Karel Sys

Karel Sys
Data
Birth Name	Charles Sys
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Belgian
birthday	February 14, 1914
place of birth	Ostend , Flanders , Belgium
Date of death	June 19, 1990
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.80 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	143
Victories	117
Knockout victories	58
Defeats	15th
draw	10

Karel Sys (born February 14, 1914 in Ostend ; † June 19, 1990 ) was a Belgian boxer . He was the European heavyweight professional boxer champion.

Life

Karel Sys, born Charles Sys in Ostend as the son of a master craftsman, began boxing as a teenager . At the age of 18 he switched to professional boxers and initially fought as a welterweight. Later he grew into the heavyweight division. His boxer career was very successful and before the Second World War he had reached the top European heavyweight division. During the occupation of his country by the German Wehrmacht, Karel Sys continued to practice his sport and boxed several times on German territory. Naturally, the native Flemish also kept close contacts to the German boxer scene. This fact became his undoing after the Second World War.

In 1946 he was tried in a Belgian court for collaboration with the Germans and sentenced to one year in prison. After his release he was banned from his profession, which means that he could no longer box in Belgium. Karel Sys then went to Spain because he hoped to box there. Due to the intervention of the Belgian and European boxing associations, he was not granted a license there either. Karel Sys, who had lost all of his fortune due to the circumstances described above, stayed in Spain, but was forced to work as a catcher there. He earned enough money to go to Argentina in June 1949 . There he was granted a boxer license. He also built a bourgeois existence there as a shopkeeper in the jewelry industry.

In Argentina, Karel Sys fought many fights from 1949 to 1951, all of which he won with two exceptions. One of these exceptions was the fight against the American Archie Moore , one of the best heavyweight or light heavyweight boxers in the world, which took place on June 23, 1951 in Buenos Aires . Karel Sys boxed a draw against Moore. After this fight he received a signal from Belgium that nothing would stand in the way of returning home and that he would also get a Belgian boxing license. He then returned to Belgium and from July 1951 still fought many excellent fights in Europe , which culminated in the fact that he was even, although already 37 years old, 1952 European heavyweight champion. Karel Sys fought his last fight in 1954.

Shortly afterwards, the Belgian tax authorities demanded horrific back taxes from Karel Sys for battles that had taken place before and during the Second World War. Karel Sys, who was not aware of any tax debts, left Belgium for the second time in anger and returned to Argentina, where he had maintained his civil existence.

In 1983 Karel Sys received the high Belgian order t'Manneke uit de Mane.

Career as a boxer

Karel Sys, who was trained by Theo Vanhaverbeeke at the beginning of his career, played his first professional match on August 21, 1932 in Ostend . He won points over his compatriot Emile Ballister. On January 7, 1933, he won his first title, the East and West Flemish champion in welterweight by a points victory over Ward Meulebrouck.

In the following years he fought many fights that served to build it up. He won most of them, but was not spared defeat either. Through victories over his Belgian rivals Adrien Anneet and Jack Etienne in March and April 1935, Karel Sys received the right to challenge Gustave Roth , who was Belgian middleweight champion and who was to develop into one of the best light heavyweight boxers in the world in the late 1930s. Roth was a few years older than Karel Sys and accordingly more experienced. He therefore won this championship fight over 15 rounds on points.

On January 22, 1937 Karel Sys boxed for the first time in Germany . He defeated boxing legend Adolf Heuser over ten rounds on points in the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin . He liked it so much that he was able to compete on March 17, 1937 against Adolf Witt , the former German light heavyweight champion, whom he also defeated on points. On May 29, 1937 Karel Sys was then by a point victory over Jean Berlemont after ten rounds Belgian light heavyweight champion. Karel Sys won many of his fights on points. He was never a puncher who could knock out his opponents in rows. An excellent technique, paired with enormous agility and speed, brought him his many victories.

On December 1, 1937, Karel Sys fought again against Gustave Roth in Brussels . It was about the world championship title of the IBU, that was a European world federation, which existed from 1913 to 1946 and was founded because European boxers saw themselves at a disadvantage from the American-dominated world boxing federation. However, it has never played a major role in practice. In addition to this title, the battle of Sys against Roth was also about the European light heavyweight championship. The fight ended in a draw and Roth, who had previously won the titles mentioned, kept them.

On January 20, 1939, Karel Sys, meanwhile grown into the heavyweight division, fought for the first time for the European title in this weight class in the Berlin Deutschlandhalle. His opponent was the defending champion Heinz Lazek , a native of Vienna. Heinz Lazek, who like Sys was an excellent technician, was able to defeat Sys over 15 laps by just a few points. On July 2, 1941, Karel Sys finally won a victory over Gustave Roth in the fight for the Belgian heavyweight championship. He won by dropping out in the fourth round. On May 25, 1942, he lost this title to Roth by losing points.

In the spring of 1943, Karel Sys defeated in Antwerp the French champions Stefan Olek , in Wroclaw the Italian master Luigi Musina and in Brussels his compatriot Pol Goffaux , who had in the meantime been boxing in the European rankings forward and thus received the right against the Swedish champion Heavyweight Olle Tandberg to fight for the vacant European heavyweight title. This fight took place on May 30, 1943 in front of 40,000 spectators in the Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm. Olle Tandberg, taller and heavier than Karel Sys, was able to use his physical advantages and win the fight.

Six months later, Sys and Tandberg took revenge in the Palais des Sports in Brussels. It was on November 14, 1943 when Sys Tandberg clearly defeated on points and was the new European heavyweight champion. After this fight, Karel Sys was only able to box five times until 1944 due to the war. There was no longer any championship fight among them. From 1945 until his arrival in Argentina in June 1949, Karel Sys could not box, as already mentioned. The European Boxing Union stripped him of the European Championship.

From 1949 to 1951 Karel Sys fought 14 fights in Argentina. He achieved twelve victories and fought, in addition to the above-mentioned fight against Archie Moore, on March 6, 1950 in Buenos Aires against the Chilean champion Arturo Godoy in a draw.

After his return to Belgium, Karel Sys defeated the dangerous American Lloyd Barnett and the top European boxers Stefan Olek , Josef Weidinger and Wilson Kohlbrecher in 1951 and was given the chance on January 12, 1952 in the Palais des Sports in Brussels against the German champions Hein ten Hoff to box again for the European Championship. Karel Sys surprised the highly esteemed German and clearly won on points. Barely two months later, however, he lost this title in Dortmund to Heinz Neuhaus , who defeated him on points over 15 laps.

In a revenge, which was not about a title, Karel Sys won on May 3, 1952 in Antwerp over Heinz Neuhaus over ten rounds on points. In 1952 Karel Sys fought mostly in Germany and a few times in Belgium. He defeated u. a. on September 7, 1952 in Berlin the German European light heavyweight champion Conny Rux by technical knockout in the third round.

On August 2, 1953, Karel Sys then boxed again in Dortmund against Heinz Neuhaus for the European heavyweight championship. He was now 39 years old and had to admit defeat on points to Neuhaus, who was almost ten years his junior. On May 22, 1954, Karel Sys was tempted to compete against the dreaded Cuban Niño Valdés , who was perhaps the best heavyweight boxer in the world at the time, and whom the world champions at the time, from Joe Louis to Ezzard Charles to Rocky Marciano, never gave a World Cup chance and lost promptly by abandonment due to incapacity in the fourth round. This was the last fight in Karel Sys's hugely successful career.

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1950 to 1955

Web links

• Karel Sys in the BoxRec database