Alesia Graf has died. The former boxing world champion from Stuttgart was only 43 years old. Her close friend Regina Halmich says goodbye with a personal statement.
She was considered one of the best boxers in the world. Alesia Graf has now died at the age of 43. The background to the unexpected death of the former professional athlete is still unclear.
Boxing legend Regina Halmich says goodbye
Regina Halmich, boxing legend from Karlsruhe and long-time friend of Graf, says goodbye on her Instagram account. “I am shocked and stunned. You were not only a training partner and world champion, but also a friend. 43 years old – far too young to leave.” And further: “I don’t understand it. What sad news. RIP Alesia.”
The 47-year-old Halmich also writes: “I could tell so many stories about you, what made you stand out and how special you were – but I’m not able to at the moment, sorry.”
Alesia Graf: World champion from Stuttgart
The former professional boxer was born Alesia Klimowitsch in Belarus in 1980. She came to Germany in 1999 and lived in Stuttgart. She has had the surname Graf since her marriage in 2002, and in 2008 she took on German citizenship.
She started boxing in 2001 and became a professional fighter in 2004. Graf made her professional debut in February 2004 in the Schleyerhalle in Stuttgart, where she defeated the Slovakian Petra Jachmanova. In her career, Alesia Graf became world champion of the GBU and WIBF associations, winning 26 times in a total of 29 fights, eleven times by knockout. Graf was under contract with the Hamburg Universum boxing stable led by promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl and manager Peter Hanraths and commuted between Stuttgart and Hamburg for many years.
The athlete, who went by the fight name “The Tigress”, ended her career after her last fight in December 2012. Now her former boxing stable, Universum, has confirmed that Alesia Graf has died at the age of 43.