Nikolai Fyodorowitsch Korolev

Korolyov (left) at his last tournament in Sofia in 1954

Nikolai Fjodorowitsch Koroljow ( Russian: Николай Фёдорович Королёв ; born March 14, 1917 in Moscow ; † March 12, 1974 ibid) was a Soviet boxer . He was the winner of the 1937 Workers' Olympics in Antwerp and nine times Soviet heavyweight champion .

Career

Nikolai Korolev grew up in the Izmailovo district of Moscow. As a teenager he fought many a "boxing match" against his peers on the street and found that he usually won. From 1934 on he reined in his excess strength in a sports club and started boxing there . His first coach was the then very famous Moscow coach Anatoly Harlampiev. This led Nikolai Koroljow quickly to the Soviet top class of heavyweight boxers. As early as February 1936 he was a member of "Pischchevik" Moscow heavyweight champion of Moscow and in June 1936 he was the first Soviet heavyweight champion with a victory in the final battle over Nikolai Belyayev.

In 1936 the so-called "absolute championship" of boxers was brought into being in the Soviet Union . The best heavyweight boxers, but also the light heavyweight champions and in exceptional cases even the middleweight champions were eligible to start. These athletes determined the absolute master of the USSR in fights that lasted six times for three minutes (normal amateur fights lasted 3 × 3 minutes) . At the first edition in 1936, Nikolai Koroljow won the final battle over the five-time Soviet light heavyweight champion Viktor Michailow and was the first absolute champion of the USSR for boxers.

In 1937 Nikolai Korolev won again the Soviet championship with a victory in the final battle against the Georgian Andro Navazardov and was again absolute USSR boxer champion with another victory over Viktor Mikhailov. In the same year the so-called Workers' Olympics took place in Antwerp . There Nikolai Koroljow won the heavyweight competition with victories over Hilandrom from Finland and Eldorades from Palestine .

In 1938 and 1939 he was again the Soviet heavyweight champion. He defeated Andro Nawarsardow in the final battles. At the third edition of the absolute USSR championship in 1939 he was defeated by a 2: 1 judge's vote against Viktor Michailow and had to give him the popular title.

After that, Nikolai Korolev voluntarily joined the Red Army and fought on the front line against the armies of Hitler's Germany. In 1943 he started boxing again and enjoyed great success in the period that followed. In the 4th absolute USSR championship he defeated Ivan Ganykin on points and Levon Guduschauri by knockout in the 1st round, but could not compete against the middleweight champion of the USSR Ewegeni Ogurenkow because of an injury, who thus became absolute USSR champion without a fight.

In 1944 Nikolai Korolev lost in the USSR heavyweight championship against Andro Navazardov, but was again absolute USSR champion. In the final battle he defeated it Evgeni Ogurenkow on points. In 1945 he won both titles again. He won the finals over Martin Linnamägi and Andro Nawasardow. The fourth title win in the absolute USSR championship was also the last of its kind, because after 1945 this championship was no longer held. In 1945, Nikolai Korolev also took part in a boxing tournament in Helsinki . There he defeated the Finn Paavo Mattson in the final battle. However, for the now thirty-year-old, his hope of being able to compete in international championships soon did not come true. The Soviet Union first took part in such a championship in 1952, at the Olympic Games in Helsinki.

In 1946 he again won the Soviet heavyweight championship and started at the so-called "All-Slavian Tournament" in Prague . He won this tournament before Livansky, Czechoslovakia and I. Birac, Yugoslavia . In the years 1947 to 1949 he then won his Soviet championship titles in heavyweight numbers seven to nine. In 1949 he won over a young boxer from Lithuania , Algirdas Šocikas .

This Algirdas Schozikas then turned out to be the new Soviet heavyweight star in the years 1951 to 1953, because he won the Soviet championship in those years with victories over Nikolai Korolev. For him it was of course depressing, because the Soviet people responsible for the nomination of the starter at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 relied on the younger Algirdas Šocikas.

Nikolai Koroljow, who was married and had three daughters, boxed until 1954. When he lost on points in an international match in Sofia against Antoni Goscianski from Poland, he resigned. Nikolai Korolev was without a doubt the best Soviet boxer, and perhaps even the best heavyweight boxer in the world, from 1936 to 1949. But he could never prove the latter.

International fights by Nikolai Koroljow

• 1946 in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia against USSR , winner over Sudavski,
• 1947 in Warsaw , Poland against USSR, knockout winner 1st round over Wladyslaw Niewadzil,
• 1954 in Sofia , Poland against the USSR, loss on points against Antoni Goscianski

USSR championships with Nikolai Korolev

• 1936: 1st Nikolai Koroljow, 2nd Nikolai Beljajew, 3rd P. Anfrikow,
• 1937: 1. Nikolai Korolev, 2. Andro Navassardow, 3. O. Losow,
• 1938: 1. Nikolai Koroljow, 2. Andro Navassardow, 3. H. Fedjajew,
• 1939: 1st Nikolai Korolev, 2nd Andro Navasardov, 3rd Nikolai Belyayev,
• 1944: 1. Andro Navassardow, 2. Nikolai Koroljow, 3. Martin Linnamägi and N. Yurtschenko,
• 1945: 1st Nikolai Koroljow, 2nd Martin Linnamägi, 3rd Rudolf Lange
• 1946: 1. Nikolai Koroljow, 2. Andro Navassardow, 3. Martin Linnamägi
• 1947: 1. Nikolai Koroljow, 2. Andro Navassardow, 3. Martin Linnamägi
• 1948: 1st Nikolai Korolev, 2nd Anatoli Perow, 3rd Andro Navassardow
• 1949: 1. Nikolai Koroljow, 2. Algirdas Šocikas, 3. Anatoli Perow,
• 1951: 1. Algirdas Šocikas, 2. Nikolai Koroljow, 3. W. Katajew,
• 1952: 1. Algirdas Šocikas, 2. Nikolai Koroljow, 3. W. Katajew,
• 1953: 1. Algirdas Šocikas, 2. Nikolai Koroljow, 3. Lembit Mason

Absolute USSR championships with Nikolai Korolev

• 1936: 1st Nikolai Korolev, 2nd Viktor Michailow,
• 1937: 1st Nikolai Korolev, 2nd Viktor Michailow,
• 1939: 1st Viktor Michailow, 2nd Nikolai Koroljow,
• 1943: 1st Yevgeny Ogurenkow, 2nd Nikolai Koroljow, 3rd Andro Navassardow,
• 1944: 1st Nikolai Koroljow, 2nd Yevgeny Ogurenkow, 3rd N. Yurtschenko,
• 1945: 1st Nikolai Korolev, 2nd Andro Navasardov, 3rd Levon Guduschauri

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1950 to 1954

Web link

• Portrait of Nikolai Korolyov in English