Rüdiger Schmidtke

Schmidtke, Rüdiger
Data
Birth Name	Schmidtke, Rüdiger
Weight class	Light heavyweight
nationality	Germany
birthday	February 9, 1943
style	Left-hand boom
Combat Statistics
Struggles	47
Victories	30th
Knockout victories	11
Defeats	13
draw	4th
Profile in the BoxRec database

Rüdiger Schmidtke (born February 9, 1943 in East Prussia ) is a former German boxer . He was European light heavyweight professional boxer champion .

Career

Rüdiger Schmidtke grew up in Niesig near Fulda , but was born in East Prussia and not, as is often incorrectly stated, in Frankfurt am Main . He came to Hesse in 1945 as a displaced person from Gumbinnen . As a teenager, he first completed a typesetter and then a commercial apprenticeship, which he also completed. He later became the manager of a furniture store. As a young, blond and handsome man he worked as a dressman and began bodybuilding in Alexander Petrescu's gym . He recognized Rüdiger Schmidtke's talent for movement and boxing possibilities and persuaded him to take up boxing training.

On June 24, 1966, at the age of 23, he played his first professional fight in Frankfurt without having previously completed a single amateur fight and won over Helmut Slomke in the light heavyweight division on points. His first manager was Walter Fischer from Offenbach am Main , later Wolfgang Müller took over this position. In the next few years he fought a series of development fights, which he mostly won. He achieved his first victory over a well-known opponent on November 29, 1968 in Frankfurt, when he defeated Conny Velensek from Schöningen in the 4th round by a technical knockout . In those years, Rüdiger Schmidtke did not shy away from boxing against full-grown heavyweights, as his victories over Burghard Lembke and Manfred Ackers attest.

Another milestone on the way up was his victory over Wilhelm von Homburg (Norbert Grupe), which he clearly defeated on 14 November 1969 in Frankfurt. On January 23, 1970 Rüdiger Schmidtke became German light heavyweight champion by winning points over Arno Prick from Hamburg . He defended this title on April 16, 1970 by winning points over Conny Velensek. On September 11, 1970 he was then defeated in Frankfurt by the experienced ex-European champion Piero del Papa from Italy on points.

With remarkable victories in the next two years over Wilhelm von Homburg, Roger Rouse from the USA and Piero del Papa in the fight for revenge, he secured the right to challenge the reigning EBU European champion, the former Olympic champion Christopher Finnegan from England . This championship fight took place on November 14, 1972 in the Wembley Pool in London and Rüdiger Schmidtke managed the almost impossible, he defeated Finnegan in the 12th round by techn. KO and was the new EBU European light heavyweight champion.

Rüdiger Schmidtke defended this title on March 13, 1973 in London against John Conteh . John Conteh, one of the world's best light heavyweights of those years, won this fight by technical knockout in the 12th round and dethroned Rüdiger Schmidtke. On October 13, 1973 Rüdiger Schmidtke was defeated in Johannesburg against Pierre Fourie , a world ranking boxer from South Africa , on points. On November 17, 1973, he defeated former world champion Vicente Rondón from Venezuela in Frankfurt , but from then on his career went steadily downhill. He lost the German light heavyweight championship title to Karl-Heinz Klein on April 5, 1974 in Hamburg and his efforts to become German light heavyweight championship again failed due to a knockout loss on September 12, 1975 in Offenbach against the Berliner Leo Kakolewicz and on October 30, 1976 in Frankfurt against Bernd August .

After this defeat, Rüdiger Schmidtke ended his career.

After boxing

Rüdiger Schmidtke, who tried his hand at boxing as a car dealer and taxi entrepreneur , went to Tanzania after finishing his boxing career and built up a business for the export of coffee beans, which he sold after many years. Now he lives in the Rhine-Main area again , keeps fit with tennis and works as a management consultant. He is particularly proud of the fact that boxing did not affect his appearance and that he could (almost) still perform as a dressman today. During his boxing career he was considered the darling of the female audience. The Hamburger Abendblatt wrote about him in 1974: "He has blonde hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders, narrow hips, and many women would be willing to do bigger stupid things for him and with him."

literature

• Box Sport trade journal from 1966 to 1976
• Magazine Sports Illustrated

Web links

• Rüdiger Schmidtke in the BoxRec database
• Rüdiger Schmidtke in the BoxRec Encyclopaedia
• Rüdiger Schmidtke at the German Boxing Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rüdiger Schmidtke is German champion . In: The Ostpreußenblatt . Volume 21, No. 12 , March 21, 1970, pp. 13 ( digitized in archiv.preussische-allgemeine.de [PDF; 11.8 MB ; accessed on May 10, 2020]).
2. ↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1974/pdf/19740403.pdf/ASV_HAB_19740403_HA_030.pdf