Leonard Doroftei

Leonard Dorin
Data
Birth Name	Leonard Dorin Doroftei
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	Romanian
birthday	April 10, 1970
place of birth	Ploieşti
style	Left delivery
size	1.62 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	24
Victories	22nd
Knockout victories	8th
Defeats	1
draw	1

Leonard Doroftei medal table
boxer
Romania
Olympic games
bronze	1996	lightweight
bronze	1992	Light welterweight
World championships
gold	1995	lightweight
European championships
bronze	1993	Light welterweight

Leonard Dorin Doroftei ( debate ^{? / I} ; born April 10, 1970 in Ploieşti , Prahova district ) is a former Romanian professional boxer and current sports official . In 2012 he was elected President of the Romanian Boxing Federation.

Doroftei was the amateurs world champion in 1995 and European champion in 1996 (lightweight), and he also won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympic Games (light welterweight) and 1996 (lightweight). As a professional boxer, he held the WBA lightweight world championship from January 2002 to October 2003.

Amateur career

Leonard Doroftei began playing the sport in 1984 in the boxing department of the Prahova Ploieşti club , where his talent was discovered by Titi Tudor. Later he also trained in the clubs Steaua Bucharest and Freedom Star Farul Constanța . He was trained by Relu Auraş, Emil Popa and Ilie Dascălu, among others.

He was Romanian junior champion in 1986 and 1987 and won a bronze medal in bantamweight at the European Junior Championships in Gdansk in 1988 .

In 1991 he won bronze in the lightweight at the military world championships of the CISM and was able to qualify for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona in the 1992 European Olympic qualification in Italy by beating Bruno Wartelle and Peter Claesson . There he defeated Edgar Ruiz, Arlo Chavez and Peter Richardson , before he was eliminated in the semifinals against Mark Leduc with a bronze medal in the light welterweight division.

At the European Championships in 1993 in Bursa , he also won bronze in the light welterweight division, after he was defeated in the semifinals against Oktay Urkal . At the 1993 World Championships , he was eliminated in the quarterfinals against Jyri Kjäll .

In 1995 he won the lightweight world championships in Berlin , defeating Tomas Jansson, Orest Sosnowka, Kamal Marjouane, Marco Rudolph and Bruno Wartelle. In the same weight class, he also won the European Championships in Vejle in 1996 by defeating Dariusz Snarski, Steven Küchler , Mekhak Ghazaryan, Vahdettin İşsever and Tontscho Tontschew .

He was qualified for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , where he had fought his way to the semi-finals of the lightweight against Julio Mboumba, Sergey Kopenkin and Koba Gogoladze, where he was eliminated by Hocine Soltani and won his second Olympic bronze medal.

At the 1997 World Championships he was defeated this time in the quarterfinals against Koba Gogoladze.

In addition, Doroftei was Romanian champion in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. In total, he played 254 fights, of which he won 239.

Professional career

Leonard Doroftei started his professional career in Canada , where he promoted by Interbox and was trained by Stéphan Larouche. He won his professional debut on April 24, 1998 and won in April 1999 against Dillon Carew, who was also defeated against Mark Leduc at the 1992 Olympics. In September 2000 he defeated Gairy St. Clair , who won the IBF World Championship against Cassius Baloyi in 2006 .

In 2001 he beat Martin O'Malley (17-0) and Emanuel Augustus, who were also undefeated by then . He was thus already undefeated in 19 fights and boxed on January 5, 2002 in San Antonio against the Argentine title holder Raúl Balbi (48-4) for the WBA lightweight world title, which he was able to achieve by a narrow point victory. For this success he was awarded the Order of "For Merit" (Ordinul Național "Pentru Merit") by the Romanian President Ion Iliescu on January 22, 2002 .

In May 2002 he won the rematch against Balbi unanimously on points and boxed on May 17, 2003 in a title association against the IBF world champion Paul Spadafora (36-0), where he reached a draw and both boxers thereby retained their titles. Doroftei was withdrawn from the WBA title on October 24, 2003 because he could not meet the lightweight limit for an upcoming title defense against Miguel Callist. The next title holder was Lakva Sim , who was able to secure the vacant belt on April 10, 2004 with a win against Callist.

Doroftei, who had meanwhile risen to the light welterweight division, boxed on July 24, 2004 against Arturo Gatti for the WBC World Championship, but lost due to a heavy body hit by knockout in the second round. After this fight, he ended his career.

On December 20, 2004 he received from the Romanian Boxing Association an honorary award for his sporting successes (Premiul de excelenţă pentru întreaga activitate sportivă).

After boxing

In late 2004, Doroftei was added to the coaching staff of the Romanian boxing team under Francisc Vaştag . On November 23, 2012, he was elected President of the Romanian Boxing Association with 84 out of 115 votes and thus clearly prevailed against his competitor Fănel Trandafir. He replaced the pack Obreja, who had been in office since 2005 .

Doroftei was also the owner of a restaurant named after him in Ploieşti. He is married and has three children.

predecessor	Office	successor
Raúl Balbi	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBA ) January 5, 2002 - October 24, 2003	Lakva Sim

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Junior European Championships 1988
2. ↑ 1991 Military World Championships
3. ↑ Olympic qualification 1992
4. ↑ 1992 Olympic Games
5. ↑ European Championships 1993
6. ↑ World Championships 1993
7. ↑ World Championships 1995
8. ↑ European Championships 1996
9. ↑ 1996 Olympic Games
10. ↑ World Championships 1997
11. ↑ Alegeri la Federația Română de Box , Gazeta Sporturilor, November 24, 2012, accessed June 30, 2013 (Romanian)

Web links

Commons : Leonard Doroftei  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Leonard Doroftei in the BoxRec database
• Leonard Doroftei a împlinit 45 de ani

predecessor	Office	successor
Raúl Horacio Balbi	World lightweight boxing champion ( WBA ) January 5, 2002 - October 24, 2003	Lakva Sim