Fazlija Šaćirović

Fazlija Šaćirović ( Cyrillic  Фазлија Шаћировић ; * May 4, 1957 ) is a former Yugoslav amateur boxer . He was runner-up in the bantamweight world championship in 1978 and represented his home country at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.

Boxing career

The 1.63 m tall Šaćirović boxed for Topličanin Prokuplje . He was 1974 Yugoslav junior flyweight champion , 1975 Yugoslavian light flyweight champion , 1976 Yugoslavian flyweight champion, and 1978, 1979 and 1980 Yugoslavian bantamweight champion.

At the European Championships in 1975 in Belgrade , he met Olympic champion György Gedó from Hungary in the round of 16 of the light flyweight division and lost against him on points. In 1976 he started flyweight at the 21st Summer Olympics in Montreal and won his preliminary round match against Julio Guzmán from Puerto Rico 5-0 on points, but lost in the round of 16 against Leszek Błażyński from Poland with a 2-3 judge's decision.

He was also eliminated from the 1977 European Championships in Halle without a medal; he lost in the quarterfinals of the bantamweight against Stefan Förster from the GDR. He achieved his greatest success at the World Championships in Belgrade in 1978 when he won the silver medal in the bantamweight division. He defeated Leszek Błażyński from Poland (5: 0), Rocky Lockridge from the USA (3: 2) and Chung Kim Chil from South Korea ( walkover ) , before he won the final against Adolfo Horta from Cuba with a narrow 2: 3 judge's decision retired.

In 1979 he won the bantamweight Mediterranean Games in Split and started in 1980 at the 22 Summer Olympics in Moscow , where he lost prematurely to the Finn Veli Koota.

In international matches, he also defeated Héctor González from Cuba and the eventual world champion Henryk Średnicki from Poland in 1976 .

Web links

• Fazlija Šaćirović in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Website: "amateur-boxing.strefa.pl"