Bep van Klaveren

Bep van Klaveren
Data
Birth Name	Lambertus Steenhorst
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Dutch
birthday	September 26, 1907
place of birth	Rotterdam
Date of death	February 12, 1992
Place of death	Rotterdam
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	110
Victories	81
Knockout victories	23
Defeats	20th
draw	9

Bep van Klaveren (born September 26, 1907 in Rotterdam ; † February 12, 1992 there ) was a Dutch boxer . He became Olympic featherweight champion in Amsterdam in 1928 and European light and middleweight champion as a professional boxer .

Life

Bep van Klaveren was born Lambertus Steenhorst as the son of the unmarried Maria Cornelia Steenhorst in 1907 in Rotterdam . In 1916 his mother married the car dealer Pieter van Klaveren and Lambertus was given the surname of his stepfather. He grew up in the Rotterdam suburb of Crooswijk and started boxing as a teenager in Piet Dieksman's sports school . He fought his first fight as an amateur when he was sixteen.

Bep van Klaveren became Olympic champion in Amsterdam in 1928 . In 1929 van Klaveren joined the professional boxer. He initially fought in Europe , especially in the Netherlands, and became European lightweight champion in 1931 . In 1932 he went to the United States with his trainer and manager Theo Huizenaar . In order to gain a foothold in the American boxing business, he had to accept an additional manager in the American Patsy Zeuli. Bep van Klaveren quickly fought his way up in the USA and also enjoyed the "American way of life". He got to know many Hollywood greats from Mae West to Norma Shearer , Spencer Tracy , Bing Crosby to Johnny Weissmüller . Through his good performance he also earned enough dollars and in 1935 married the banker's daughter Margarite Olivera. However, this marriage was divorced in 1936.

Bep van Klaveren, who was aiming for a fight for the world championship, was constantly put off and cheated on by his US manager Patsy Zeuli. He therefore returned to Rotterdam in 1937 and won the European Middleweight Championship in 1938. In 1939 he went back to the United States. In 1942, he joined the US Air Force and served as a sergeant in the training of pilots and flight crews. He served in New Guinea , Aruba , Suriname and from 1944 in Australia . There he married the Australian Joan Hogan.

In 1947, Bep van Klaveren returned to Rotterdam again. But after only a year and a half at home, he moved back to Australia, where he lived until 1953 but did not box there. At the end of 1953, Bep van Klaveren finally returned to Rotterdam. He started boxing again at the age of 46 and was active until 1956. In 1959, the marriage with Joan Hogan was divorced. In 1967 he married again. His third wife Anna Maria Arnst was 26 years younger than him.

Bep van Klaveren spent the last years of his life as a privateer in Rotterdam. There, in the Boezemsingel district, a statue erected in 1992 by the artist Willem Adolf Verbon commemorates him. He was also the first person to be immortalized on the Walk of Fame Europe with a hand and a fist print. In 1997 a street in Rotterdam was named after him.

Career as a boxer

Amateur career

Bep van Klaveren started boxing in 1923 . In 1926 he became the first Dutch flyweight champion. From 1927 to 1929 he won the Dutch featherweight championship. The 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam were the first highlight in Bep van Klaveren's career . He competed in featherweight and defeated one after another Juan Muñoz Panadez from Mexico , Frederick Perry from Great Britain , Harold George Devine from the USA and in the final Victor Peralta from Argentina and became Olympic champion . To this day he is the only Dutch Olympic champion in boxing.

Profile career

Bep van Klaveren played his first professional fight on July 29, 1929 in Rotterdam. He defeated the Belgian Jules Steyaert in the lightweight on points. After nine more preparatory fights, of which he won eight, he boxed on February 18, 1930 in Rotterdam against Leen Sanders for the Dutch championship in lightweight and won this fight on points. In 1930 he also fought three fights in South Africa and suffered a point defeat in Johannesburg from the local Len Tiger Smith. At the end of 1930 and the beginning of 1931, Bep van Klaveren faced top German boxers in four consecutive fights. He fought in Hamburg on November 30, 1930 in a draw against the German champion Paul Czirson , defeated Jakob Domgörgen on points in The Hague on January 8, 1931 , won the rematch against Paul Czirson in Rotterdam by knockout on February 9, 1931 and fought on March 17, 1931 February 1931 in Berlin draw against Franz Dübbers .

After another victory over Leen Sanders on April 20, 1931 in Rotterdam, he got the chance to box against the Belgian François Sybille for the European lightweight championship on July 19, 1931 . Bep van Klaveren won this fight by knocking out in the fifth round. This made him the European lightweight champion. He then managed to defend this title three times. On October 21, 1931 in Bristol by a point victory over the Englishman Harry Corbett , on November 17, 1931 in The Hague by a point victory over the Belgian Henri Scillie and on March 26, 1932 in Brussels by a point victory over his predecessor François Sybille.

On July 17, 1932, Bep van Klaveren lost the European title by losing points after 15 rounds to the Italian Cleto Locatelli . At the end of 1932, Bep van Klaveren went to the United States. He played there until the end of 1936 in welterweight a total of 22 fights, of which he won 15 and fought twice in a draw. He suffered two of these defeats in the fight against former welterweight champion Young Corbett III . He achieved victories against the Mexican champion Kid Azteca and the Californian champion Al Manfredo.

After his return to Europe, Bep van Klaveren fought on July 11, 1937 in Rotterdam against the German Gustav Eder and lost by knockout in the eighth round, after he had been in the lead on points up to this point. Unimpressed by this defeat, Bep van Klaveren defeated the Spanish champion Kid Tunero in Rotterdam on February 7, 1938 , the French ranked boxer Jean Simon in Rotterdam on March 21, 1938 and the Greek world-class boxer Anton Christoforidis on May 23, 1938 by points and fought his way through the right to challenge the European middleweight champion Edouard Tenet from France . This championship fight took place on July 17, 1938 in Rotterdam and Bep van Klaveren won it over 15 rounds on points. It was the second time he was European champion, this time in the middleweight division. However, he lost this title in his first defense on November 14, 1938 in Rotterdam by a point defeat to Anton Christoforidis.

On March 9, 1939, Bep van Klaveren fought in Berlin against Jupp Besselmann in a draw and on July 24, 1939 he managed to take revenge for the defeat of 1932 against Cleto Locatelli, whom he defeated on points over ten rounds. During his second stay in the USA, Bep van Klaveren only fought six fights until 1942, in which he lost only to Milt Aron. However, no high-class boxers were defeated by him.

From late 1942 to mid-1947, Bep van Klaveren was inactive. After returning from Australia, he defeated on August 10, 1947 in Amsterdam Luc van Dam on points and was thus Dutch middleweight champion. On September 5, 1947, however, he gave this title back to Luc van Dam because he had to be taken out of the fight in the eighth round because of a serious eyebrow injury. This second stage in the professional career of Bep van Klaveren lasted until November 30, 1948. He fought a total of 13 fights in it, of which he won eleven. From the end of 1948 to the end of 1953, Bep van Klaveren stayed in Australia again, but was inactive again during this time.

Bep van Klaveren (1982)

On January 17, 1954, he started the third stage of his professional career. He was now almost 47 years old, but still in excellent physical condition due to his disciplined lifestyle and defeated the Italian Tino Pierluigi on points that day in Rotterdam in the welterweight division. In 1955 he defeated, among others, the Englishman Terry Ratcliffe and the Germans Emil Koch, Freddi Teichmann, Herbert Gläser and Horst Garz. On November 28, 1955, Bep van Klaveren played his last championship fight. He fought against the reigning European champion Idrissa Dione from France in Rotterdam for the European welterweight title. The more than 20 years older Bep van Klaveren went with Idrissa Dione over the full fighting time of 15 rounds and only lost on points. On March 19, 1956, he played his last fight in Rotterdam against the German welterweight champion Werner Handtke , in which he again had bad luck and had to be taken out of the fight because of an eyebrow injury. After this fight, Bep van Klaveren finally ended his boxer career.

Bep van Klaveren, who was unusually popular in his hometown Rotterdam, will not be forgotten there and was probably one of the best Dutch boxers to have ever stood in the ring.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Copy of the decision of June 10, 1997 ( memento of August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) in the administrative archive in Rotterdam, viewed on May 29, 2011

literature

• Justus A. Deelder: Bep van Klaveren. The Dutch windmill . Veen Press, Utrecht 1980, ISBN 90-204-3197-8 .

Web links

• Bep van Klaveren in the BoxRec database
• Still of Bep van Klaveren
• Bep van Klaveren in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )