Biko Botowamungu

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Biko Botowamungu 2014

Ikomoniya "Biko" Botowamungu (born January 22, 1957 in Kisangani , Belgian Congo (since 1997: Democratic Republic of the Congo )) is a former wrestler and boxer. He qualified as a wrestler for the 1976 Summer Olympics and started as a boxer for Austria at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Beginnings as a wrestler and wrestler

According to his own statement, Biko had already seized his fascination for boxing through the rumble in the jungle between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali , which he had attended live in his home country as a 17-year-old. But first he tried his hand at wrestling and was able to qualify on the African continent for the 21st Summer Olympics in Montreal in 1976 .

16 African countries boycotted the games, however, because New Zealand had previously broken the international sports ban against the apartheid state of South Africa by playing against the local rugby team. Zaire was one of these 16 states, which is why Botowamungu was denied an Olympic appearance.

Botowamungu then traveled as a wrestler to the USA, Germany and, in 1978, to Austria, where he was taught by Georg “Schurl” Blemenschütz as a wrestler “Dr. Biko ”was brought to the Viennese hay market. In Vienna he met his future wife and became an Austrian citizen.

Amateur career as a boxer

Biko Botowamungu (left) in the fight against Jorge Luis González at the 1987 Chemistry Cup .

One day when he wanted to have his shoes repaired, he went to the shoemaker Josef Kovarik, who also worked as a boxing trainer for the Black and White boxing club in Vienna. This brought Biko to box and slowly built him up. With a height of 1.90 m and an average combat weight of 114 kg, Biko was an imposing figure with impressive punching power.

In 1983 he was Austrian heavyweight champion and from 1984 to 1989 and 1992 Austrian super heavyweight champion. With eight national championship titles, he shares fourth place with Konrad König (also eight titles) in the list of the nationally most successful amateur boxers. Only Konrad's father Rupert König with nine championship titles, Jürgen König from Vorarlberg with eleven titles and Tyrolean Manfred Dimter with 14 titles surpassed this performance.

At the European Championships in Budapest in 1985, Biko lost in the first fight to the multiple Italian champion Biagio Chianese . At the European Championships in Turin in 1987 he lost in the quarterfinals against the Bulgarian Petar Stoymenow.

In the Olympic qualification in 1988 in Karlsruhe, Germany, he was defeated in the first fight on points against the Yugoslav Aziz Salihu , but was still able to qualify through subsequent wins against István Szikora from Hungary and Peter Hrivňák from the Czech Republic.

For example, at the age of 31 he took part in the super heavyweight division of the 24th Summer Olympics in Seoul in 1988 . There he was unlucky at the draw and met the American top favorite Riddick Bowe in the first fight . As he later stated, there was enormous pressure on Botowamungu, as the local media had already presented him as a contender for the gold medal and Arnold Schwarzenegger himself had come as a spectator.

In the fight itself he let himself be confused by the enormous steadfastness of Bowe. He fought with typical wrestling movements and strong left hooks, which, however, landed several times with the palm of the American and were therefore not counted as hits. In the second round, Biko finally received a point deduction due to another hit on the palm. When the referee released the fight again, Biko was not ready to fight and was knocked out by a right hand followed by a left hand of the American.

He then went to the European Championships in Athens in 1989 , where he was defeated by the German Ulli Kaden in the quarterfinals .

Further international tournament results (selection)

  • September 1984: 1st place at the Volksstimme Tournament in Austria
  • November 1984: 2nd place at the 5th Copenhagen Cup in Denmark
  • November 1985: 2nd place at the 6th Copenhagen Cup in Denmark
  • March 1987: 2nd place at the 16th Chemistry Cup in Germany
  • April 1987: 2nd place at the 7th Trofeo Italia in Italy
  • January 1988: 2nd place at the Stockholm Box Open in Sweden
  • April 1988: 2nd place at the 8th Trofeo Italia in Italy
  • June 1988: 1st place at the 14th Acropolis Cup in Greece

Professional career

In 1992 he started his career as a professional boxer and went to the USA, where he was signed by Don King and u. a. was trained by Emanuel Steward .

Although he was denied the international breakthrough, he received financially lucrative fights and the like. a. against Chris Byrd , Willi Fischer , Corrie Sanders , Wladimir Klitschko , Timo Hoffmann , Lamon Brewster , Albert Sosnowski , Luan Krasniqi and Przemysław Saleta . He was also a sparring partner of Mike Tyson and Oliver McCall .

He ended his professional career in June 2004 with 10 wins (all by knockout), 16 losses and one draw. In total, he played 126 boxing matches a. a. in Austria, Hungary, USA, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Italy, South Korea and Greece.

Besides boxing

Biko Botowamungu has seven children by two women and lives in Vienna, where he has been a Baptist preacher since 2000. During his boxing career he worked as a security employee for the UN in Vienna for around 16 years . a. Bodyguard by Giovanni Falcone .

Biko Botowamungu with dance partner Maria Jahn 2013

He also appeared in the music video for “The Boxer” by the band Rockip , stood in front of the microphone with boxing colleagues like Edip Sekowitsch for the song Boxing Night by the band Misfit and in 1990 played in an episode of the Tatort series.

In 2013 Biko Botowamungu took part in the 8th season of the ORF dance show Dancing Stars together with professional dancer Maria Jahn and reached sixth place.

Web links

Commons : Biko Botowamungu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dasBiber.at: Two fists for a hallelujah ; accessed on April 27, 2016
  2. ↑ peter.temel: Dancing Stars: The "Biko role" was not enough . ( kurier.at [accessed December 6, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Botowamungu, Biko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Botowamungu, Ikomoniya (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian boxer
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Kisangani , Zaire