Gilbert Lavoine

Gilbert Lavoine
Data
Birth Name	Gilbert Lavoine
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Frenchman
birthday	February 3, 1921
place of birth	Laon , France
Date of death	January 22, 1965
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.64 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	126
Victories	100
Knockout victories	58
Defeats	18th
draw	8th
Profile in the BoxRec database

Gilbert Lavoine (born February 3, 1921 in Laon , † January 22, 1965 ibid) was a French boxer . He was European champion of professional welterweight boxers .

Career

Gilbert Lavoine was late for boxing . As an amateur, the stocky, 1.64 m tall athlete only competed 25 fights, of which he won 24. In 1948 he became a professional boxer and won his first fight in Laon , Département Aisne , against Maurice Fourel after six rounds on points. In his next fight he landed on November 4, 1948 in Paris a knockout victory in the first round over Roger Djabali. Quick knockout victories then became his trademark in Gilbert Lavoine's career. At the end of his career he had won almost 50 percent of his fights by knockout. This fact indicates his hardness of punch and assertiveness. Gilbert Lavoine remained loyal to his hometown of Laon throughout his long career. He fought over half of his fights in this city or in cities in the vicinity such as St. Quentin , Lille , Rennes or Reims . He rarely started abroad. He was soon nicknamed "Matador von Laon" or "Attila des Ring".

Already on February 15, 1949 Gilbert Lavoine fought in the welterweight division against Charles Humez , who was far superior to him as a former French champion among the amateurs. Humez won that fight after six rounds on points. By mid-1950, Gilbert Lavoine had pushed so far forward in France that he could challenge Emmanuel Clavel , the French welterweight champion. This fight took place on July 16, 1950 in Laon and Gilbert Lavoine became the new French champion by a disqualification victory in the 12th round. He successfully defended this title on October 16, 1950 in Paris against Bruno Marostegan and on December 5, 1950 in Amiens by winning points over Omar Kid Le Noir. Both fights went the full distance of 15 rounds.

On February 26, 1951 Gilbert Lavoine lost this title in Paris by losing points to Charles Humez. On June 30, 1951, he lost in Marseille against Pierre Langlois , another French top welterweight boxer just on points. With victories over the German champion Walter Schneider on July 12, 1952 in Laon, the Spaniard Vicente Echevarria on February 8, 1953 in Laon and over Bruno Marostegan on February 27, 1953 in Rouen, he won the right on March 22, 1953 in Paris to fight against the British Cliff Curvis for the vacant European welterweight title, which was laid down by Charles Humez. He won this battle by disqualifying his opponent in the 10th round and was the new European welterweight champion.

Gilbert Lavoine defended this title on June 6, 1953 in Nice with a knockout victory in the 4th round against the Belgian Kid Dussart . On August 26, 1954, he defended the European title in Liverpool against the Englishman Wally Thom one more time. Thom proved to be extremely strong in this fight and defeated Gilbert Lavoine by tech. KO in the 10th round.

Gilbert Lavoine was then active until 1962. He switched to the middleweight division and was on February 4, 1957 in Paris by a point victory over Robert Guivarch French middleweight champion. On June 2nd of the same year, however, he had to give up this title again after losing points to the significantly younger Andre Drille . In 1959 and 1960 he also fought twice in Germany . On March 13, 1959 he boxed in Berlin against the German welterweight champion Günther Hase and on February 13, 1960 he lost in Stuttgart against Max Resch on points.

Gilbert Lavoine fought his last fight on August 7, 1962 in Berck-Plage , Department Pas-de-Calais . He won it over Gilbert Souday on points.

Gilbert Lavoine spent the last years of his life in his hometown of Laon, where he died on January 22, 1965 at the age of only 44 from a serious virus infection. A sports hall in Laon bears his name in his honor.

literature

• Box Sport magazine

Web links

• Gilbert Lavoine in the BoxRec database
• Gilbert Lavoine in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia