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When I started out as a young boxer, I was thirteen
years old, which is too young (you had to be 15 at that
time) to participate in full-blown conventional boxing!
We have a gentler, softer version of boxing in Sweden
called “Diploma boxing” Where you can’t hit with full
force and where teqnique and overall boxing ability is
looked upon.
You have to stick to that version until you are fifteen
years old in this nation. For me, who was a brawling
type boxer from the start, it surely didn’t suit me too
well!
I thought it was a painful wait until my fifteenth
birthday, so painful in fact that me and my crazy
trainer (Radomir Becarevic) cheated on that rule a bit
and sent me off to the South Swedish championships as a
13 year old.
Getting me into the regional championship was a
difficult task and should have been impossible today
with the strict supervision we now have, but in the
early eighties,
it was possible.
My coach just said that the starting book (licence book)
was on its way, and thereby on illegal grounds got me
into the tournament. I boxed at flyweight and ran into
boys national team anchor, Örjan Nilsson in the first
match and got stopped on TKO.
He was two years older than me and quite a bit stronger.
I shouldn’t have been let into the tournament to begin
with! I was under aged! Coincidentally me and my coach
somehow managed to get a rematch with Nilsson in
Helsingborg that same year, again an illegal match that
shouldn’t have occurred, but it did, and I did much
better against Örjan this time, so much better in fact
that even Nilsson’s dad thought anybody could have
gotten the verdict afterwards.
I didn’t though and lost narrowly on points after a
sweaty duel. The scam was unfortunately also exposed to
everyone’s knowledge by Leif Frimansson (head of the
Gothenburg Boxing Federation) and I was put under
suspension for one year and wasn't allowed to
compete at the Swedish Diploma championships
in Hallstahammar that next year (1985).
That did hurt of course! Because I loved to box, but the
two Nilsson fights got me valuable experience! |
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