Izuagbe Ugonoh

Izuagbe Ugonoh
Mural on a house wall in Gdansk
Data
Birth Name	Izuagbe Ugonoh
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Polish
birthday	November 2nd 1986
place of birth	Szczecin
size	1.96 m
Range	2.13 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	19th
Victories	18th
Knockout victories	15th
Defeats	2
draw	0
No value	0

Izuagbe "Izu" Ugonoh (born November 2, 1986 in Szczecin , Poland ) is a Polish boxer . Since 2010 he competes professionally in the cruiser and heavyweight division . Before that, as a kickboxer with the amateurs, he won the European and world championship titles according to the rules of K-1 .

Private

Ugonoh was born to Nigerian parents in Szczecin, Poland . They originally came to Poland as part of a bilateral exchange program to study. As a teenager, Ugonoh grew up in Gdańsk , where he studied at the local sports college . He describes himself as a dark-skinned Pole who is very proud to be able to represent Poland in sport.

Started as a kickboxer

Ugonoh started his career in the GKSK Corpus sports club in Gdańsk as a kickboxer. Because of his idiosyncratic style, he has been compared by the trade press to the Dutch kickboxer Remy Bonjasky . However, he himself was based on the style of the Turkish kickboxer Gökhan Saki .

The first international success came for him in 2009 during the kickboxing world championship in Villach, Austria . Ugonoh won the gold medal here according to the rules of K-1 in the weight class up to 91 kilograms. A year later he finally became European champion after winning the final in Baku , Azerbaijan , against Azerbaijani Zamik Atakishiyev .

Career as a boxer

16 October 2010 debuted Ugonoh classic boxing at cruiserweight at a gala for professional boxers in the Polish Legionowo against the Lithuanians Igoris Papunia he in the first round by knockout hit. He played his second professional fight on November 10, 2010 in Nysa (Neiße), Poland, against the Czech Pavel Habr , whom he was able to defeat with a technical knockout.

He was also able to win his other fights by knockout. The only exceptions at the beginning of his career were the two victories on points against the German Rashid Raad on April 2, 2011 in Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) and the Poles Łukasz Rusiewicz on February 23, 2013 in Gdańsk. Ugonoh was a professional boxer at this time Boxing stable Knockout Promotions of the Polish promoter Andrzej Wasilewski and acted as a sparring partner for his compatriot Przemysław Saleta .

In 2014, after his previous doctorate contracts had expired, Ugonoh trained under the direction of the American Kenny Adams with the former heavyweight world champion Bermane Stiverne , whom he acted as a sparring partner for some time. After a long stay in Las Vegas , he temporarily moved his training camp to New Zealand in the autumn of the same year. There he was able to compete under the direction of the New Zealand promoter Kevin Barry for the first time in the heavyweight division , where he won all fights held so far. With his victory over the Ghanaian Ibrahim Labaran in the first round by knockout and since 2015 he has been interim heavyweight world champion of the WBA Oceania and the WBO Africa . The former undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion Evander Holyfield then praised Ugonoh as a promising title contender.

Since 2015 he has had an official boxing license from the US state Nevada , with which he can compete in Las Vegas in the future. However, Ugonoh completed his first fight within the United States in Alabama . He lost the clash in 2017 against former gold medalist Dominic Breazeale after a technical knockout in the fifth round. The following year, Ugonoh returned to his native Poland for a fight against Cameroonian Frederic Kassi , where he defeated him in the Warsaw National Stadium with a technical knockout.

A fight against the Turkish WBO European champion Ali Eren Demirezen , first promoted by Dariusz Michalczewski , planned for December 8, 2018 , was canceled at short notice due to the sudden death of Ugonoh's trainer Andrzej Gmitruk .

Trivia

Ugonoh's boxing matches are broadcast exclusively on Polsat Sport's Polish TV . He occasionally also serves the broadcaster as a co-moderator on boxing match broadcasts. Since 2005, Ugonoh has also made regular guest appearances in various Polish television and film productions. For example, he played in a film by director Jan Jakub Kolski and in 2010 appeared in an advertising clip for a sports drink. In the same year he also acted as a model for a fashion campaign for a Polish manufacturer of casual clothing. Between 2015 and 2016 he performed with the dancer Hanna Żudziewicz in the Polish edition of the show format Dancing with the Stars .

Ugonoh is one of a large group of primarily Nigerian people who are in public life in Poland. These include in particular the television presenters Olimpia Ajakaiye and Rogers Cole-Wilson , the actresses Aleksandra Szwed and Patricia Kazadi , the former national soccer player Emmanuel Olisadebe , the two politicians John Godson and Killion Munyama and the partisan and musician August Agbola O'Browne . His sister Osuenhe Ugonoh , who was born in Gdańsk, also won the Polish edition of the casting format Next Topmodel in 2014 .

Balance as a professional boxer

18 wins, 2 losses and 0 draws.

Result	Balance sheet	opponent	decision	round	date	venue
Dutch	18-0-2	Łukasz Różański	KO	4/10	07/06/2019	Rzeszów
victory	18-0-1	Frederic Kassi	RTD	3/10	05/25/2018	Warszawa
Dutch	17-0-1	Dominic Breazeale	TKO	5/10	02/25/2017	Birmingham
victory	17-0-0	Grégory Tony	TKO	2/10	10/01/2016	Auckland
victory	16-0-0	Ricardo H. Ramirez	KO	4/10	07/21/2016	Christchurch
victory	15-0-0	Vincente Sandez	KO	1/10	05.12.2015	Hamilton
victory	14-0-0	Ibrahim Labaran	TKO	1/10	15/10/2015	Auckland
victory	13-0-0	William Quarrie	KO	2/10	08/01/2015	Invercargill
victory	12-0-0	Julius Long	UD	8/8	06/13/2015	Palmerston North
victory	11-0-0	Thomas Peato	TKO	2/6	05.03.2015	Manukau City
victory	10-0-0	Junior M. Iakopo	TKO	2/6	10/16/2014	Auckland
victory	9-0-0	Łukasz Rusiewicz	UD	6/6	02/23/2013	Gdańsk
victory	8-0-0	Mathieu Monnier	TKO	6/6	December 08, 2012	Katowice
victory	7-0-0	Bjorn Blaschke	TKO	6/6	03/17/2012	Krynica-Zdrój
victory	6-0-0	Florian's Strupits	TKO	1/6	December 03, 2011	Warszawa
victory	5-0-0	Fatih Ceyhan	RTD	3/4	11/12/2011	Gdynia
victory	4-0-0	Patrick Berger	TKO	2/4	October 15, 2011	Katowice
victory	3-0-0	Rashid Raad	UD	4/4	04/02/2011	Bydgoszcz
victory	2-0-0	Pavel Habr	TKO	1/4	11/20/2010	Nysa
victory	1-0-0	Igoris Papunia	KO	1/4	10/16/2010	Legionowo

Web links

• Izuagbe Ugonoh's record on boxrec.com
• Izuagbe Ugonoh's profile on facebook.com
• Izuagbe Ugonoh's profile on instagram.com

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{a b} Jestem czarnoskórym Polakiem iz dumą reprezentuję Polskę , K-1Fight.pl , accessed on August 5, 2012
2. ↑ Medaliści mistrzostw świata , PZKickBoxing.pl , accessed on August 5, 2012
3. ↑ Bałanda i Ugonoh mistrzami Europy Sukcesy gdańskich kickbokserów , Trójmiasto.pl , accessed on August 5, 2012
4. ↑ Drugie zwycięstwo Izu , RingPolska.pl , accessed on August 5, 2012
5. ↑ Ugonoh pokonał Rusiewicza , Bokser.org , accessed on May 31, 2014
6. ↑ Trzecia wygrana Izuagbe Ugonoha ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , FightSport.pl , accessed on August 5, 2012  
7. ↑ Ugonoh i Samełko także odchodzą , Bokser.org , accessed on May 31, 2014
8. ↑ Izuagbe Ugonoh w drodze do celu ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Determination.pl , accessed on May 29, 2014  
9. ↑ Izuagbe Ugonoh zmasakrował Ibrahima Labarana już w pierwszej rundzie  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , SE.pl , accessed on October 15, 2015  
10. ↑ Joseph Parker's stablemate Izu Ugonoh wins with another dramatic knockout , Stuff.co.nz , accessed October 15, 2015
11. ↑ Holyfield do Polaków , RingPolska.pl , accessed on October 21, 2015
12. ↑ Reklama nápojů izotonicznego Oshee , YouTube.com , accessed August 5, 2012
13. ^ Izuagbe Ugonoh dla Pride & Glory , Szlaga.com , accessed August 5, 2012
14. ↑ Wygrała czarnoskóra modelka , Wyborcza.pl , accessed on October 15, 2015