POLAND is a proud boxing nation and tomorrow night Artur Szpilka attempts to become his nation’s first ever heavyweight champion when he challenges Deontay Wilder for the WBC crown in Brooklyn.
With unbeaten WBO cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki and exciting light-heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara leading the Polish charge, boxing is thriving in Eastern Europe.
Not forgetting New Jersey-based heavyweight veterans Tomasz Adamek and Mariusz Wach, who are both still plying their tough trade.
But we can’t talk about Polish heavyweights without mentioning the talented and frustrating – in equal parts – Chicago-based Andrew (Andrzej) Golota.
Golota fought most of the big names in the late-90s, early 2000s (Tyson, Lewis etc), but his foul-filled riotous epics with Riddick Bowe (l dq 7 & l dq 9) saw him enhance his crazy, sordid reputation as a skillful but unpredictable entity.
Here are some of history’s finest fighters of Polish decsent. Some are lesser-known and some are boxing’s most incredible characters.
12. Pawel Wolak
Dębica-born, Mount Arlington, New Jersey’s exciting “Raging Bull” fought 32 times – all in his adopted country – from 2004 until a points defeat to Delvin Rodriguez in 2011.
Career highlights include a points win over Ireland’s decent former amateur star James Moore and winning the vacant NABF light-middleweight title in Las Vegas against former ‘world’ champion Yuri Foreman (rtd 6)
Currently competing in MMA.
11. Bobby Czyz
From New Jersey, Czyz won world titles at both light-heavy (IBF) and cruiser (WBA) before jumping to heavyweight, where he went in with Evander Holyfield (l rsf 5) in 1996.
His life has been eventful out of the ring: in 1980 injury kept him off the USA amateur team whose plane crashed in Poland and in 2007 he was hospitalised for seven weeks after a horrific car crash.
10. Dave Zyglewicz
His hometown was Troy, New York, but “Ziggy” spent three years in the US Navy before fetching up in Houston, where he started boxing.
By April 1969 he had reached 28-1 (14) when he challenged unbeaten Joe Frazier for the world heavyweight title (New York version) at Sam Houston Coliseum.
Zyglewicz was billed as “The Animal” and likened to Rocky Marciano in style (he was short at 5ft 11ins). But Frazier needed just 96 seconds to knock him out in what BN called “the biggest farce since Cassius Clay knocked out Sonny Liston in one round in 1965”.
9. Jean Walzack (Yanek Walzack)
Jean who? You might ask. But this middleweight from Noeux-les-Mines in the mining region of Northern France boxed Sugar Ray Robison three times in 14 months between February 1950 and June 1951. And he went the distance twice with Ray.
As a welterweight, Walzack had been good enough to beat Ernie Roderick at the Albert Hall in 1946 then go the distance with both Ike Williams and Billy Graham in the USA in late 1949.
8. Ben Jeby (Morris Jebaltowksi)
Jeby held the New York version of the world middleweight crown from January to August 1933, having been named to meet Frank Battaglia for the vacant title – Ben was from New York City, after all.
In April ‘33 he met rival NBA claimant Gorilla Jones but it was declared a No Contest in round six. But Jeby couldn’t have been that bad – he had beaten Len Harvey (pts 12) in New York two years earlier.
7. Johnny Buff (John Lesky)
From Perth Amboy in New Jersey, this Polish-American became, at 33, the oldest to win the world bantamweight title when he dethroned Pete Herman (pts 15) in 1921.
After 10 months he lost it on a 14th-round stoppage to Joe Lynch and, remarkably, two months after that moved down to challenge Pancho Villa for the world flyweight crown. But the Filipino stopped him in 11.
6. Dariusz Michalczewski
From Gdansk, “Tiger” defected to Germany in the late 1980s and won middleweight gold at the European Amateur Championships in Gothenburg in 1991.
As a pro he won his first 48 fights and held the WBO light-heavyweight crown for nine years before losing his last two. The big knock is that he never fought rival champion Roy Jones.
5. Eddie “Babe” Risko (Henry L. Pylkowski)
British fans know Risko, from Syracuse in New York State, for being destroyed in one round by Jock McAvoy at Madison Square Garden in December 1935.
Of Polish-Lithuanian origin, Risko took up boxing in the US Navy and was New York world 11st 6lbs king from September 1935 to December 1936. McAvoy was a non-title affair.
4. Teddy Yarosz (Thaddeus Yarosz)
A Polish-American from Pittsburgh, Yarosz became world champion in his hometown, beating Vince Dundee for the New York version of a split middleweight title in 1934.
But in a non-title bout with Babe Risko he tore a cartilage in his right leg and was knocked out in seven. Risko then took the title from him (on points) in a fight that saw Teddy hobble about on one leg, his injury not having healed.
3. Tony Zale (Antoni Florian Zaleski)
What does “The Man Of Steel” have in common with Michael Jackson? They both came from Gary, Indiana, a steel-making town not far from Chicago.
His hardscrabble background toughened up Zale for a boxing career that saw him become world middleweight champ (NBA version) in 1940 and achieve undisputed recognition the following year.
Remarkably, it was after four years in the US Navy and in his mid-30s that Tony had his famed trilogy with Rocky Graziano (w ko 6 in 1946, l ko 6 in 1947 and w ko 3 in 1948). Zale was 35 when Marcel Cerdan dethroned him for the last time.
2. Joe Choynski
The son of a Jewish immigrant who emigrated from Poland in the 19th century and eventually settled in San Francisco.
Choynski was known for his intelligence, toughness and power in both hands and is one of the best fighters never to have fought for a world title. His record reads like a who’s-who of the late 1800s to early 1900s: James J Corbett, George Godfrey, Bob Fitzsimmons, Tom Sharkey, Joe McAuliffe, Kid McCoy, Barbados Joe Walcott, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, it goes on… The veteran Choynski gave away almost 50 pounds to a fearsome up-and-coming heavyweight powerhouse called James J Jeffries and used all his guile to earn a 20 round draw.
In the twilight of his career and weighing no more than 180lbs, “Chrysanthemum Joe” went into the Galveston backyard of another future heavyweight legend in 1901 and stunningly chinned a young Jack Johnson in the third round.
1. Stanley Ketchel (Stanislaus Kiecal)
For some the greatest middleweight of all, the “Michigan Assassin” was renowned for a take-no-prisoners style, both in and out of the ring.
Sixteen-year-old Ketchel cut his teeth as a boxer by beating up fully grown men in backroom matches held in the bars of Montana before heading West to seek fame and glory.
Both came quickly, he had two spells as world middleweight champion – after some vicious battles with great rival Billy Papke – and still held the title when shot dead by jealous farmhand Walter Dipley in October 1910 aged just 24.
A fighter through-and-through, his willingness to take on anyone was shown when he challenged world heavyweight king Jack Johnson (October 1909), dropping him before getting flattened in round 12 courtesy of Johnson’s pet punch – his right uppercut. Some of Ketchel’s teeth were rumoured to have been left embedded in Johnson’s glove. Stanley gave away some twenty-five pounds to the heavyweight king.
