Michael Katsidis

Michael Katsidis

Data
Birth Name	Michael Alan Katsidis
Weight class	lightweight
nationality	Australia Australian
birthday	August 15, 1980
place of birth	Toowoomba
style	Left delivery
size	170 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	41
Victories	33
Knockout victories	24
Defeats	8th

Michael Alan Katsidis (born August 15, 1980 in Toowoomba ) is an Australian professional boxer of Greek descent and former, two-time interim world champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO) in the lightweight.

He is a fast attacking boxer with continuous, hard punching attacks and good taker skills, but often neglects the defensive, which is why he often emerged from his fights badly drawn. Because of these characteristics, boxing commentators like to compare him to Arturo Gatti .

Amateur career

Michael Katsidis started boxing at the age of eleven and won 75 of 81 amateur fights. His greatest successes were the Australian championship title in 2000, winning the 22nd Oceanic Championships in Canberra in 2000, and winning the 6th Arafura Games in Darwin in 2001. He achieved all three successes in the lightweight.

In this weight class he also took part in the 27th Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000 , where he defeated the Brazilian Agnaldo Nunes Magalhães 15: 6 on points in the preliminary round, but then lost just 7: 9 to Nurschan Karimschanow from Kazakhstan.

Professional career

He started his professional career in December 2001 and remained undefeated until March 2008. In 2002 he was Australian lightweight champion, 2004 Australian light welterweight champion.

On April 8, 2004, he defeated the Thai Kongthawat Sorkitti (42 wins - 19 defeats) by tKo in the ninth round and was then appointed by the WBO Association as the new Asian-Pacific lightweight champion. On November 6, 2004 he was a tKo victory in the eighth round against Sergio Rafael Liendo (62-20), Pan-Pacific champion of the IBF in the lightweight. In the following fights he defeated Eduardo Enrique Alvarez (30-6) and Guillermo Mosquera (38-6), among others.

After winning 21 fights, 19 of them by knockout, he boxed on February 17, 2007 in London for the WBO interim world championship in lightweight against Britain's Graham Earl (25-1) alias The Duke . Earl went down three times in the first two rounds while the corner of his ring threw in the towel to end the fight. Since this is not a compelling reason to stop the fight according to the rules of the British Boxing Board of Control , referee Mickey Vann let the fight continue. Shortly after the towel was flown, Katsidis was hit badly and was counted. In the fourth round, Earl suffered a cut injury to his left eye and eventually gave up the fight between rounds 5 and 6.

After the fight he moved to the United States to promote his boxing career and had the star of Vergina tattooed on his back as an expression of his Greek descent . It is an emblem of the royal dynasty at the time of Alexander the Great , whose name he has adopted as the English variant "The Great" as the battle name. When entering the ring, he also often wears the helmet of a Spartan warrior and, in addition to the Australian, also the Greek state flag.

Five months after his win against Earl, he defended the title in Las Vegas unanimously on points against Czar Amonsot (18-2) and had his opponent down twice.

On March 22, 2008, he met the Cuban Joel Casamayor (35-3) in California . In a true ring battle, Katsidis went down twice in the first round, Casamayor faltered after a blow by the Australian in the fourth round and flew out of the ring after a blow attack in the sixth round. Casamayor also went down in the seventh round, but the referee did not count this as precipitation, and one point was deducted from the Cuban in round 9 for hitting low. In the tenth round, however, Katsidis was hit on the chin by a haymaker and fell to the ground. He came up again, but was then attacked again and badly hit. The referee broke off the fight, Casamayor won by tKo

In his next fight on September 6, 2008 in Houston , he faced the fight for the IBO title Juan Díaz (33-1). After a tough exchange of blows over 12 rounds, Díaz was declared the points winner by two of the three judges, while Glen Hamada had counted the fight for Katsidis.

On January 31, 2009, he defeated the Argentine Ángel Hugo Ramírez (19-4) safely with a unanimous victory on points and had his opponent on the ground four times. On April 4, 2009 he won against the Mexican and two-time world champion Jesús Chávez (44-4) by tKo in the eighth round, as his opponent, who was marked by the fight, did not come out of his corner. In September 2009 he was also able to secure the interim WBO world title with a points win against Vicente Escobedo (21-1).

He achieved another significant victory on May 15, 2010 in London when he defeated the undefeated Briton Kevin Mitchell (31-0) by tKo in the third round. Then he was able to fight for the super world title of the WBA and the regular world title of the WBO against Juan Manuel Márquez (51-5). In this fast-paced fight in Las Vegas, Katsidis managed an impressive knockdown in the third round. However, he could not keep up his high pace and had to take more and more serious hits from the experienced Mexican. In the ninth round he seemed almost unable to defend and was finally taken out of the fight by the referee.

In April 2011 he lost to the American Robert Guerrero (28-1) on points after a good performance , but won in August of the same year by knockout in the third round against Michael Lozada (38-8).

On November 5, 2011 he lost in London on points against Ricky Burns (32-2), and on April 13, 2012 also on points against Albert Mensah (24-3) from Ghana. A fight scheduled for February 21, 2013 had to be canceled because medical examinations prevented him from participating in the fight. After a magnetic resonance tomography and a computed tomography , he decided, after consulting his family, to withdraw from active boxing.

On March 14, 2014, however, he made a comeback against the Indonesian Eddy Comaro (27-17) and won through tKo in the third round. In July 2014 he again defeated Graham Earl (26-4) by unanimous decision on points. In October 2014, however, he lost prematurely to Tommy Coyle (19-2). In March 2017, he won against Josh King (20-4).

Private

Katsidis has been married since February 2009 and lives in Las Vegas. His older and only brother Stathi Katsidis was one of the most successful jockeys in Australia and was found dead in his apartment in October 2010. A mix of alcohol and other drugs was found to be the cause of death .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Katsidis, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Katsidis, Michael Alan; The great
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Australian boxer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 15, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH	Toowoomba