Jørgen Hansen (boxer)

Jørgen Hansen
Data
Birth Name	Jørgen Hansen
Weight class	Welterweight
nationality	Danish
birthday	March 27, 1943
place of birth	Aarhus
Date of death	15th March 2018
Combat Statistics
Struggles	92
Victories	78
Knockout victories	34
Defeats	14th

Jørgen Hansen (born March 27, 1943 in Aarhus ; † March 15, 2018 ) was a Danish professional boxer and three-time EBU European welterweight champion. He became known for losing his title twice through disqualification , but was able to regain it again and again and finally kept it until the end of his boxing career.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Hansen boxed for the boxing club Lindholm BK . In 1964 he was Jutland light welterweight champion and then rose to welterweight. From 1965 to 1969 he was Jutland Champion five years in a row. From 1966 to 1969 he also won the Danish Championships four times in a row and made second place at the Nordic Championships in Stockholm in 1967 . At the 17th European Championships in Rome in 1967 , he won against the Spaniard José Duran and the Finns Pertti Purhonen before losing to Manfred Wolke on points in the quarterfinals .

At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City in 1968 , Hansen also competed, but already lost his first fight against the Romanian Victor Zilberman after the referee dropped out in round 3. Then he turned professional.

Professional career

By 1972 he fought his way to the top of the European welterweight ranking with 22 victories in a row and was thus given the opportunity to box for the EBU European Championship title. This fight took place on June 22, 1972 in the sports hall KB Hallen in Copenhagen , against the Frenchman Roger Menetrey. Against this, however, Hansen lost in the tenth round by knockout, which meant the first defeat in his professional career.

After this fight, Hansen's promising career seemed to be over, as he lost three more fights within six months and finally relegated back to the light welterweight division in order to get the chance for a title. According to an agreement, he was given the opportunity on November 1, 1973 to box against the reigning WBC world champion in this weight class, the Italian Bruno Arcari . But Hansen also lost this fight by knockout in the fifth round. With meanwhile 30 years and two lost title fights, the expectations for the future were rather cautious, but Hansen's successful career was only now beginning.

This was followed by twelve fights of which he was able to win nine, before he won the Scandinavian welterweight championship on June 19, 1975 with a victory over the Norwegian Kristian Høydahl. After another eleven fights, of which he was able to win eight, he was given the opportunity to box again for the European championship welterweight title. He led this fight on June 2, 1977 against the almost unbeaten Italian Marco Scano and surprisingly defeated him by knockout in the fifth round. The first title defense came on August 6th of the same year against the young German Jörg Eipel . Hansen dominated the fight from the beginning, but was warned twice by the Austrian referee Kurt Rado for alleged unsportsmanlike conduct and finally disqualified after a third warning. Eipel had injured his eyebrow when the Dane accidentally butted his head. Hansen felt cheated, the controversial judgment was given a whistle concert by the audience in the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

Hansen played six fights within a few months, of which he won five, giving him the opportunity to play a rematch for the European title. Since Jörg Eipel had also lost his title in the first defense fight, Hansen had to face the new reigning European champion, the French Alain Marion. Hansen won the fight on April 27, 1978 by knockout in the sixth round and had thus regained his controversial lost title. On August 18, 1978 he went to a title defense fight against the Austrian Joseph Pachler in Villach . Here, too, Hansen led on points, before he hit Pachler with a slight chap after the final gong of the eighth round and he fell to the ground after a few seconds and stayed where he was. Despite violent protests against this apparently faked decline, Hansen was disqualified by referee Angelo Poletti. This was the second time that Hansen lost his European title by disqualification in fights that he dominated.

However, Hansen was determined to regain the title and won his next four fights. Hansen's manager then managed to negotiate a fight for the European title against the new reigning champion, the British Dave Green. Green was considered a very tough and aggressive opponent, he had won 31 of his 32 professional fights to date, 25 of them by knockout. The fight took place on June 28, 1979 in Randers . Hansen had clear difficulties at the beginning, but won the upper hand and finally defeated Green by knockout in the third round. Hansen had inflicted the second loss of his professional career on Green and won the European championship welterweight title for the third time.

In his next fight he beat the sixth in the world rankings, Gert Styn, and was able to defeat eleven other boxers, including Joseph Pachler, against whom he had lost his title in 1978. The last defeat of his professional career he suffered in a non-title fight on June 25, 1981 in the United States against the Mexican José Cuevas , when he was knocked out in the first round. After five more victories, he went to his last professional match against the Spaniard Perico Fernandez on December 2, 1982, when he was 39 years old, and won on points.

After his boxing career

In 2002 he played in the Danish film Charlie Butterfly , where he can be seen in a boxing match against Henrik Palm, against whom he boxed twice in his professional career. He also played a bank clerk in the 17th episode of the Danish television series En by i provinsen (Eng: a city in the province).

In 2017 Hansen's life story was filmed. He was embodied in Den bedste mand (Eng: the best man) by actor Mikkel Boe Følsgaard .

successes

amateur

• 1964: Jutland light welterweight champion
• 1965 to 1969: Jutland welterweight champion
• 1966 to 1969: Danish welterweight champion
• 1967: Nordic runner-up in the welterweight division

professional

• 1975: Scandinavian welterweight champion
• June to August 1977: European welterweight champion
• April to August 1978: European welterweight champion
• June 1979 to 1982: European welterweight champion

predecessor	Office	successor
Marco Scano	European welterweight boxing champion ( EBU ) June 2, 1977 - August 6, 1977	Jörg Eipel

predecessor	Office	successor
Alain Marion	European welterweight boxing champion ( EBU ) April 27, 1978 - August 18, 1978	Josef Pachler

predecessor	Office	successor
Dave Green	European welterweight boxing champion ( EBU ) June 28, 1979 - 1982	Hans-Henrik Palm

Web links

• Data at BoxRec
• Data from International Boxing Online ( Memento from February 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Media: Bokselegenden Jørgen 'Gamle' Hansen er død , bt.dk, accessed on March 16, 2018
2. ↑ Pfeifkonzert after the scandal judgment. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. August 7, 1977, accessed May 3, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Den bedste mand (2017). Retrieved May 3, 2020 .