Manfred Graus

Manfred Graus
Data
Birth Name	Manfred Graus
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	German
birthday	February 5, 1936
place of birth	Woman loudspeakers
style	Southpaw
Combat Statistics
Struggles	25th
Victories	13
Knockout victories	9
Defeats	8th
draw	4th
Profile in the BoxRec database

Manfred Graus (born February 5, 1936 in Fraulautern , Saarland ) is a former German boxer . He was the European amateurs champion in 1957 in Prague in the welterweight division.

Career

Amateur career

Manfred Graus started boxing in Fraulautern in 1947 at the age of 11 . As a late starter, it took the southpaw, who had trained as a commercial painter, almost ten years before he achieved his first notable successes. In 1956 he became the Saarland welterweight champion and in autumn 1956 defeated the German welterweight champion Manfred Hass from Misburg on points in a comparative match between Saarland and Lower Saxony . With this victory he was also noticed by the German national coach Oscar Sänger, who used him in February 1957 for the second start of the Polish national relay against the Federal Republic of Germany in Frankfurt am Main . Manfred Graus managed the feat as a newcomer to defeat the experienced two-time European champion Leszek Drogosz (1953 and 1955) on points.

The following qualification for the European Championship 1957 in Prague Manfred Graus defeated in Dusseldorf first Horst Gasper from BR Dusseldorf and Karl-Heinz Johann Peter from Hamm , the German vice-champion of 1956, on points and had thus won the right to start for Prague.

Manfred Graus was also unstoppable in Prague. There he defeated the Italian Parmeggiani in the second round, the Czechoslovak Rock in the quarter-finals and the Soviet champion Yuri Gromow in the semi-finals on points and also defeated the Austrian Leopold Potesil in the final , who had to be taken out of the ring against him in the third round. With this victory Manfred Graus was European champion. A unique success when you take into account that even a year ago nobody knew Manfred Graus, even in the closer boxer scene.

Manfred Graus' successes did not last very long. In the German championship in 1957, he was missing, as in the German championship in 1958. But still He convinced in four other countries fighting that he denied to 1959 as an amateur, where he four strong boxer from the Eastern Bloc countries USSR , Poland and Bulgaria defeated the then were already leaders in the world of amateur boxing. Before the European Amateurs Championship in 1959, Manfred Graus switched to professional boxing.

International battles

• 1957 in Frankfurt am Main , Federal Republic of Germany against Poland (second start) Point winner over Leszek Drogosz ,
• 1957 in Hamburg , Federal Republic of Germany against the USSR , point winner over Juri Gromow ,
• 1958 in Łódź , Poland against the Federal Republic of Germany, points winner over Lewandowski,
• 1958 in Karlsruhe , Federal Republic of Germany against Bulgaria , demolition winner 2nd round over Geschew,
• 1959 in Essen , Federal Republic of Germany against Poland, points winner over Misiak

Profile career

Manfred Graus fought his first professional fight on March 13, 1959 in Berlin , where he achieved a technical knockout victory in the 4th round over Gerhard Stachowitz. In his eighth fight he met Leo Potesil in Vienna , his rival from Prague in 1967. He lost in this fight in the 6th round by disqualification because he had suffered a low blow. After a few more fights, which he was able to make victorious, Manfred Graus lost on January 10, 1961 in Berlin against Stefan Redl on points. Stefan Redl, a Hungarian-German, had made a career in the United States, but was already on the decline when he defeated Manfred Graus. From this point on it was actually clear that Manfred Graus would no longer have any great success as a professional.

He was inactive from 1962 to 1965. In 1966 he attempted a comeback but lost all major fights that could have brought him back into the limelight through victories. For example, on August 23, 1966 in Wolverhampton against the English champion Wally Swift and on January 19, 1967 in Bologna against the Italian former world middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti , who knocked him out in the 2nd round. In 1967 he also lost to Sugar Boy Nando and Hans-Dieter Schwartz , the future German middleweight champion. Manfred Graus fought his last fight on November 17, 1970 in Cologne , where he defeated Klaus-Peter Tombers from Hamburg on points.

literature

• Box Sport magazine from 1956 to 1970,
• BOX ALMANACH 1920 - 1980 , published by the German Amateur Boxing Association, 1980,

Web links

• Manfred Graus in the BoxRec database
• Manfred Graus in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia
• Website "www.sport-komplett.de"