Bilgenur Aras had to fight her way through, both in life and in the ring. The disoriented girl of yesteryear has become a tough young woman who is going her own way – and pursuing ambitious goals.
Sometimes it’s the little things that kick-start a new life. For Bilgenur Aras, it was a flyer with large boxing gloves stuck to her sneakers. This event happened 16 years ago. A short time later, she entered the “Boxcamp Gallus”, an integrative project run by Sportjugend Frankfurt, for the first time. And she moved into a home because she could no longer cope at home. Born in Turkey, she never had any contact with her mother and her father beat her and put her down. She spent a lot of time hanging around on the streets – with children and young people who had gone astray. Today, Aras is an ambitious professional boxer who has her sights set on the world top – and is looking for the big stage: “I want to box in the USA or England. Because it’s difficult to get good opponents to come to Germany,” says the Hessian, who goes by the fight name “Puncherella” and is a featherweight.
Controversial defeat
One weight class lower, in super bantamweight (up to 55.225 kg), where she also wants to return, she has already been able to call herself “world champion”. In 2021, she won the belt of the Universal Boxing Federation (UBF), followed by the German Bantam Championship two years later. This was followed by a long forced break due to a cruciate ligament rupture. Aras only returned to the ring in June 2025, winning the Interconti title of the World Boxing Federation (WBF) in November. The world champion in this federation is Lara Ochmann. “She is the only opponent in Germany who is still interesting for me,” says Aras. She suffered a setback in her most recent fight. However, she does not want to overrate the controversial points defeat against the strong Polish fighter Angelika Oles. “Wins and defeats are part of sport. I will come back stronger,” Aras announced in the ring. She emphasizes that she also wants to box strong opponents in the future: “I’m prepared to take risks on my way to the top of the world – and others should do the same.”
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