Nickname(s) Tiger Total fights 50 Height 1.85 m | Nationality PolishGerman Role Professional Boxer Reach 70 in (178 cm) Name Dariusz Michalczewski Siblings Tomasz Michalczewski | |
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Rated at Light-heavyweightCruiserweight Children Nicolas Michalczewski, Michal Michalczewski, Dariusz Michalczewski Spouse Barbara Imos (m. 2009) Similar People Andrew Golota, Tomasz Adamek, Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Przemyslaw Saleta, Artur Szpilka | ||
Boxing virgil hill vs dariusz michalczewski
Dariusz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish-German former professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2005. He is a two-weight world champion, having held multiple world titles at light-heavyweight, including the WBO title from 1994 to 2003; the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal titles in 1997; and the WBO junior-heavyweight title from 1994 to 1995.
Contents
- Boxing virgil hill vs dariusz michalczewski
- Dariusz michalczewski highlight reel
- Amateur career
- Defection to Germany
- Professional career
- Two weight world champion
- Hill vs Michalczewski unification
- Going for Marcianos record
- Final fight
- In popular culture
- Social involvement
- References
Dariusz michalczewski highlight reel
Amateur career
Michalczewski came up through Poland's state-run sports program as a boy and had a successful amateur career. He achieved an amateur record of 139–11–2 (89 KO). Highlights of his amateur career include:
Defection to Germany
On 24 April 1988, while competing beyond the Iron Curtain in West Germany for the Polish national team, Michalczewski defected from the amateur team to stay in West Germany. Becoming a citizen of the now united Germany in 1991 and turning professional the same year, he was soon signed by Universum Box-Promotion, one of the leading boxing promoters in Europe. His aggressive style earned him the nickname "Tiger."
Professional career
Michalczewski turned professional in September 1991. He won the German International light-heavyweight title early on 13 February 1993, a title for foreign-born fighters based in Germany. He then won the IBF Intercontinental title on 22 May 1993.
Two-weight world champion
On 10 September 1994, Michalczewski, at 23-0 (18 KOs), captured the WBO light-heavyweight title with a 12-round decision over defending champion Leeonzer Barber at Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany. Between then and March 2003, Michalczewski made 23 successful defenses of his WBO title and picked up three other belts along the way. Three months after beating Barber, he won the WBO cruiserweight title with a tenth-round knockout of Nestor Giovannini. However, he soon gave up that title to continue campaigning as a light-heavyweight.
In 1996, Universum Box-Promotion's conditioning coach Fritz Sdunek became head coach and replaced Chuck Talhami as Michalczewski's trainer, which resulted in a marked improvement in Michalczewski's performances.
Hill vs Michalczewski unification
On 13 June 1997, he defeated Virgil Hill over 12 rounds to add Hill's WBA, IBF and Lineal light-heavyweight titles to his own. However, Michalczewski soon lost both alphabet titles. The WBA immediately stripped him for displaying its belt along with that of the WBO, an organization it didn't recognize. Michalczewski was then forced to relinquish the IBF title when he was unable to defend the title in a court-ordered defense against mandatory challenger William Guthrie within a little over a month after the bout with Hill.
After beating Hill, Michalczewski knocked out 14 consecutive opponents, all in defense of his Lineal/WBO titles. In 1998, he defeated Drake Thadzi, in 1999 he defeated Montel Griffin, and in 2000 he defeated Graciano Rocchigiani.
Darius would attempt for six years to secure a bout with his American counterpart, Roy Jones Jr, without success. After his titles were stripped from Dariusz, Jones would win Michalczewski's belts and spuriously declare himself "undisputed world champion". Jones steadfastly refused all offers for a lucrative fight with Darius and even made an attempt to ban the mention of Michalczewski's name on his home network, HBO. Seth Abraham, president and CEO of HBO, refused Jones demand and in 2002 a fan poll showed that the fight fans most wanted to see was Darius Michalczewski vs Roy Jones Jr. Jones continued to refuse offers for the fight however. One of his motivations may have been due to the fact that the offers were for the fight to be held in Europe, where Jones feared he could only win by a knockout.
Going for Marciano's record
Michalczewski had a perfect record of 48-0 when he faced Julio César González of Mexico in defense of his title on 18 October 2003. Coming into the fight, he was within one victory of tying Rocky Marciano's record of 49 wins with no losses. A win also would have put him just one victory short of Joe Louis' all-time record for successful defenses at any weight class. However, as when Larry Holmes went for the same record against Michael Spinks, the now 35-year-old Michalczewski was unable to pull it off. He lost a controversial split decision to the 27-year-old Gonzalez at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, and his career record dropped to 48-1.
Despite the loss, he still holds the record for the most consecutive successful world title defenses at light-heavyweight.
Final fight
In October 2004, it was announced that Michalczewski would come out of retirement to box France's Fabrice Tiozzo for the WBA light heavyweight title on 26 February 2005 in Hamburg. Michalczewski was stopped in six rounds, then announce his retirement in May 2005.
Michalczewski was to come out of retirement to fight German boxing icon Sven Ottke in Germany in May 2008, but the bout never materialized.
In popular culture
Social involvement
In 2003 Dariusz Michalczewski established foundation "Równe Szanse" (equal chances) which was aimed at supporting initiatives for youth from dysfunctional families. Since 2014 he supports the social campaign for civil union and the right for adoption by homosexual couples.