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Jan Schwank |
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An upright boxer with typical Eastern European
style! Straight forward with hard accurate punches!
When I met Jan, he had about 90 bouts on his resume
and several tournament victories. He took charge
early on in our bout and cornered me only to hammer
away. I thought I handled it quite well but National
team coach, Lennart Bernström didn’t agree and threw
in the towel in the second round. I was disappointed
of course. Schwank later (1990) became European
junior champion and boxed frequently at the famous
German Bundes League. I also think he placed himself
pretty high at the German senior championships on a
few occasions. |
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György Mizsei |
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A spoiler of note! Whom I had problems with of
course! Didn’t really think he punched that hard
although I heard afterwards that he was something of
a KO-king as a junior in Hungary. I tried to rough
him up for the entire session, the full three
rounds, chased him around the ring but was
constantly countered and out boxed. He was skilled
at his style no doubt! A month or so after we met he
took bronze at the European juniors and a few years
later also bronze at both the Olympic Games
(Barcelona) and the European seniors in 1991.
Probably the best boxer internationally that I ever
faced. He later also turned pro. |
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Paul Andersen |
A quite tall guy with decent style, not brilliant
when it came to technique when we met in 1988, I bet
he must have improved a lot later when he became
Danish senior champ and belonged to that country's
National squad for quite a while.
I guess I lost the two first rounds against Andersen
narrowly but came strong in the last round to even
things out a bit. I thought I might have “nicked”
the verdict but 4 judges around ringside disagreed
and awarded him with the points win. Poor Andersen
was then totally “trashed” in the final at this
Finnish tournament by future pro, Stephane Ouellet
of Canada. |
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Thomas Mullen |
This tough Irish boy was a southpaw I believe and
quite strong. As the fight didn’t last for too long,
it’s hard to value his qualities but I really felt
his power before I packed it in. Merit wise I
believe he fought internationally for Ireland’s
junior national team and I know for a fact that he
was in a junior national final in Dublin one year.
My first, really, tough international opponent!
I was sixteen years old. |
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Duemus Karakos |
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Karakos was born in 1972 and thereby a year younger
than me. By the info I got beforehand on Duemus he
was slightly less experienced than myself when we
met. He had only gone 20 fights or something and I
knew that I thought that it was quite odd
considering he was a junior national champ in
Turkey. He was strong as an ox though that I recall
but was definitely not too good for me! I thought I
could have beaten him had I only boxed a little
wiser. |
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