Marijan Beneš
Marijan Beneš ( Serbian - Cyrillic Маријан Бенеш ; born June 11, 1951 in Belgrade ; † September 4, 2018 in Banja Luka ) was a Yugoslav boxer. As an amateur, he was European light welterweight champion in 1973, was voted Yugoslavia's Sportsman of the Year and took part in the 1976 Olympic Games. As a professional, he was twice European light middleweight champion and was a World Cup challenger for the WBA association .
Amateur career
As an amateur boxer, he fought for BK Slavija in Banja Luka and won 277 of his 300 fights. He was 1973, 1974 and 1976 Yugoslav welterweight champion, as well as 1973 Balkan light welterweight champion and 1976 Balkan welterweight champion.
In 1970 he started at the 1st European Junior Championships in Miskolc , where he lost to French Jean Pierre Younsi in the quarterfinals. At the 2nd European Junior Championship in Bucharest in 1972 he lost in the quarterfinals against the Romanian Damian Cimpoeşu.
He celebrated the greatest success of his career at the 20th European Championship in 1973 in Belgrade , where he won the gold medal in the light welterweight division. He defeated the three-time English champion Neville Cole (tKo), the later Balkan champion Paul Dobrescu from Romania (tKo), the reigning European champion Ulrich Beyer from the GDR (tKo) and in the final the Soviet champion Anatoli Kamnew (tKo). For this success he was named Yugoslavia's Sportsman of the Year in 1973.
At the 21st European Championships in 1975 in Katowice , he had to admit defeat in the round of 16 against Plamen Jankow from Bulgaria. In 1976 he started the welterweight division at the 21st Summer Olympics in Montreal , but lost in the second preliminary round to the later silver medalist Pedro Gamarro from Venezuela.
In international battles he defeated, among others, the later Olympic champion Jerzy Rybicki from Poland and the three-time military world champion Reinhard Skricek from the GDR.
Professional career
Beneš switched to professional sports in 1977 and won his debut on August 6th in Berlin against Clement Tshinza (record: 31 wins - 11 losses). After eight more victories, including against the Scottish champion John Smith, the French champion Alain Ruocco and the British champion Pat Thomas (28-7), he suffered a defeat against Tiger Quaye from England on February 15, 1978, but won the rematch Ko in the first round.
After another win against Tiger Quaye, he beat Elisha Obed (68-5) on September 2, 1978 on points. He also defeated the two-time WBC World Cup challenger Everaldo Costa Azevedo (72-17) in November 1978 on points. Then he secured himself on March 17, 1979 with a knockout victory in the fourth round against the native Tunisian Gilbert Cohen (20-2), the European title ( EBU ) in the light middleweight division. He then defended the title on June 6 of the same year by tKo in the eighth round against the undefeated Spaniard Andoni Amana (26-0) and on November 5 by tKo in the third round against the also undefeated Dutch Adrie Huussen (19-0 ). In February 1980 he defended the European Championship belt with a draw against the Italian Damiano Lassandro (29-4).
On June 12, 1980 he boxed in Denmark for the WBA world championship in light middleweight, but had to admit defeat on points to the undefeated title holder Ayub Kalule (33-0) over 15 rounds. But already in his next fight on October 6, 1980 in Paris , he defeated the French Georges Warusfel (37-8) by tKo in the fifth round and was thus again European champion of the EBU. After the following victories against the champions from Puerto Rico and Chile, he lost the European Championship belt on March 19, 1981 by a point defeat to the French Louis Acariès (29-3).
Until 1983 he defeated the French Andre Mongelema (points victory), the Austrian Franz Dorfer (tKo) and the Congolese Mbayo Wa Mbayo (tKo), but lost another European Championship fight on October 28, 1982 just on points against the Italian Luigi Minchillo (39-2).
After more than seven years of abstinence from the ring, in May 1991 he beat Salvatore Di Salvatore, who later became IBF Intercontinental Champion , by tKo in the fifth round. After nearly six more years, he returned to the ring for one final fight in February 1997, knocking out debutant Cliff McCourry in the second round.
Web links
- Marijan Benes in the database of Olympedia.org (English)
- Profile at BoxRec
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Beneš, Marijan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Бенеш, Маријан (Serbian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Yugoslav-Croatian boxer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 11, 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Belgrade , Yugoslavia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th September 2018 |
| Place of death | Banja Luka |