Armand Krajnc

Armand Krajnc (born August 7, 1973 in Landskrona, Scania, Sweden) is a Swedish boxer who conquered the WBO World Championbelt in Middleweight and managed to keep it three times thereafter. The last defending of his title was against Swedish Stockholmer and countryman Paolo Roberto, an event which attracted a lot of attention whithin the Swedish Kingdom. The match became much of a metaphor for a domestic contest between Stockholm and Scania, and was held in Germany, due to the firm prohibitation of all professional boxing in Sweden, implemented from January 1. 1970. But which eventually contributed to the end of the full juridic ban of Swedish pro-boxing.

Personal

Krajnc's parents emigrated from Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia to southernmost Sweden, Scania before he was born. He speaks with a clear Scanian pronunciation. Before his professional career, he obtained first Dan, reprecented by the Black Belt, within the Karate style of Shotokan. This prepared him to become a hard-hitting boxer. When he began his professional career he moved to Malmö and commuted on weekly basis to his new German boxing club and promotor in Lübeck in northern Germany.

Professional career

Known as "Lion", Krajnc turned pro in 1996. For this he moved to Lübeck due to the Swedish ban on professional boxing, and signed up for a German promotor. And three years later, in 1999, he won the WBO Middleweight Title, through a technichal knock out (TKO) against Jason Matthews. Krajnc defended the title three times before losing the belt in 2002 to Harry Simon.

One of Krajnc's title defenses was against fellow countryman, the Stockholm celebrety Paolo Roberto. Krajnc had during a Swedish press conference made a simple joke behind Roberto's back with his fingers. And when media later asked him about it, Krajnc was quide fond of sharing his opinions of Roberto. And they were not of the most kind type... He once compared Roberto to a fjolla (In English foolish female without knowing her own best) and stated that Roberto had better talents in painting female toes, which Roberto actually had done, in a Swedish commercial TV-program. It was primary Roberto's entertainment appearances in television, which Krajnc obviously found unfitting a professional boxer.

Now Roberto felt compelled to challenge the WBO World Champion. Kranjc had from a boxing career perspective, no real reason to accept this challenge. However he quite surpriseingly did anyway after a wail, presumably feeling certain of beating Roberto. And at 3 November 2001, the match was held in Kranjc home arena in Germany.^[1] The distance between Lübeck and Scania is fairly short, and between 1500 and 2000 Scanian fans had met up in Lübeck, in order to, together with his German supporters, give their best possible support for Krajnc. Roberto, who was well-known from Swedish television, not only for boxing, would rather have met Krajnc in Mariehamn, Åland. But the challenger couldn't chose location of this event. Which in Sweden became a very media covered event (though the ban on professional boxing made it impossible to televise it live).

Against a combination of joined Germans and Scanias supporters, Roberto's worst asumpions regarding the crowd, proved to be true. He was "the crook" - and Krajnc "the hero", only a few Swedish journalists from Stockolm presumably held on Roberto. Surprisingly the challenger, who before this fight had put on a great deal of muscles, stood up during the entire fight. Kranjc won though easily and unanimously, and for instance the Stockholm tabloid Aftonbladet columnist Lars Angrell wrote "Why wasn't the assaulting beatings of Paolo Roberto stopped !?" ^[2] However after the match Kranjc was magnanimous towards Roberto at the press conference, and claimed Paolo Roberto as a great boxer. Their enmity ended with this match. Which was, even after more than 12 years of retrospect, a fairly importaint boxing match. In its aftermath, limited professional boxing became permitted after a total prohibition over a period of more than 30 years.

In June 2001 Krajnc vacated his WBO in dispute with promotional group Universum Box-Promotions, but the WBO gave him his title back. In 2004 he challenged WBA and IBF Super Middleweight Title holder Sven Ottke but lost a decision.^[3]

After fighting

Krajnc nowadays lives in Ystad, also in Scania where he teaches boxing to young. He's also starring in the up-and-coming series "Mästarnas mästare"(Champ of champions), which he also won.^[4]

External links

• Professional boxing record for Armand Krajnc from BoxRec

References