TV total Boxing Extra

Over nine million viewers tuned into watch the boxing event of the year on March 22, 2001: entertainer Stefan Raab entered the ring to fight the reigning boxing world champion Regina Halmich. Live, under standard boxing conditions and without head protection, the rivals fought each other over five rounds of two minutes each.

Challenger Raab emphasized before the fight: "This is no joke! If Regina loses, nobody will ever take women’s boxing seriously again." Regina Halmich, with 25 World Championship victories, the world’s most successful female boxer, comments self-confidently: "Stefan will be lucky if he survives the five rounds." She predicted: "He shouldn’t make plans for after the match."

For the evening, the TV total studio was converted into a steamy boxing venue. The spectacular event was presented by Oliver Welke, with boxer Axel Schulz providing expert commentary. The completely untrained entertainer actually took the matter in hand seriously and gave it his best shot. It was to be his toughest fight: he completed the five rounds, impressively proving that he could not only dish it out, but also take it like a man, with countless bruises, marks and a broken nose underlining that he wasn’t taking this contest lightly.

His rewards were sensational viewer ratings: up to 9 million viewers tuned in to watch the boxing spectacle, 7.37 million on average. The fabulous showdown achieved an average market share of 55.6%.
At the end of the match, Stefan Raab was happy with his unique title: runner-up female boxing world champion for 2001.