Armenia-born former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham is going to make a €100,000-worth of donation in the form of boxing equipment and gear to the school in Yerevan where he made his first steps in sports.

Unchallenged in his middleweight class, Abraham eventually decided to give up his IBF belt in 2009 and later shifted his weight division to supper middleweight to join a prestigious Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament for the WBA and WBC super middleweight title.

Despite several defeats in the tournament Abraham continues to enjoy a huge international popularity and remains a living icon for many commencing boxers in his native Armenia. Throughout his professional career Abraham has asserted his “Armenianness” both in and out of the ring and regularly visited his home country, drawing respect of his compatriots in both Armenia and Diaspora communities.

During his latest visit to Armenia for a vacation this summer Abraham has announced plans to set up a boxing school in Yerevan (after he calls it a career in boxing in several years’ time) to train future generations of Armenian boxers. But before that the renowned boxer has decided to gift expensive boxing gear to the Vladimir Yengibaryan Olympic Boxing Children’s and Youth Sport School.

The gifts, including sporting equipment, punching bags, boxing “paws”, boxer T-shirts and shorts, boots, bags, gloves, caps and other sportswear, will be ceremonially presented to the school on Wednesday.

“With this step I mean to express my gratitude and deep thankfulness to my sports school where once I was training and which helped me achieve results in the future,” said Abraham in a statement. He added that today Armenia has quite a lot of promising boxers and good coaches.