Jean-Marcel Nartz

Jean-Marcel Nartz (born May 8, 1946 in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges ) is a German boxing functionary .

Life

Nartz was born in Saint-Dié in the Vosges Mountains and came to Hamburg when he was two years old , where he grew up with his grandparents before moving to Cologne from the age of six . His stepfather worked as an electrician for the Siemens group and was responsible for lighting boxing events in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund several times . He took Jean-Marcel Nartz there with him, who came into contact with boxing in this way and, as a teenager , attended fights by Peter Müller , Bubi Scholz , Heinz Neuhaus , Erich Schöppner and Karl Mildenberger . Nartz boxed himself only in training, he did not compete in the sport.

From the age of 15 he worked professionally as a cook . In 1967 he went to London for work and also attended numerous boxing matches during his six years in the British capital. He made the acquaintance of Mickey Duff and learned from the British boxing promoter how to put together fight pairings for boxing events as well as how to organize and conduct fight evenings. In 1973 Nartz went back to Germany and continued to work as a cook, while at the same time gaining a foothold in the boxing business. On June 30, 1978 he held his first boxing event in Morsbach , at the end of the 1970s he met Wilfried Sauerland , for whose boxing stable he organized a fight evening for the first time on September 26, 1980 in Cologne. From then on he worked for Sauerland, but also remained active as a cook until 1991, most recently at the “Queens Hotel” in Nuremberg . Afterwards, Nartz was employed full-time at Sauerland, arranging the fight evenings for the boxing stable and putting together the duels there and getting advertising partners. In the book “Instructions for Boxing” by Bertram Job, Nartz is referred to as “the real engine” of Sauerland's boxing business.

Nartz became one of the most respected and successful matchmakers in Europe with a broad network in the boxing business. In 2019, trainer Ulli Wegner said in retrospect about Nartz that he was "the best [ matchmaker ] we had in all of Germany" and certified that he did "great service" in German professional boxing. As technical director at the Sauerland boxing stable, Nartz was instrumental in the boom in professional boxing in Germany in the 1990s, which was personified in particular by Sauerland boxer Henry Maske . In order to make Mask known, Nartz went “from house to house, from shop to shop” before his first World Cup fight in 1993. In the book “Ready to rumble: Boxboom Germany” by Gunnar Meinhardt, Nartz said that he “cleaned doorknoblessly to make people understand that we have a good German boxer again who is worth supporting” quoted. He was permanently employed at Sauerland until 1997, after which he continued to work as a freelancer for the boxing stable, but also for other promoters such as Ulf Steinforth . There was a break between Nartz and Sauerland in 2002, and Nartz later accused the promoter of cheating on him and withholding money. "Trusting him one hundred percent was my biggest mistake," said Nartz. Sauerland, in turn, spoke of Nartz as "a great human disappointment".

In July 2002 Nartz announced his move to Sauerland's competitor Klaus-Peter Kohl and his Universum stable , for whom he worked from January 2003. In mid-2009, he left his position as Technical Director at Universum. On August 1, 2009, Nartz became the acting Vice President of the Association of German Professional Boxers (BDB). He was BDB Vice President until April 2010, and withdrew his candidacy for the BDB presidency shortly before the vote in April 2010. Nartz was involved in the board of the European boxing federation EBU as well as vice president (from 2010) and judge in the World Boxing Federation (WBF), in addition he was responsible for the supervision of the orderly process of boxing events at the WBF.

He conducted 272 boxing events (a total of 1867 fights) between 1978 and 2009. Nartz has been referred to as a "living boxing encyclopedia", he has a private collection of boxing items in his house. In June 2019, at the age of 73, Nartz retired from professional boxing as a functionary for health reasons. "Boxing was and is my life, but at my age I have to cut back a bit," he said on the occasion of his departure.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} World Boxing Federation People: Jean-Marcel Nartz. Retrieved September 28, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Gunnar Meinhardt : Ready to rumble: Boxboom Germany. Gunnar Meinhardt in conversation with the stars . New Life, 2013.
3. ↑ Bertram Job: Instructions for use for boxing . Piper Paperback, 2015, ISBN 978-3-492-27668-9 .
4. ↑ ULI WEGNER ON HIS BEGINNING AS A TRAINER, SAUERLAND, SVEN OTTKE, MARKUS BEYER, ARTHUR ABRAHAM UVM. Retrieved October 21, 2019 . 
5. ↑ ULLI WEGNER: "IT HURTS TO SEE BOXING THAT!" Retrieved October 22, 2019 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Changing sides at the boxing ring. Retrieved September 28, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt- Hamburg: Eight fights - who has what chances ... November 20, 2009, accessed on September 28, 2019 (German). 
8. ↑ Nartz becomes Vice President of the BDB - STIMME.de. Retrieved September 28, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Thomas Pütz new boxing president - STIMME.de. Retrieved September 28, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Chisora ​​versus Haye: "A Black Hour" . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 28, 2019]).
11. ↑ WBF | World Boxing Federation. Retrieved September 28, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Björn Jensen: Jean-Marcel Nartz: Just two words to say goodbye. July 5, 2009, accessed on September 28, 2019 (German). 
13. ↑ Arno Schmitz: boxing promoter legend counts Nartz: "The fish stinks from the head!" April 23, 2017, accessed on September 28, 2019 (German). 
14. ^ After Five Decades In Boxing, WBF Vice President Jean-Marcel Nartz Retires. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .