Poldi Steinbach

Poldi Steinbach
Data
Birth Name	Leopold Steinbach
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Austrian
birthday	June 5, 1904
place of birth	Vienna
Date of death	June 15, 1944
Place of death	Vienna
size	1.70 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	73
Victories	52
Knockout victories	27
Defeats	9
draw	10
No value	2

Family grave of the Steinbach family

Leopold "Poldi" Steinbach (born June 5, 1904 in Vienna ; † June 15, 1944 there ) was an Austrian middleweight boxer. He was the son of the strength athlete Josef Steinbach and became Austria's first boxing European champion in 1931.

Career

Steinbach played his first professional fight on May 3, 1923 in Vienna and defeated the Serb Eduard Kovařovic by knockout in the first round. In the same year he remained undefeated in four other fights and won on January 25, 1924 by technical knockout in the eleventh round, the Austrian championship title in the middleweight division against Hans Wesselitsch. In his following four fights, he also managed another tKo victory in the rematch against Wesselitsch.

He suffered his first defeat in November 1924 against the German Alex Kiausch, from whom he could only wrest a draw in the rematch. In return, he achieved notable victories against the undefeated Hermann Herse (known as Max Schmeling's sparring partner ), the undefeated Italian champion Abelardo Zambon and the former German champion Hans Seifried. In December 1926 he lost on points against the experienced German champion Ernst Grimm, and his fight against Alex Tomkowiak ended without valuation due to mutual unsportsmanlike conduct. On January 18, 1929, he boxed against Hein Domgörgen in Berlin and was initially declared a loser on points. However, the Austrian camp was able to successfully file a complaint against the result of the fight, which was influenced by the home advantage, after which the fight was also changed to a worthless result.

After another points win against Hermann Herse, a points win against the Dutchman Piet Brand and a knockout win against the ex-European champion Leone Jacovacci, he received a title fight for the EBU European Middleweight Championship against the Italian Mario Bosisio on June 19, 1931 ( Record: 101 wins in 112 fights). Steinbach was able to assert himself unanimously on points in this tough duel over 15 rounds and thus became the first Austrian boxing European champion. But already in his first title defense on August 30, 1931, he lost the title in Berlin on points to Hein Domgörgen . After a break of over nine months, there was a third fight with Domgörgen in June 1932, which Steinbach finally won by knockout in the seventh round.

On August 18, 1933 he boxed again for the EBU title, but lost by tKo against the Swede John Andersson. On August 17, 1934, however, he was able to fight for the Austrian middleweight championship again, after he had prevailed on points against Karl Neubauer. He played his last fight on July 3, 1936 against the Puerto Rican Angel Clivillés and won by knockout in the first round.

After his active career, he became a sports teacher and boxing trainer. Together with his brother Josef he looked after the European champions Karl Blaho , Heinz Lazek and Ernst Weiss . On June 15, 1944, he died in an Allied air raid on his sports facility in Dianabad and was buried twelve days later in a family grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery. His EM belt is on display in the Landstrasse district museum.

Web links

• Steinbach, Leopold (Poldi) , Austrian Biographical Lexicon
• Poldi Steinbach , BoxRec