Rudy Koopmans

Koopmans, Rudy
Data
Birth Name	Koopmans, Rudy
Weight class	Light heavyweight
nationality	Netherlands
birthday	January 30, 1948
place of birth	Leeuwarden
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.78 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	47
Victories	43
Knockout victories	30th
Defeats	2
draw	2

Rudy Koopmans (born January 30, 1948 in Leeuwarden , the Netherlands ) is a former Dutch boxer . He was European light heavyweight professional boxer champion .

Career

Amateur career

Rudy Koopmans started boxing as a teenager in his hometown Leeuwarden. He became Dutch junior and senior champion. For several years he boxed for a German club in the German Bundesliga. He hardly has any major international successes in his amateur days. In 1969 he came at the "Dutch Tulips" tournament in Amsterdam in the light middleweight division to the final, in which he lost to the Polish champion and later world champion of amateurs Wiesław Rudkowski by knockout in the 3rd round. In 1971 he took part in the European Championships in Madrid and took a good 5th place in the middleweight division. He came in the second round to a point win over Wagn Noergaard from Denmark and lost in the quarter-finals against Raima Virtanen from Finland on points.

Profile career

In 1972 Rudy Koopmans signed a professional contract with the German manager Willy Zeller. He played his first professional fight on December 8, 1972 in Cologne , where he was knockout winner in the first round over the Italian Raffaele Massei. By the end of 1975 Rudy Koopmans had a total of 13 fights, all of which he won. In those years he boxed exclusively in Germany , only one fight took place in Graz , Austria . In December 1975, Rudy Koopmans moved to the Dutch manager Henk Ruhling.

From this point on he often fought in the Netherlands . After 26 wins in a row, he finally got the chance on February 15, 1978 to fight the Italian Aldo Traversaro for the EBU European Light Heavyweight Championship in Rotterdam . After 15 rounds he was proclaimed the point winner and new European light heavyweight champion . When checking the score sheets, however, after a protest a day later, it was found that they contained arithmetic errors (the Spanish judge had calculated 146 to 145, correct were 145 to 145; the minutes of the French judge were 144 to 144), which is why the verdict had to be changed into a draw and Traversaro remained European champion.

But it didn't last long, because on March 7, 1979, Koopman's second fight against Traversaro for the EBU European Light Heavyweight Championship took place in Rotterdam. In this fight Rudy Koopmans won by techn. KO in the 7th round. Aldo Traversaro was withdrawn from the fight due to an injury. Rudy Koopmans was the new European champion. Rudy Koopmans successfully defended this European title five times up to the autumn of 1980. On May 28, 1979 he defeated the Frenchman Robert Amory in Amsterdam by techn. KO in the 10th round, against the French Hocine Tafer he came to only one draw on November 5, 1979 in Rotterdam, on January 28, 1980 he defeated the Italian Ennio Cometti in Rotterdam by techn. KO in the 10th round, he defeated the weak Englishman Tony Dowling on March 31, 1980 in Rotterdam in the 1st round by techn. KO and also Fred Serres from Luxembourg could not be dangerous to him on July 11, 1980 in Differdange . Koopmans won this fight clearly on points after 12 rounds.

On November 28, 1980, Rudy Koopmans got the chance to box at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles against Eddie Mustafa Muhammad from the United States for the WBA world light heavyweight title. He was unlucky because he had to be taken out of the ring in the 3rd round due to an eyebrow injury.

Rudy Koopmans successfully defended his EBU European Championship title six times in the next three years, although he was handicapped in most of these fights by a protracted injury to his right flapping hand. On February 26, 1981, he defeated Hocine Tafer in Paris , whom he gave a revenge, by techn. KO in the 7th round. He beat Fred Serres in defending his title on October 5, 1981 in Rotterdam in the first round. The Italian Cristiano Cavina also felt the power of Rudy Koopmans on February 6, 1982 in Amsterdam and lost through knockout in the first round. On November 5, 1982, Rudy Koopmans, who was trained by the former German world champion Eckhard Dagge , met his up-and-coming compatriot Alex Blanchard . Blanchard lost this fight in the 8th round by tech. KO. After a big ballyhoo, Rudy Koopmans fought on July 9, 1983 in the Frankfurt Festhalle against the German Manfred Jassman and knocked him out in the 8th round. In his next title defense, he then had to go in Bercy , France, against the French Rufino Angulo over the full fight time of 12 rounds, but won clearly on points.

On 2 February 1984 Rudy Koopmans defended in Marseille his EBU European title against Frenchman Richard Caramanolis . During the fight there was again severe pain in his slapping hand, which forced him to give up this fight in the 9th round. This injury eventually forced him to give up his successful boxing career.

Rudy Koopmans lives in Rotterdam and runs a boxing school there. An international junior boxing tournament for amateurs is named after him in Leeuwarden.

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1969 to 1984,
• Website "www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl",
• "Boxrec.com" website

Web links

• Battle record by Rudy Koopmans

Individual evidence

1. ↑ «Calculation errors and title gone» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 18, 1978, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).