Ernst Weiss (boxer)

Ernst Weiss
Data
Birth Name	Ernst Weiss
Weight class	Flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight
nationality	Austrian
birthday	March 5, 1912
place of birth	Vienna
Date of death	April 29, 1997
Place of death	Vienna
Combat Statistics
Struggles	92
Victories	58
Knockout victories	16
Defeats	21st
draw	13
Profile in the BoxRec database

Ernst Weiss (born March 5, 1912 in Vienna ; † April 29, 1997 ibid) was an Austrian professional boxer and European champion in fly , bantam and featherweight . He is considered the most successful Austrian boxer of the 20th century.

Flyweight

Ernst Weiss started his professional career in flyweight and won his first professional fight on July 28, 1933 on points against his compatriot Franz "Joe Albert" Voditschka. He achieved his first title on January 16, 1934, when he was Austrian champion with a points victory over Max Kuschner.

On August 11, 1936, he surprisingly defeated the former world champion Victor Young Peréz , who had only suffered 20 defeats in 124 fights. On October 5, he won against the Spaniard Fortunato Ortega on points and became European champion.

After a subsequent victory on points over the Italian champion Enrico Urbinati, Weiss boxed on December 12, 1936 in the Parisian Palais des Sports for the world title against the Frenchman Valentin Angelmann, but lost on points and thus also his European title.

To this day he is the only Austrian professional boxer who has managed to win a European professional boxer title outside of his own country.

Bantamweight

In the meantime, fighting in the next higher weight class, the bantamweight, he was able to become Austrian champion here too when he again won against Franz Voditschka on September 17, 1937.

After Austria's "annexation" to the German Empire in March 193, he also won the title of German bantamweight champion against his challengers (Schäffer and Offermanns ).

On August 11, 1939, Ernst Weiss was again European champion, this time in bantamweight, when he "formally" won against the Romanian Aurel Toma in the Berlin Deutschlandhalle by knocking out in round 12: The significance of his victory over the internationally feared Romanian, who in the same year for his part had defeated the then world champion Benny Lynch from Great Britain for the first time by knockout, was underlined by the fact that Aurel Toma was no longer able to get up from his podium after the gong for the 13th round and had to give up the hopeless fight. However, Ernst Weiss lost his bantamweight European title on November 25, 1939 after losing points to the Italian Gino Bondavalli.

Featherweight

On May 25, 1940 Ernst Weiss was also able to become German featherweight champion when he defeated Karl Beck in Leipzig on points. On May 30, 1941, Ernst Weiss secured the European featherweight title with a points victory over the Romanian Lucien Popescu. In the first defensive battle on July 2, however, he had to surrender it to the Italian Gino Bondavalli after losing points.

After this defeat, Ernst Weiss was drafted into the armed forces in 1942 . He was shot in the lung during the Russian campaign and was lucky enough to survive the war.

In fact, he still competed in France in 1945 and 1946. But Weiss had passed his culmination point: his last fight on May 17, 1946 ended in a happy draw against the French Gaston Maton in Vienna.

After boxing

As soon as he finished active boxing, Ernst Weiss founded a successful professional boxing "stable" with the excellent boxers Kurt Ibl, Ernst Walter, Karl Marchart and Otto Nesladek, who in the post-war years 1946 to 1948 for sold out ranks in what was then the Vienna Ice Skating Club. Plant provided.

Soon, however, a heavyweight talent emerged in the young Josef Weidinger , which Ernst Weiss carefully built up: except for a defeat in the Brussels heavyweight tournament in 1951 (against the American Aaron Wilson), he remained undefeated. In 1953 Weidinger punched the European heavyweight title in front of over 35,000 spectators in Vienna's Prater Stadium - albeit under his new French manager Charles Raymond.

Ernst Weiss had made other efforts in the meantime and received hundreds of youngsters from the President of the Bulgarian Boxing Association, General Stojtchew, after a three-month “probationary period”, during which he received massive government support and public “show training” in the capital Sofia and in Varna on the Black Sea Bulgarians were enthusiastic about boxing (in “socialist” Bulgaria, of course, only amateur), a five-year contract.

Ernst Weiss was buried at the Hernalser Friedhof in Vienna.

Others

His son Peter Weiss was also a boxer, six-time (amateur) national champion and two-time Olympic participant ( 1960 and 1964 ). Later he also became a boxing trainer.

predecessor	Office	successor
Fortunato Ortega	European flyweight boxing champion ( EBU ) October 5, 1936 - December 12, 1936	Valentin Angelmann

predecessor	Office	successor
Aurel Toma	European bantamweight boxing champion ( EBU ) August 11, 1939 - November 25, 1939	Gino Cattaneo

predecessor	Office	successor
Lucian Popescu	European Featherweight Boxing Champion ( EBU ) May 30, 1941 - July 2, 1941	Gino Bondavalli

Web links

• Entry on Ernst Weiss in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Pugilist Association Austria
• Overview of all fights at BoxRec