Gibraltar based businessman Alan Graves won the middleweight world title in Germany

The boxing match, between undefeated Alan Graves and his German-born opponent Etem Bayramoglu, was held May 3rd 2025 in Hildesheim, Germany.
Only one month before, Graves fought 16-0, undefeated Argentinian Maxi James for the Intercontinental Middleweight title in Dubai. Graves knocked James out in the 4th round.
With this, Graves earned a world title shot, but due to scheduling issues and boxing politics only had one opportunity to fight for the title 3rd May 2025 in Germany.
Graves went into the fight as the underdog once again, against a seasoned professional in Bayramoglu. After a few hours of undercard fights including the final swansong of German boxer Omar Siala, a 73 fight, 20 year servant to the sport, the headline fight was ready to commence.
Bayramoglu entered the ring in the white and red shorts, representing his Turkish heritage, and Graves in his familiar all black shorts, donned with his nickname “El Tolelo”, a slang term for “The Family Man”.
The national anthems played and it was clear this riled Graves as he looked ready for war. During the final introductions, the travelling English fans made huge noise in the arena, adding to an already electric atmosphere.
Bayramoglu started fast and aggressive, but Graves did not let this phase him as he fought fire with fire. Bayramoglu quickly changed his approach, choosing to try and move on the outside, and tie Graves up once he got close.
Graves got the better of a messy first round, landing the cleaner, harder hooks and even managed some showboating as he made Bayramoglu miss.
Round 2 showed no signs of slowing down, as the all action fight continued. Graves walked through Bayramoglu’s attacks, and worked the body well, which it was clear Bayramoglu did not like.
The tide seemed to turn in Round 3, as whilst Graves got off some heavy shots, Bayramoglu increased his output and did enough to win the round as Graves chose to mostly soak up the punches in a tight guard. Graves did smile midway through the round, and can be heard beckoning Bayramoglu to keep punching and hit harder. “Come on Etem, don’t stop now.”
Graves went back to his corner, still beaming from ear to ear, seemingly confident as Bayramoglu looked exhausted.
Round 4 started a little delayed, as Bayramoglu complained of a calf strain. Graves went back to his strategy of throwing hard punches in bunches and after only a minute of action in Round 4, Bayramoglu quit.
He would later claim it was because of the calf strain, but it was clear to those in the arena that he ran out of gas and couldn’t keep up with Graves’ hard and fast pace.
The arena erupted as the fight was waved off, but Graves muted his celebrations until Bayramoglu was back on his feet out of respect.
Eventually the official winner was announced and as Graves had his hand raised the celebrations began for El Tolelo and his travelling fans. In a touching moment, Graves invited his father into the ring for a photograph during the raucous post fight celebrations.
In only his 5th professional fight, after just 18 months as a professional, Alan Graves is now the WBF Middleweight World Champion, and carries an impressive 100% knockout ratio.
In a post fight interview, Graves was asked for his future plans and he shouted out British fighter Chris Eubank Jr for a unification fight. “Chris, let’s have a unification at the O2, let’s do it!” So far there has been no response from Eubank.