Laszlo with a heavy glove. Great Hungarian boxer Laszlo Papp dies

Recently, in the XIII district of Budapest, a monument was opened to Laszlo Papp, an outstanding Hungarian boxer, the first three-time Olympic champion in boxing history, and a two-time European boxing champion (1949 and 1951).

"In Europe, he was known as a great and successful champion, since only two people besides him managed to win three Olympics many years later. In America, Laszlo Papp was called the "tragic champion", because they were sure that the main dream of his life - to become the best among professionals - he never realized.

In Hungary, Laszlo Papp was no less loved than the players of the famous football team of the early 50s, which was supposed to win the World Cup, but, by some terribly unfortunate coincidence, did not win. The middleweight from Budapest was more fortunate: he received medals along with the recognition of the fans.

His three Olympic victories - in 1948, 1952 and 1956 - for a very long time will look not even great, but a strange achievement for amateur boxing. Boxing, in which everything is limited to three rounds and it is often impossible to correct mistakes made at the beginning. Boxing where you have to fight all week without a break to get to the finals of tournaments like the Olympics and there is no time to prepare for one particular fight with one particular opponent. Records in sports do not last forever. Papp's record was repeated anyway: first, 24 years later, by Teofillo Stevenson, then, after another 20 years, by another Cuban, Felix Savon.

Among all his victories, Laszlo Papp himself always singled out, of course, the last one in Melbourne. By that time, he had eight broken hands. He was already 30, his opponent was almost ten years younger. The opponent is Jose Torres, perhaps the most talented in the entire American team, fast and sharp, confident that he will cope with this Hungarian left-hander, studied by everyone inside and out. Laszlo Papp left him no chance: the young Torres was outplayed, almost humiliated...

triple Olympic champion wanted to go pro. Even knowing that 18 days before the Olympics, Soviet troops entered Budapest and the government, which considered professional boxing a capitalist perversion and therefore banned it in Hungary, has been restored. Gone anyway. The great football player Ferenc Puskas left for Real Madrid around the same time, great boxer Laszlo Papp - to Vienna, without parting, however, unlike Puskas, with Hungarian citizenship. He was always proud to be from Hungary.

In the old American boxing reviews (although boxing fights in Europe are traditionally given less attention in the USA) one can find short and enthusiastic descriptions of some of the three dozen fights that Papp the professional managed to fight. For example, the one in which he defeated the famous veteran Tiger Jones. Or the one in which he knocked out Chris Christensen on May 16, 1962 with his crown hook from the left, becoming the European champion. Then he defended this title six times in a row. He was soon going to be given a chance, the first of the representatives of Eastern Europe, to fight for the world title. And then the Hungarian government took away from Laszlo Papp the right to work abroad, believing that a professional athlete could not be the face of a socialist state. Torres beaten by him in Melbourne became the world middleweight champion. And the Spaniard Puskas had already managed to win the European Cup by that time ...

Heavy Gloves Laszlo Pappa

"Heavy Gloves" is the title of a Hungarian film made in the 1950s. main role the great Hungarian boxer Laszlo Papp played in it, and, in fact, he played himself - the film told about his fate and the first glorious victories in the ring; True, it was not without a share of artistic fiction. In real life, after the shooting of the film, Laszlo Pappa expected many new victories and sharp twists of fate.

And as a child, he was frail, undersized and often suffered in street fights. They happened often, because Laszlo lived in one of the most hectic working-class suburbs of Budapest. To learn to stand up for himself, he once came to the boxing section.

Abilities, according to the coaches, he had. At the age of 19, Laszlo was already training in the boxing team of the famous Budapest sports club"Vashutash". However, he never came out tall - he stopped at 1 meter 67 centimeters and competed in the ring in middleweight.

As often happens in sports, Special attention he drew coaches on himself by chance. On October 6, 1945, the first boxing match after the war was to take place in Budapest. Boxing fans gathered mainly to watch Budapest's favorite, multiple middleweight champion Gyula Bičak. However, at the last moment, Bichak's rival fell ill. The only one who was at hand, 19-year-old Laszlo Papp, had to be released into the ring instead of him. The highly experienced Bichak did not take his opponent seriously at first and hoped for an easy victory. But he won, and by knockout, Laszlo. So he immediately ended up in the Hungarian national team.

Soon the young boxer was already known throughout the country. In the first three years of his boxing career, he spent 51 fights, of which he lost only one. In three fights, Laszlo won on points, and in forty-seven he sent opponents to a knockout.

Laszlo Papp

His opponents were formidable: at various competitions, he defeated the Austrian boxer Bauer, the Yugoslav Mikolich, the Czech boxer Chernogorsky by knockouts. Laszlo himself most of all remembers the meeting with the Italian boxer Renato Aiello at the match between Italy and Hungary. Later, he admitted that in his entire career as an amateur boxer, he missed the most blows from Aiello.

At the XIV Olympiad in 1948 in London, Papp competed in the middleweight division. The first three meetings, where his opponents were successively Finnish, Luxembourgish and Belgian boxers, ended in knockouts, and very quickly. These brilliant victories of the Hungarian boxer delighted the fans, and, as you know, all the British are boxing experts.

However, in the fourth fight, Italian boxer Ivano Fontano managed to last all three rounds, and Laszlo Papp won on points. And in the final, the Hungarian met with the Englishman George Wright, an English sailor, for whom, of course, most of the 10,000 assembled spectators were rooting.

Lanky and thin, Wright was almost a head taller than Papp. Long arms gave him an advantage, and he fought a defensive battle, waiting for the enemy to get tired in order to deliver a decisive blow. Wright skillfully defended himself from the quick short attacks of the Hungarian.

But in the third round, Papp brought down a real hail of blows on the sailor. True, he could not win by knockout, as everyone was already used to, but he won on points. So the 22-year-old short boy won his first Olympic gold medal.

The four years that have passed since the XIV Olympiad only strengthened Laszlo Papp's sports glory. Of the 100 fights he fought, he finished 99 with victories. And yet, the XV Olympiad in 1952 in Helsinki turned out to be a more difficult test for him than the past ones.

It all started with the fact that the Hungarian boxer suddenly fell ill and did not get out of bed for the first two days in Helsinki. In addition, the affairs of other Hungarian boxers were deplorable - they lost in the first fights and dropped out of the competition. Hungarian fans could only hope for Laszlo Papp.

The first fight of the Olympic champion with the American Webb was reminiscent of his final fight at last Olympics. The American Webb, like the Englishman Wright, was a whole head taller than Papp. Fearing Papp's crown hooks, the American tried to keep his opponent at a distance, hoping for the length of his arms. IN last second of the first round, the Hungarian still managed to carry out his signature blow, but the gong sounded immediately, and during the break the American came to his senses.

In the second round, Webb followed the same tactic, but still missed a sharp hook and opened up for a moment. With the next two lightning strikes, Papp knocked out the American.

The second opponent of the Olympic champion was the Canadian Shase, who continually tried to enter the clinch with Pappo and protect himself from his sharp blows. But in the third round, Laszlo sent him to the ropes with his signature left hook. The Canadian slid down them to the floor and, without getting up, listened to the ring judge counting to ten.

Two of his next victories - over Bulgarian Slavov and Argentinean Herrera - Papp won on points. And the final fight of the Hungarian with the boxer from South Africa T. van Shalkvik was remembered by all boxing fans for a long time.

The African, also taller than Papp, managed to last two rounds. The third began with the fact that the Hungarian with a sharp blow knocked him down, but with a score of "eight" the African managed to get up. And four more times he found himself on the floor, but each time he found the strength to continue the fight. When the gong sounded, the issue with the Olympic champion was clear.

Of course, the Hungarian boxer also had defeats. At the European Championship following the Olympic Games in Helsinki, he lost to the champion of the Soviet Union Boris Tishin. And on the eve of the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne - the excellent Polish boxer Zbigniew Petrzykowski at a meeting in Warsaw.

And in distant Australia, Laszlo Papp's mood was not the best. Literally on the eve of the Olympic Games, Soviet tanks were brought into Hungary to crush the uprising. Many Hungarians then left the country, and those who were abroad at that moment, including athletes, decided not to return. This was done, for example, by the players of the Honved club, which made a tour of European countries, and almost all the leading masters of the great Hungarian national team at that time played in this club.

In the first fight Olympic tournament boxers weight class Laszlo Papp won against the Argentinean Saiens. The opponent's eyebrow was cut, and the judges stopped the fight.

In the second fight, Papp's opponent was Zbigniew Petrzykowski. The Hungarian was seriously afraid of this boxer, remembering his recent defeat in Warsaw. The Pole, on the contrary, was inspired by his victory and counted on a new success. However, at the very end of the first round, Papp knocked him down. The gong saved the Pole from defeat. In the second and third rounds, Petshikovsky was already much more cautious, and the fight was generally equal. Papp won on points.

In the final battle, the Hungarian's opponent was the American Jose Torres. He was 10 years younger than Papp and was considered a very strong boxer. In meeting with him, Papp used the tactic of waiting. For the time being, he did not proceed to active actions, feeling for the weaknesses of the enemy. And only in the third round brought down a hail of blows on Torres. One of them knocked out the American. So Laszlo Papp became the first of the boxers who managed to win gold medals at three Olympics.

After the match, Torres shared his revelations with reporters: he had never received such tangible blows from anyone. And rival Laszlo Pappa was indeed an excellent boxer. After the Melbourne Olympics, he turned professional and became the world champion in floor heavyweight.

Offers to become a professional boxer came to Papp. The three-time Olympic champion could have made his choice already in Australia, but chose to return to his native Hungary. However, he still became a professional boxer. Assessing his loyalty, the Hungarian authorities allowed him to do so officially. This was the first case in all socialist countries. And Papp had the opportunity to compete with the best professionals in his weight class.

On May 19, 1957 in Cologne, Laszlo Papp first met in a professional ring with the German Alois Brandt. The Hungarian confidently won this meeting on points. And in other fights, he never lost. Boxing fans especially remember his fight with the French middleweight champion Francois Anevy, which took place on December 15, 1958 in Paris. The meeting was attended by 15 thousand spectators. In the sixth round, Papp knocked out the Frenchman with his famous left hook.

In total, by 1962 he had 18 fights in the professional ring. Two ended in a draw, and in 16 the Hungarian won, and in nine meetings - by knockout. In the same year, a memorable meeting between Laszlo Papp and American black boxer Ralph Jones took place in Vienna. On account of that there were 87 fights, many expected that it was Jones, nicknamed the Tiger, who would finally become the one who would be able to defeat the invincible Hungarian. However, in the tenth round, the Tiger was also knocked out.

On May 16, 1962, Laszlo Papp won the title of European champion among professional boxers in his weight category. On this day, he defeated the Dane Christensen, who owned this title before. And then the Hungarian had to defend his title in battles with many opponents, including the same Christensen, who tried in vain to take revenge.

But Laszlo Papp was never destined to become a world champion among professionals: in 1965, the Hungarian authorities unexpectedly canceled their decision and henceforth banned Laszlo Papp from practicing professional boxing. He turned 39 that year. He left the professional ring without a single defeat.

The whole further life of the great athlete, who died in 2003, was also connected with boxing. For many years he trained Hungarian boxers, preparing them for Olympic Games. And in 1993 he opened his own boxing school, where talented young athletes were trained.

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Let's not pull the cat's tail - Laszlo Papp is not just a World Boxing legend. This is the First Three-time Olympic Boxing Champion. Papp won his gold medals in:

London-1948
Helsinki-1952
Melbourne-1956

In addition, Papp has twice become European Champion among amateurs:

Oslo 1949
Milan 1951.

Over the entire career of an amateur, the Hungarian boxer Laszlo Papp spent 300 fights, losing only one of them. After that, he went professional.

Childhood and youth

Laszlo Papp was born in 1926 in Budapest, Hungary. Childhood turned out to be restless - these years came the second World War 1939-1945. After the liberation of Hungary, in 1945, Papp went to study at. No one bet on a young, but small (167 cm) and frail boy, but Laszlo Papp proved his superiority more than once.

As a result of hard training from a slow mattress, boxer Laszlo Papp turned into a real athlete: he became fast, aggressive and learned to hit so that his rivals complained to seconds during breaks: "I don't want to box with him! He has dynamite in every fist!"

Champion of Champions

As mentioned above, following the triumphs in the Hungarian Championships, Laszlo Papp began to win at the Olympics and the European Championships, one after another. Hurt by his fists famous boxers of that time - Zbigniew Pietrzykowski and Jose Torres, who later became the World Champion among the pros.

After that, Papp went to professional boxing. However, he was not allowed to open up fully. In 1962, Papp became the European Boxing Champion among professionals, and everyone was just waiting for him at the fights in the USA.

However, the situation that prevailed then in Hungary did not contribute to the success of the Champion. The Soviet government of Hungary forbade Papp to participate in professional fights and 40-year-old Laszlo Papp was forced to hang up his gloves.

Trainer

Boxer Laszlo Papp remained not only an athlete, but also became great coach. In 1966, he led the Hungarian boxing team, and in 1991 he stopped coaching it. In addition, in his native Budapest, Papp was the head coach of the Obuda boxing school he created. For my coaching career Laszlo Papp also prepared World, European and Olympic Champions in boxing, but none of the students could repeat the feat of the great mentor - three-time Olympic Champion boxer Laszlo Papp.

MOSCOW, 17 October. /Corr. RIA "Novosti" Valery Asriyan/. The great Hungarian boxer Laszlo Papp has died at the age of 78.

> For that generation of Russian sports fans, whose youth fell on the 40s and 50s, which are already so far from us, Papp was a living legend. Even his name - short, sonorous - was like a sharp, knockout blow, one of those that terrified Papp's rivals and caused indescribable delight among thousands of fans of the "iron Laszlo", not only in Hungary, but also in the USSR, where he enjoyed great popularity.

Papp belonged to that generation of outstanding Hungarian athletes, which already in the first post-war years made the whole world talk about the "Hungarian miracle" in sports and made his small country one of the leading sports powers on the planet.

It was at this time that the phenomenal Hungarian football team was born, led by the great Ferenc Puskas, which knew no equal in the first half of the 50s, wonderful Hungarian athletes, wrestlers, swimmers, fencers, water polo players, gymnasts, basketball players shine. Suffice it to say that the Hungarian team at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki in the unofficial team standings takes third place after the teams of the USSR and the USA.

Special attention in Helsinki was drawn to the boxing tournament, which brought together a whole constellation of great masters leather glove. And if it were necessary to determine a single "king of the ring", then the judges would have to be very difficult. Because both the American Floyd Patterson, who later became the world heavyweight champion among professionals, and the Hungarian Laszlo Papp equally deserved this title. Patersson became the Olympic champion in the super middleweight, and Papp - in the first. Moreover, the Hungarian won all his fights ahead of schedule - by knockout.

So Laszlo Papp became a two-time Olympic champion. my first gold medal he won at the London Olympics in 1948. And then he confirmed his outstanding skills by winning the European Championships in 1949 and 1951. But at the next championship of the continent in Warsaw in 1953, Papp was in for an unexpected failure - in fact, the first in his boxing career. He does not even reach the final, losing on points to the Soviet boxer Boris Tishin. Two years later, at the next European Championship, Papp loses again. This time to the famous Polish boxer Petshikovsky.

The halo of invincibility that surrounded the great Hungarian disappears. His swift attacks and mighty strikes, which until recently could break through any defense, are now less and less likely to hit the target. At the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, 30-year-old Laszlo Papp is no longer going to be the undisputed favorite. No one in the history of boxing has ever managed to win three Olympic tournaments in a row, and experts believe that it is unlikely that Papp, who has aged and, in their opinion, noticeably surrendered, is capable of creating a miracle. But Papp did it! He boxed in the Melbourne ring, as in best years of his youth. One after another, he sends his rivals to the floor, including Petshikovsky, who was expected to win a gold medal. And it was awarded to Laszlo Papp, the first three-time Olympic champion among boxers. Only a quarter of a century later, the famous Cuban Teofilo Stevenson would repeat this achievement of the great Hungarian.

Having reached all the heights in amateur sports, Papp, with the permission of the Hungarian government, was the first among the athletes of the socialist countries to become professionals. And in the professional ring, despite his considerable age for a boxer, he “smashes” everyone, and in 1962, having knocked out the Dane Christensen in the final fight, he becomes the European champion among the “pros”. He retained this title until 1966.

He was already 40 years old when he left the ring. However, did he leave? After all, Papp became the head coach of the Hungarian national team and again he could be seen on the boxing platform, only now on the other side of the ropes surrounding the ring. Under the leadership of Laszlo Papp, Hungarian boxers have repeatedly achieved great success in tournaments of the highest rank, and looking at the fights of his students, one could easily discern the signature "handwriting" of the Teacher, whose lessons helped them comprehend the wisdom of boxing art and win.

The "golden age" of Hungarian sports, alas, is long gone. The country no longer gave the world a new Puskas or a new Papp. But should this be surprising? After all, such titans are not born often, perhaps once a century, reminding people of what a person can achieve if he is endowed with great talent and obsessed with the passion to win.

(1926–2003)

Hungarian boxer Champion of the Games of the XIV Olympiad in London (Great Britain), 1948. Champion of the Games of the XV Olympiad in Helsinki (Finland), 1952. Champion of the Games of the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne (Australia), 1956

Hungarian Laszlo Papp became the first boxer to win gold medals at three Olympics. And as a child, he was frail, undersized and often suffered in street fights. They happened often, because Laszlo lived in one of the most hectic working-class suburbs of Budapest. To learn to stand up for himself, he once came to the boxing section.

Abilities, according to the coaches, he had. By the age of 19, Laszlo was already training in the boxing team of the famous Budapest sports club Vashutas. However, he never came out tall - he stopped at 1 meter 67 centimeters - and competed in the ring in middleweight.

As is often the case in sports, he drew special attention of coaches to himself thanks to the occasion. On October 6, 1945, the first boxing match after the war was to take place in Budapest. Boxing fans gathered mainly to watch Budapest's favorite, multiple middleweight champion Gyula Bičak. However, at the last moment, his opponent fell ill. The only one who was at hand, 19-year-old Laszlo Papp, had to be released into the ring instead of him. The highly experienced Bichak did not take his opponent seriously at first and hoped for an easy victory. But he won - and by knockout - Laszlo. So he immediately ended up in the Hungarian national team.

His opponents were formidable: at various competitions, he knocked out the Austrian boxer Bauer, Yugoslav Mikolich, Czech boxer Chernogorsky. Most of all, Laszlo remembered the meeting with the Italian boxer Renato Aiello at the match between Italy and Hungary. Later, he admitted that in his entire career as an amateur boxer, he missed the most blows from Aiello.

At the games of the XIV Olympiad in 1948 in London, Papp performed in his usual middleweight. The first three meetings, where his opponents were successively Finnish, Luxembourgish and Belgian boxers, ended in knockouts, and very quickly. These brilliant victories delighted the fans, and, as you know, all the British are experts in boxing.

Lanky and thin, Wright was almost a head taller than Papp. His long arms gave him the advantage, and he fought defensively, waiting for the enemy to get tired in order to deliver the decisive blow. Wright skillfully defended himself from the quick short attacks of the Hungarian.

The four years that have passed since the games of the XIV Olympiad only strengthened Laszlo Papp's sports glory. Of the hundred fights he fought, ninety-nine he finished with victories. And yet, the games of the XV Olympiad in 1952 in Helsinki turned out to be a more difficult test for him than the past ones.

The first fight of the Olympic champion with the American Webb was reminiscent of his final fight at the last Olympics. The American Webb, like the Englishman Wright, was a whole head taller than Papp. Fearing Papp's crown hooks, the American tried to keep his opponent at a distance, hoping for the length of his arms. In the last second of the first round, the Hungarian still managed to carry out his signature blow, but immediately the gong sounded, and during the break the American came to his senses.

In the second round, Webb followed the same tactic, but still missed a sharp hook and opened up for a moment. With the next two lightning strikes, Papp knocked out the American.

The second opponent of the Olympic champion was the Canadian Shase, who kept trying to get into the clinch with Papp and protect himself from his sharp blows. But in the third round, Laszlo sent him to the ropes with his signature left hook. The Canadian slid down them to the floor and, without getting up, listened to the ring judge counting to ten.

Two of his next victories - over Bulgarian Slavov and Argentinean Herrera-Papp won on points. And the final fight of the Hungarian with the boxer from South Africa T. van Shalkvik was remembered by all boxing fans for a long time.

The African, also taller than Papp, managed to last two rounds. The third started with the fact that the Hungarian knocked him down with a sharp blow, but at the score of "eight" the African managed to get up. And four more times he found himself on the floor, but each time he found the strength to continue the fight. When the gong sounded, the issue with the Olympic champion was clear.

Of course, the Hungarian boxer also had defeats. At the European Championship following the Olympic Games in Helsinki, he lost to the champion of the Soviet Union Boris Tishin. And on the eve of the games of the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne - to the excellent Polish boxer Zbigniew Petrzykowski at a meeting in Warsaw.

And in distant Australia, Laszlo Papp's mood was not the best. Literally on the eve of the Olympics, Soviet tanks were brought into Hungary to crush the uprising. Many Hungarians then left the country, and those who were abroad at that moment, including athletes, decided not to return. This was done, for example, by the players of the Honved club, which made a tour of European countries, and almost all the leading masters of the great Hungarian national team at that time played in this club.

In the first fight of the Olympic tournament of boxers in his weight category, Laszlo Papp won against the Argentinean Saiens. The opponent's eyebrow was cut, and the judges stopped the fight.

In the second and third rounds, Petshikovsky was already much more cautious, and the fight was generally equal. Papp won on points.

In the final battle, the Hungarian's opponent was the American Jose Torres. He was ten years younger than Papp and was considered a very strong boxer. In meeting with him, Papp used the tactic of waiting. For the time being, he did not proceed to active actions, feeling for the weaknesses of the enemy. And only in the third round brought down a hail of blows on Torres. One of them knocked out the American.

After the match, Torres shared his revelations with reporters: he had never received such tangible blows from anyone. And rival Laszlo Pappa was indeed an excellent boxer. After the Melbourne Olympics, he turned pro and became the light heavyweight champion of the world.

The same proposals were made to Pappus. The three-time Olympic champion could have made his choice already in Australia, but still chose to return to his native Hungary.

However, he still became a professional boxer. Assessing his loyalty, the Hungarian authorities allowed him to do so officially. This was the first case in all socialist countries. And Papp had the opportunity to compete with the best professionals in his weight class.

On May 19, 1957, in Cologne, Laszlo Papp first met in a professional ring with the German Alois Brandt. The Hungarian confidently won this meeting on points. And in other fights, he never lost. Boxing fans especially remember his fight with the French middleweight champion Francois Anevy, which took place on December 15, 1958 in Paris. The meeting was attended by 15 thousand spectators. In the sixth round, Papp knocked out the Frenchman with his famous left hook. In total, by 1962 he had 18 fights in the professional ring. Two ended in a draw, and in 16 the Hungarian won, and in nine meetings - by knockout.

In the same year, a memorable meeting between Laszlo Papp and the American Negro Ralph Jones took place in Vienna. On account of that there were 87 fights, and many expected that it was Jones, nicknamed the Tiger, who would finally be the one who would be able to defeat the invincible Hungarian. However, in the tenth round, the Tiger was also knocked out.

But Laszlo Papp was never destined to become a world champion among professionals: in 1965, the Hungarian authorities unexpectedly reversed their decision and henceforth banned Laszlo Papp from professional boxing. He turned 39 that year. He left the professional ring without a single defeat.

The whole further life of the great athlete was connected with boxing. For many years he trained Hungarian boxers, preparing them for the Olympic Games. And in 1993 he opened his own boxing school, where talented young athletes were trained.