| Dariusz Michalczewski | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dariusz Michalczewski 5 May 1968 Gdańsk, Poland |
| Other names | Tiger |
| Nationality | Poland, Germany |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) |
| Division | Light heavyweight |
| Reach | 70.0 in (178 cm) |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Fighting out of | Hamburg, Germany |
| Trainer | Fritz Sdunek |
| Years active | 1988–2005 |
| Professional boxing record | |
| Total | 50 |
| Wins | 48 |
| By knockout | 38 |
| Losses | 2 |
| By knockout | 1 |
| Amateur career | |
| Total | 150 |
| Wins | 133 |
| By knockout | 83 |
| Losses | 15 |
| By knockout | 0 |
| Draws | 2 |
| Other information | |
| Website | http://www.dariusz-tiger.com/ |
| Boxing record from Boxrec | |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Competitor for Germany | ||
| Men’s Boxing | ||
| European Amateur Championships | ||
| Gold | 1991 Gothenburg | Light Heavyweight |
Dariusz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968, in Gdańsk, Poland) is a retired Polish- German boxer and former Lineal, WBO, WBA, & IBF light heavyweight champion and WBO cruiserweight champion.
Contents |
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 133–15–2 (83 KO's). Highlights of his amateur career include:
On 24 April 1988, while competing in Germany for the Polish national team, Michalczewski defected from the team to stay in Germany. Becoming a citizen of 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 "The Tiger."
He won the German International light heavyweight (175-pound) title early on 13 February 1993, a title for foreign born fighters based in Germany. He then won the IBF Intercontinental championship on 22 May 1993. Finally, on 10 September 1994, Michalczewski captured the WBO light heavyweight title with a 12-round decision over defending champion Leeonzer Barber.
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 knockout of Nestor Giovannini. However, he soon gave up that title to continue campaigning as a light heavyweight.
On 13 June 1997, he defeated Virgil Hill over 12 rounds to add Hill's Lineal, WBA, & IBF titles to his own. However, Michalczewski soon lost both alphabet titles. The WBA stripped him for displaying its belt along with that of the WBO, an organization it didn't recognize. The IBF did so a few weeks later, when Michalczewski was unable to defend his title against mandatory challenger William Guthrie within 30 days.
After beating Hill, Michalczewski knocked out 14 consecutive opponents, all in defense of his Lineal & WBO titles. On 1998, he defeated Drake Thadzi and in 2000 he went to defeat Graciano Rocchigiani.
Darius would attempt for 6 years to secure a bout with his American counter-part, Roy Jones Jr, without success. After his titles were stripped from Darius, Jones would win all the vacant belts and declare himself "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 the insistence the fight be held in Europe, where Jones feared he could only win by a knockout.
Michalczewski had a perfect record of 48 wins and no losses 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 all-time record for an undefeated record by a world championship boxer. 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, 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 title defenses at light heavyweight.
In October 2004, it was announced that Michalczewski would come out of retirement to fight France's Fabrice Tiozzo for the WBA light-heavyweight title on 26 February 2005, in Hamburg. He fought him but he lost, and then he declared the end of his career 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.
| 48 Wins (38 knockouts, 7 decisions, 3 disqualifications), 2 losses (1 knockout, 1 decision) | |||||||
| Res. | Opponent | Type | Rd.,Time | Date | Location | Notes | |
| Loss | Fabrice Tiozzo | TKO | 6(12), 2:05 | 2005-02-26 | Hamburg | For WBA light heavyweight title. | |
| Loss | Julio Cesar Gonzalez | SD | 12(12) | 2003-10-18 | Hamburg | Lost Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Derrick Harmon | KO | 9(12) | 2003-03-29 | Hamburg | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Richard Hall | TKO | 10(12) | 2002-09-14 | Braunschweig | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Joey DeGrandis | KO | 2(12) | 2002-04-20 | Gdańsk | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Richard Hall | TKO | 11(12), 1:50 | 2001-12-15 | Berlin | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Alejandro Lakatos | KO | 9(12), 1:35 | 2001-05-05 | Braunschweig | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Ka Dy King | TKO | 7(12), 0:28 | 2000-12-16 | Essen | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Graciano Rocchigiani | TKO | 10(12), 3:00 | 2000-04-15 | Hannover | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Montell Griffin | TKO | 4(12), 2:59 | 1999-08-28 | Bremen | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Muslim Biarslanov | TKO | 7(12), 1:41 | 1999-04-03 | Bremen | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Drake Thadzi | TKO | 9(12) | 1998-12-12 | Frankfurt | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Mark Prince | KO | 8(12) | 1998-09-19 | Oberhausen | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Andrea Magi | TKO | 4(12) | 1998-03-20 | Frankfurt | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Darren Zenner | RTD | 6(12), 3:00 | 1997-12-13 | Hamburg | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Nicky Piper | TKO | 7(12), 3:00 | 1997-10-04 | Hannover | Retained Lineal & WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Virgil Hill | UD | 12(12) | 1997-06-13 | Oberhausen | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. Won Lineal, WBA, & IBF light heavyweight titles. |
|
| Win | Christophe Girard | TKO | 8(12), 2:35 | 1996-12-13 | Hannover | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Graciano Rocchigiani | DQ | 7(12), 2:35 | 1996-08-10 | Hamburg | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Christophe Girard | UD | 12(12) | 1996-06-08 | Cologne | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Asluddin Umarov | TKO | 5(12), 2:30 | 1996-04-06 | Hannover | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Philippe Michel | UD | 12(12) | 1995-10-07 | Frankfurt | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Everardo Armenta Jr | KO | 5(12), 2:59 | 1995-08-19 | Düsseldorf | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Paul Carlo | KO | 4(12), 2:46 | 1995-05-20 | Hamburg | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Roberto Dominguez Perez | KO | 2(12), 1:05 | 1995-03-11 | Cologne | Retained WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Nestor Hipolito Giovannini | KO | 10(12), 1:25 | 1994-12-17 | Hamburg | Won WBO cruiserweight title. | |
| Win | Leeonzer Barber | UD | 12(12) | 1994-09-10 | Hamburg | Won WBO light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Melvin Wynn | KO | 2, 3:05 | 1994-05-28 | Aachen | ||
| Win | David Davis | KO | 7(10) | 1994-04-23 | Halle | ||
| Win | David Vedder | DQ | 1 | 1994-02-19 | Hamburg | ||
| Win | Sergio Daniel Merani | TD | 9(12) | 1993-11-20 | Hamburg | Retained IBF Inter-Continental light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Mwehu Beya | PTS | 12(12) | 1993-09-11 | Aachen | Retained IBF Inter-Continental light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Juan Alberto Barrero | KO | 5(10) | 1993-06-26 | Hamburg | ||
| Win | Noel Magee | TKO | 8(12) | 1993-05-22 | Aachen | Won vacant IBF Inter-Continental light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Pat Alley | KO | 4 | 1993-04-03 | Hamburg | ||
| Win | Ali Saidi | KO | 10(10) | 1993-02-13 | Hamburg | Won German International light heavyweight title. | |
| Win | Willie McDonald | KO | 3 | 1993-01-12 | Aachen | ||
| Win | Mike Peak | PTS | 8(8) | 1992-12-08 | Berlin | ||
| Win | Keith Williams | TKO | 2 | 1992-11-17 | Luebeck | ||
| Win | Cecil Simms | KO | 2 | 1992-11-07 | Cologne | ||
| Win | Steve McCarthy | DQ | 3(10) | 1992-09-29 | Berlin | ||
| Win | Sylvester White | TKO | 5 | 1992-08-28 | Aachen | ||
| Win | Richard Bustin | KO | 4(8) | 1992-06-27 | Quinta do Lago | ||
| Win | Terrence Wright | TKO | 2 | 1992-05-22 | Dinslaken | ||
| Win | Robert Johnson | TKO | 2 | 1992-04-04 | Düsseldorf | ||
| Win | Sean Mannion | TKO | 3 | 1992-02-21 | Berlin | ||
| Win | Yves Monsieur | TKO | 4(8) | 1992-01-28 | Berlin | ||
| Win | Zoltan Habda | TKO | 2 | 1992-01-10 | Aachen | ||
| Win | Peter Cenki | TKO | 2 | 1991-10-15 | Berlin | ||
| Win | Frederic Porter | TKO | 2 | 1991-09-16 | Berlin | Professional debut. | |
| Preceded by Leeonzer Barber |
WBO light heavyweight champion 10 September 1994 – 18 October 2003 |
Succeeded by Julio César González |
| Preceded by Nestor Hipolito Giovannini |
WBO cruiserweight champion 17 December 1994 – January 1995 Vacated |
Succeeded by Ralf Rocchigiani |
| Preceded by Virgil Hill |
WBA light heavyweight champion 13 June 1997 – 1 July 1997 Vacated |
Succeeded by Lou Del Valle |
| IBF light heavyweight champion 13 June 1997 – 16 June 1997 Vacated |
Succeeded by William Guthrie |
|
| Lineal light heavyweight champion 13 June 1997 – 18 October 2003 |
Succeeded by Julio César González |