Firat Arslan (born 28 September 1970) is a German professional boxer of Turkish descent who held the WBA cruiserweight title from 2007 to 2008.
He also challenged twice for the WBO cruiserweight title in 2012 and 2014 and once for the IBF cruiserweight title in 2014 Southpaw Arslan began his professional career in 1997 and won his first 13 fights with aggressive brawling before dropping back to back decisions to Collice Mutizwa and Rüdiger May.
His biggest success in the early phase of his career was a draw against unbeaten Russian Vadim Tokarev in 2003 but he lost his next fight to Czech Lubos Suda.
His big breakthrough was entirely unexpected, though, as he managed to not only dominate but also KO unbeaten Russian fringe contender Grigory Drozd.
[2] After the loss to Jones, Arslan took an extended leave from boxing and returned almost two years later to face unheralded Steve Hérélius for the interim title.