now both live in Berlin and see each other frequently, and Halmich also has a second home in Karlsruhe. However, she hasn’t visited her old training facility for a while: “After the early death of Jürgen Lutz in 2019, I haven’t been back to the Bulldog Gym once. I think it’s good that the gym is continuing, they do a great job there too, but I still associate it with my mentor Jürgen Lutz.”
Halmich believes that German women’s boxing is currently in crisis. “At the moment we have Tina Rupprecht, Christina Hammer, Nina Meinke. And Sophie Alisch, she will come. Of course, you can’t send her into the fire too soon, she needs another two or three years. But she’s really great. If you get it right, she can become a really great player. I would advise any woman who wants to make money in boxing today to knock on the door of Matchroom Boxing, maybe Oscar de la Hoya.”
In her eyes, women’s boxing has evolved in recent years. “It has become even more athletic,” she says. Halmich also commented on the history-making superfight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano on DAZN, which took place in front of a sold-out crowd and brought the streaming service fantastic ratings: “The experience really touched me. When I saw how much attention this fight was getting and how much recognition these two women were getting, I got goosebumps, it was beautiful.”
Text by Nils Bothmann
This text was first published in BOXSPORT 06/2022.