Zbigniew Pietrzykowski

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski (2007)

Zbigniew Jan "Piskorz" Pietrzykowski (born October 4, 1934 in Bestwinka , † May 19, 2014 in Bielsko-Biała ) was a Polish boxer . He won one Olympic silver and two Olympic bronze medals and was a four-time European amateur champion in three weight classes.

Life

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski came from a family of teachers and came to boxing through his older brother in 1950. During his entire career from 1950 to 1968 he was a member of the BBTS Bielsko-Biała sports club . Only during his military service did he box for Legia Warsaw in 1955 and 1956 . His first trainer was Ernest Rademacher. In the course of his career he was trained by J. Kolonko, Antoni Zygmunt, Pawel Szydlo and in the national team of Feliks Stamm .

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, who attended a technical center in Szopienice , was accepted into the Polish national team of amateur boxers as early as 1952 and started in 1953 for the first time at an international senior championship, the European championship in Warsaw . He defeated there Ivica Pavlic from Yugoslavia and Neascu Serbu from Romania in the light middleweight division, before he was beaten on points in the semifinals by the eventual European champion Bruce Wells from England. He won a bronze medal with it .

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski (right) fights with the Hungarian Raduly (1954)

In 1954, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski was first Polish champion in the senior middleweight division by winning the final over Leszek Leiss. In the course of his long career he won this title in this weight class in 1955 and 1956. In 1957 he was Polish middleweight champion and 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965 light heavyweight. He was also three times Polish team champion with BBTS Bielsko-Biała and Legia Warsaw. With eleven individual titles, he was the Polish record holder until 2005.

In 1955, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, who was a physically extremely strong boxer with excellent technique and southpaw, started for the second time at a European championship. In Berlin (West) he defeated Hans Rienhardt from the Federal Republic of Germany, Bernard Foster from England, Marcel Pigou from France and in the final Karlos Dschanerjan from the USSR clearly on points and won his first European championship.

In a preparatory tournament for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne , Zbigniew Pietrzykowski managed to beat Hungarian Olympic champion László Papp in Warsaw . At the Olympic Games himself he won the light middleweight division, initially over Richard Karpow from the USSR and Boris Nikolow from Bulgaria, clearly on points and met Laszlo Papp again in the semifinals. Laszlo Papp, who was almost a head shorter than Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, clearly dominated his Polish opponent in this fight and clearly won on points. Zbigniew Pietrzykowski won the Olympic bronze medal .

In 1957 Zbigniew Pietrzykowski started at the European Championships in Prague for the first time in the middleweight division. In the quarter-finals he forced Rudolf Kuchta from Czechoslovakia to give up in the first round, defeated Paul Nickel from Schwerin clearly on points in the semifinals and in the final won a controversial point victory (3: 2 judges' votes) over the overgrown Yugoslav Dragoslav Jakovljević .

At the 1959 European Championships in Lucerne , Zbigniew Pietrzykowski started again in a higher weight class, the light heavyweight division. But he also got along without any problems in this weight class and defeated Peter Stankow from Bulgaria on points in Lucerne, Gilles van der Velden from the Netherlands by knockout in the first round, Lew Senkin from the Soviet Union on points and in the final Gheorghe Negrea from Romania techn. KO in the 2nd round and won his third European title.

At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 , Zbigniew Pietrzykowski hoped for an Olympic victory. His previous successes also made him one of the co-favorites. He followed this favorite position in Rome, where he beat Carl Crawford from Guyana, Emil Willer from Germany, Petar Spassow from Bulgaria and Giulio Saraudi from Italy on points and met the nineteen-year-old American Cassius Clay in the final . Cassius Clay was completely unknown in Europe until the Olympic Games in Rome, but his victories in Rome had made him a hot title contender. Against Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, who was physically superior to the American, Cassius Clay had enormous difficulties in the first round, mainly due to the fact that Pietrzykowski was southpaw. In the course of the fight, however, Clay gained the upper hand thanks to his sophisticated technique and above all his speed and won unanimously on points. A judgment that was considered correct by all experts. Zbigniew Pietrzykowski therefore received the Olympic silver medal .

In 1961, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski was absent from the European Championship due to an injury. In 1963 he was back at the start in Moscow . He won there over Kiril Pandow from Bulgaria by techn. KO in the 2nd round, then defeated Frantisek Polacek from Czechoslovakia on points and won the final battle over the aspiring Dan Posniak (Soviet Union) by techn. KO in the 3rd round. That was his fourth European title.

In 1964, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski then tried to become Olympic champion for the third time in Tokyo . But he did not make it again, because he was defeated in the semifinals by the Soviet athlete Alexei Kiseljew with 1: 4 judge votes on points. He had previously won against Ronald Holmes from Jamaica and against Rafael Gargiulo from Argentina . There was only the Olympic bronze medal left for him .

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski was one of the best boxers in the world from 1955 to 1964. But he had the bad luck that he met two exceptionally good boxers at the Olympic Games in László Papp in 1956 and in Cassius Clay , later Muhammad Ali, in 1960 . The defeat against Alexei Kiseljew in 1964 came as a surprise.

In the course of his career, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski also played over 40 international matches. He was only defeated twice. He won all the fights he fought against German opponents from East and West. These were Hans Geserick, Fritz Böttcher, Ulrich Krause, Willi Kopischke, Kurt Stroer, Bruno Wittkowski, Hans-Joachim Brauske , Jürgen Schlegel and Kurt Morwinsky .

On February 10, 1968 Zbigniew Pietrzykowski played his last fight. He had fought a total of 350 fights, of which he won 334. He boxed twice and only fourteen times left the ring as a loser.

After his playing days, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski was a trainer at BBTS Bielsko-Biała, GKS Katowice and Wisla Kraków . From 1993 to 1997 he was a member of the Polish Parliament ( Sejm ) for the Lech Walesas party, the BBWR. He was also Vice President of the Polish Olympic Committee for many years.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
1953	3.	EM in Warsaw	Semi-middle	behind Bruce Wells , England and Max Resch , FRG, together with Boris Tischin , USSR
1955	1.	EM in Berlin (West)	Semi-middle	in front of Karlos Dschanerjan, USSR, Marcel Pigou, France, and Rolf Caroli , GDR
1956	1.	Intern. Tournament in Warsaw	Semi-middle	with a technical knockout victory in the 2nd round in the final over László Papp , Hungary
1956	bronze	OS in Melbourne	Semi-middle	behind László Papp , Hungary, and José Torres , USA, together with John McCormack , Great Britain
1957	1.	EM in Prague	medium	before Dragoslav Jakovljević , Yugoslavia, Paul Nickel , GDR, and Manfred Schönberg , FRG
1958	1.	Intern. Tournament in Lodz	Semi-difficult	with a technical knockout victory in the 3rd round in the final over Zdzisław Józefowicz, Poland
1959	1.	EM in Lucerne	Semi-difficult	before Gheorghe Negrea , Romania, Lew Senkin , USSR a. Giulio Saraudi , Italy
1960	silver	OS in Rome	Semi-difficult	behind Cassius Clay , USA, in front of Giulio Sauraudi u. Anthony Madigan , Australia
1963	1.	EM in Moscow	Semi-difficult	before Dan Pozniak , USSR, Frantisek Polacek , Czechoslovakia, and Bernard Thebault , France
1964	bronze	OS in Tokyo	Semi-difficult	behind Cosimo Pinto , Italy, and Alexei Kiseljew , USSR, together with Alexander Nikolow, Bulgaria

Polish championships

year	space	Weight class	Final result
1953	2.	Semi-middle	Point defeat against Leszek Leiss (OWKS Lublin)
1954	1.	Semi-middle	Z. Nogajski (CWKS Legia Warszawa)
1955	1.	Semi-middle	S. Czajęcki (CWKS Legia Warszawa)
1956	1.	Semi-middle	Tadeusz Walasek (Sparta Ziębice)
1957	1.	medium	T. Polleks (Gedania Gdańsk)
1959	1.	Semi-difficult	T. Kliś (Legia Warszawa)
1960	1.	Semi-difficult	Points winner over Zdzisław Józefowicz
1961	1.	Semi-difficult	Points winner over Zdzisław Józefowicz
1962	1.	Semi-difficult	Points winner over Tadeusz Kubacki (Gwardia Łòdź)
1963	1.	Semi-difficult	Points winner over Zdzisław Józefowicz (Gwardia Łòdź)
1964	1.	Semi-difficult	Points winner over Zdzisław Józefowicz
1965	1.	Semi-difficult	Winner without a fight over Stanisław Dragan (Hutnik Nowa Huta)

Note: 0S = Olympic Games, EM = European Championship, light middleweight, up to 71 kg, middleweight, up to 75 kg and the like. Lightweight, up to 81 kg body weight

International battles

• 1953 in Helsinki , Finland against Poland , Hm, points winner over Pentti Kontula,
• 1954 in Budapest , Hungary against Poland, Hm, point defeat against László Papp ,
• 1954 in Warsaw , Poland against Belgium , Hm, demolition winner 2nd round over van Houcke,
• 1954 in Warsaw, Poland against GDR , Hm, tech knockout winner 2nd round over Hans Geserick,
• 1954 in Sofia , Bulgaria against Poland, Hm, points winner over Wassil Ksotow,
• 1954 in Sofia, Poland against the USSR , Hm, points winner over Gleb Tolstikow,
• 1954 in Sofia, Poland against Hungary, Hm, points winner over Istvan Raduly,
• 1954 in Paris , France against Poland, Hm, tech knockout winner 2nd round over Hippolyte Annex ,
• 1954 in Antwerp , Belgium against Poland, Hm, points winner over van de Velde,
• 1954 in Katowice , Poland against Finland, Hm, points winner over Veijo Alho,
• 1955 in Warsaw, Poland against Yugoslavia , Wed, points winner over Nikola Popovic,
• 1955 in Prague , Czechoslovakia against Poland, Wed, points winner over Bedřich Koutný ,
• 1955 in Helsinki, Finland against Poland, Hm, points winner over Heikki Juntikka,
• 1956 in Nowa Huta , Poland against Hungary, Hm, points winner over Laszlo Cziszar,
• 1956 in Warsaw, Poland against FRG , Hm, points winner over Fritz Böttcher,
• 1956 in Warsaw, Poland against England, Hm, points winner over Terry Collins,
• 1957 in Warsaw, Poland against Finland, points winner over Vihtori Matinaho,
• 1957 in London , England against Poland, Wed, KO winner 1st round over Sid Parkinson,
• 1957 in Manchester , England against Poland, Wed, points winner over Fred Elderfield,
• 1958 in Bydgoszcz , Poland against Yugoslavia, Hs, points winner over Nikola Popovic,
• 1958 in Rostock , GDR against Poland, Hs, knockout winner 1st round over Ulrich Krause,
• 1958 in Wrocław , Poland against Hungary, Hs, technical knockout winner 1st round over Laszlo Czarbajski,
• 1959 in Essen , FRG against Poland, Hs, points winner over Willi Kopischke,
• 1959 in Zagreb , Yugoslavia against Poland, Hs, points winner over Ahmed Boganic,
• 1959 in Ljubljana , Yugoslavia against Poland, Hs, winner over Wladimir Sutovic,
• 1960 in Lodz , Poland against FRG, Hs, points winner over Kurt Stroer,
• 1960 in Gdańsk , Poland against GDR, Hs, KO winner 1st round over Rolf Danielczyk,
• 1961 in Berlin (East), GDR against Poland, Hs, point winner over Ulrich Krause,
• 1961 in Lodz, Poland against Scotland , Hs, points winner over Ian Crawford,
• 1961 in Budapest, Hungary against Poland, Hs, points winner over Ernö Szenasi,
• 1962 in Warsaw, Poland against Bulgaria, Hs, points winner over Boris Georgiew ,
• 1962 in Wrocław, Poland against GDR, Hs, points winner over Bruno Wittkowski,
• 1962 in Lodz, Poland against Hungary, Hs, surrender winner 3rd round over Jozsef Benigni,
• 1963 in Bucharest, Romania against Poland, Hs, Disq. Winner 3rd round over Ion Monea ,
• 1963 in Lodz, Poland against Romania, Hs, KO winner 3rd round over Stefan Cojan,
• 1963 in Tokyo , Japan against Poland, Hs, points winner over Ingarasi,
• 1963 in Takaoka , Japan against Poland, Hs, technical knockout winner 2nd round over Tenma,
• 1963 in Poznań , Poland against GDR, Hs, points winner over Hans-Joachim Brauske ,
• 1963 in Schwerin , GDR against Poland, Hs, point winner over Jürgen Schlegel ,
• 1963 in Wrocław, Poland against FRG, Hs, points winner over Kurt Morwinsky ,
• 1963 in Lodz, Poland against USSR, Hs, points winner over Dan Pozniak ,
• 1964 in London, England against Poland, Hs, points winner over Ian Lawther,
• 1964 in Westward Ho! , England versus Poland, Hs, points winner over Ian Lawther,
• 1965 in Lodz, Poland against England, Hs, tech knockout winner 3rd round over Ian Lawther,
• 1966 in Wrocław, Poland against Czechoslovakia , Hs, points winner over Frantisek Polacek

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 1953 to 1968
• Box Almanach 1920–1980, publisher of the German Amateur Boxing Association e. V., 1980
• Website "www.sport-komplett.de"
• Website "www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl"
• Website "www.olimpijski.pl"

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zbigniew Jan Pietrzykowski | Rejestr.io. Retrieved March 26, 2019 (Polish). 

Web links

Commons : Zbigniew Pietrzykowski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )