‘I saw a guy with a chainsaw’… Florian Winter on dramatic fight in Subway years before he started promoting one of the world’s most exciting heavyweight prospects

EXCLUSIVE: Florian Winter bravely went head-to-head with a man armed with a chainsaw, during a terrifying situation in a Subway store.

The promoter, is set to host a spectacular event on Friday night at the SAP Arena, Mannheim, Germany. In a main event that promises to deliver fireworks, exciting heavyweight prospect, Emanuel Odiase, will go toe-to-toe with dynamite puncher, Nick Webb.

However, while he is now in the business side of combat sports, the German certainly knows how to handle himself, with his expertise in martial arts proving to be of paramount importance when dealing with an extremely dangerous situation.

Florian Winter disarmed a man with a chainsaw

Long before he ever made waves by bringing big-time boxing back to Germany, Florian Winter worked in a fast-food restaurant. And on what promised to be just another ordinary shift, things soon spiralled out of control, with the teenager, as he was at the time, proving himself to be a hero by saving everybody in the building.

When asked about his craziest memory, during an exclusive interview with Sporf, he replied: “It was outside of the ring, and my combat sports skills helped me. When I was 16, I worked in a Subway store. I came straight from training to work; it was midday, and I saw a man in the line with a chainsaw in his hand. I thought he was a worker or something, but I went to the changing room, and downstairs, they screamed. One of the ladies came up and said, ‘There is a guy with a chainsaw, he wants to hurt us’. It was crazy. The boss, he was sitting close to me, and he said, ‘Florian, please go downstairs’. I just smashed this guy and finished the situation. We all waited for the police; the guy was crazy. He said, ‘You’re crazy’, I was like, ‘You have a chainsaw, you are crazy’. Then, the police came into the store, and they thought I was the guy, and they wanted to take me. The boss cleared up the situation, and said, ‘No, this is the guy’.”

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Florian Winter opens up about whether Emanuel Odiase will fight Johnny Fisher or Moses Itauma

In an impressive career to date, Odiase has compiled an unbeaten 10-0 (8) record, and while he faces an enormous step up in competition on Friday night, Winter is very much looking forward to what’s to come.

Having previously made a six-figure offer to Johnny Fisher, which was subsequently turned down, the former fighter is hopeful that ‘The Romford Bull’ will reconsider.

He explained: “I hope so. At the moment, he thought it wasn’t so interesting for him, but we will see if his mindset changes after this event on Friday.”

In addition, Winter loves the idea of his boxer going to war with Moses Itauma, on a card stacked with German and English warriors battling it out with one another.

He enthused: “That’s what I dream of every night. I would love for fights to happen like that. I’m sure we can make this happen in the coming months. It’s not just good for us Germans, but for the entire boxing world.”

Featured Image Credit: Frank Morlok/Ringside Zone