Without sponsors, without a safety net, with ADHD – and still a boxing world champion. Sarah Scheurich’s unusual path, her breakthrough against all odds and the decision that will now shape her career.
Success often announces itself loudly. For Sarah Scheurich, it came quietly. Step by step, against the kind of resistance that breaks other careers early on. Her path is not a shining success story, but the result of detours, doubts and decisions. Her path was supported by her willingness to take responsibility for herself.
Even as an amateur boxer, Sarah was one of the best in the country. Multiple German championship titles and winning the European Championship runner-up title were early proof of her sporting prowess. She trained with Michael Timm and Valentin Silaghi, learning technique, discipline and competitive toughness. But success at amateur level is no promise of a comfortable professional career, especially not in women’s boxing.
Scheurich: Strong and unpleasant
Initially, the move to the professional camp brought uncertainty. She lacked the structures, planning and reliable prospects that she was used to in amateur sport. Sarah boxed whoever dared to fight her. Often as part of the supporting program of other events, frequently at short notice and rarely under ideal conditions. Title fights were not an issue. Not for lack of ambition, but because there were hardly any opponents. Sarah was considered too strong and too uncomfortable. Who would voluntarily put their title on the line against a “nobody”?
What looked like a standstill to the outside world was a phase of perseverance for her. Sarah organized her training, everyday life and finances herself, worked alongside her sport and invested her savings in a future as a professional boxer without a safety net. Since her childhood, her journey has been accompanied by a diagnosis that explained many things and made many things more difficult: ADHD. “My head is often faster than everything else and I have difficulty focusing,” she says. “It can be chaotic, but I’ve learned to deal with it.”
Sarah’s professional career would have petered out like so many others. But she had the luck of the brave. The turning point came not through a big contract, but through attention. A friend raved about Sarah to Rainer Gottwald. Gottwald, nicknamed “The Brain”, is an experienced boxing manager and winner of the 10th season of the RTL reality show Promi Big Brother. He immediately recognized that there was more here than pure talent. “Sarah is not an athlete who can be squeezed into a mold,” he says. “She brings something to the table that you can’t train: Honesty, resilience and that unconditional will.”
The Brain Gottwald spoke to his former protégé Piergiulio Ruhe about Sarah. Ruhe is the reigning IBO and IBF European champion and WBA gold champion. In addition to his active career, he works as a promoter and runs one of the most modern boxing gyms in Germany. Sarah’s career was given a clear direction for the first time.
The night of decision
One night before “Babyface” Sarah Bormann’s world championship fight on October 18 in Hamburg, Gottwald and Ruhe agreed on a world championship fight with the management of New Zealander Lani Daniels. Daniels was Sarah’s famous big shot: physically extremely strong, robust, internationally experienced and known for her high speed. They called Sarah that very night: “Sarah, it’s time.”
On December 6 in Göppingen, Sarah Scheurich won the boxing spectacle against Daniels on points. Calm, controlled, without hectic. All the judges had her ahead on their scorecards (97:93, 97:93, 98:92). Sarah Scheurich is probably the only IBF world champion without sponsors and speaks openly about the illness that has accompanied her since childhood: “Look! I made it despite ADHD. And what I can do, you can do too.”
As world champion, she is at a crossroads. Either she stays at light heavyweight and aims to unify all the titles or she takes the step up to heavyweight and challenges Claressa Shields. That would be risky in sporting terms, but would have great international appeal. She wants to make the decision soon and together with Piergiulio Ruhe and Rainer Gottwald.
Sarah Scheurich wants to box for at least another three years. After that, she wants to make room for her family. Until then, she wants to make the most of her opportunities. Calm, focused and determined. For partners and sponsors, this is a rare moment: not the start of a hope, but of proven performance. Into an athlete who embodies discipline, resilience and credibility and whose story has an impact far beyond the ring, especially for young people who live with ADHD and want to see that success does not depend on perfect conditions.
Some careers don’t need a loud start, but people who recognize the right moment. That moment is now. Sarah Scheurich is not an idea. She is a reality. And her story is far from over.
Text by Wolfgang Wycisk