Susianna Levonovna Kentikian (Armenian: Սյուզի Կենտիկյան; born Syuzanna Kentikyan on 11 September 1987[citation needed]) is an Armenian-German former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2016.

Kentikian has gained minor celebrity status in Germany and she hopes to reach a popularity similar to that of the retired German female boxing star Regina Halmich.

[6] At the age of five, she left Armenia with her parents and her nine-year-old brother, because her father was called up to serve in the military during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

However, due to the violence at these facilities and their poor knowledge of the German language, they left Berlin and moved to Moldova and later to Russia, where Kentikian went to school for a short period of time.

[9] Her family received a permanent residence permit in 2005 when she signed a three-year professional boxing contract that established a stable income.

[2] She started with regular training herself and stated that boxing had allowed her to forget the difficulties of her life for a short time: "I could let everything out, my whole energy.

[13] Kentikian found it increasingly difficult to find opponents in the amateur ranks, as few boxers wanted to face her, and her status as an asylum seeker did not allow her to box outside Hamburg.

[6] Kentikian started her professional career on 15 January 2005, with a win by unanimous decision over Iliana Boneva on the undercard of Regina Halmich.

Her unusually high knockout percentage, rarely seen in lower female weight classes, began to draw attention.

[9] In her 15th professional bout, Kentikian fought for her first world championship in Cologne, Germany, on 16 February 2007; it was also her first time headlining a fight card.

Before a crowd of 19,500 in the Kölnarena, she fought on the undercard of an exhibition bout between comedian Stefan Raab and WIBF world champion Halmich.

Hokmi, using her height and reach advantage, proved to be the first test of Kentikian's professional career and both boxers fought a competitive bout.

Kentikian controlled her opponent from the opening bell and the referee stopped the fight after Martin was knocked down from a straight right hand in round three.

Goodson, who had fought almost exclusively in lower weight classes before, was overpowered by Kentikian and the referee ended the fight after a series of body punches in round three.

Ortega, who had previously fought against well-known opponents such as Elena Reid and Hollie Dunaway, was knocked down twice by straight right hands during the first 90 seconds of the fight.

Reid, who was well known in Germany after two controversial bouts with Halmich in 2004 and 2005, remained largely passive from the opening bell and Kentikian controlled her through the majority of the fight.

In the first few rounds, she used combinations and quick offensive attacks to score against Mucino, before suffering a cut due to an accidental clash of heads.

[35] Later in the year, Kentikian scored another unanimous decision win on 21 October, this time against Teeraporn Pannimit, to retain her WBA, WBO, and WIBF titles.

[36] Undefeated with 29 wins (including 16 by knockout), Kentikian next attempted to defend her WBO and WIBF flyweight titles on 16 May 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany, against Melissa McMorrow.

The fight was decided by majority decision after 10 rounds: one judge gave Kentikian a four-point advantage, but the other two had Moreno ahead by identical 96–94 margins as she claimed the WBA title.

Despite suffering multiple cuts by her right eye, including one from a clash of heads during the 10th and final round, Kentikian was able to finish the fight and earn a unanimous decision victory.

[43] Kentikian made a title defense against Simona Galassi on 7 December in Stuttgart, under a scoring system in which judges could use half-points in their tallies.

[49] At the beginning of her professional career, Kentikian was primarily featured in the local media in Hamburg and occasionally in national German newspapers; in particular, her difficult childhood and her long-time uncertain asylum status sparked interest in the press and led to comparisons with the boxing film Million Dollar Baby.

[50] Early on, Kentikian was considered one of the big talents in German boxing[7] and the media mentioned her as the potential successor of record world champion Halmich, a goal she had also set out for herself.

[8] In 2007, Kentikian was introduced to a much larger audience due to cooperation between German television station ProSieben and her promoter Spotlight Boxing.

[54] A camera crew visited her for one year prior to her first world championship fight against Carolina Alvarez; the documentary aired in June 2007 on the German public broadcaster Das Erste.