Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish-German professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2005. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA, IBF, WBO and lineal light heavyweight titles between 1994 and 2003, and the WBO junior-heavyweight title from 1994 to 1995.

Early life and amateur career He was born in 1968 in Gdańsk to father Bogusław Michalczewski, a radio technician working for the Polish State Railways and mother Maria, an accountant. In his youth, before turning to boxing, he initially practiced wrestling and football.

Michalczewski came up through Poland's state-run sports program as a boy and had a successful amateur career. He achieved an amateur record of 139–11–2 (89 KO). Highlights of his amateur career include:

1986 – European Junior Semi-Finalist in middleweight division, defeating Fabrice Tiozzo but losing to Ray Close 1990 – German National Champion in light heavyweight division 1991 – European Champion in light heavyweight division

Defection to Germany On 24 April 1988, while competing beyond the Iron Curtain in West Germany for the Polish national team, Michalczewski defected from the amateur team to stay in West Germany. Becoming a citizen of the now united Germany in 1991 and turning professional the same year, he was soon signed by Universum Box-Promotion, one of the leading boxing promoters in Europe. His aggressive style earned him the nickname "Tiger".

Professional career Michalczewski turned professional in September 1991. He won the German International light-heavyweight title early on 13 February 1993, a title for foreign-born fighters based in Germany. He then won the IBF Intercontinental title on 22 May 1993.

Two-weight world champion On 10 September 1994, Michalczewski, at 23-0 (18 KOs), captured the WBO light-heavyweight title with a 12-round decision over defending champion Leeonzer Barber at Sporthalle, Alsterdorf, Hamburg, Germany. Between then and March 2003, Michalczewski made 23 successful defenses of his WBO title against 20 different boxers, and picked up three other belts along the way. Three months after beating Barber, he won the WBO cruiserweight title with a tenth-round knockout of Nestor Giovannini. However, he soon gave up that title to continue campaigning as a light-heavyweight.

In 1996, Universum Box-Promotion's conditioning coach Fritz Sdunek became head coach and replaced Chuck Talhami as Michalczewski's trainer, which resulted in a marked improvement in Michalczewski's performances.

Hill vs Michalczewski unification On 13 June 1997, he defeated Virgil Hill over 12 rounds to add Hill's WBA, IBF and Lineal light-heavyweight titles to his own. However, Michalczewski soon lost both alphabet titles; Scandalously, the WBA immediately stripped him for displaying its belt along with that of the WBO. Michalczewski was then forced to relinquish the IBF title when he was unable to defend the title in a court-ordered defense against mandatory challenger William Guthrie within a little over a month after the bout with Hill.

After beating Hill, Michalczewski knocked out 14 consecutive opponents, all in defense of his Lineal/WBO titles. In 1998, he defeated Drake Thadzi, in 1999, he defeated Montel Griffin, and in 2000, he defeated Graciano Rocchigiani.

Going for Marciano's record

Michalczewski had a perfect record of 48-0 when he faced Julio César González of Mexico in defense of his title on 18 October 2003. Coming into the fight, he was within one victory of tying Rocky Marciano's record of 49 wins with no losses. A win also would have put him just one victory short of Joe Louis' all-time record for successful defenses at any weight class. However, as when Larry Holmes went for the same record against Michael Spinks, the now 35-year-old Michalczewski was unable to pull it off. He lost a split decision to the 27-year-old Gonzalez at the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, and his career record dropped to 48–1.

Despite the loss, he still holds the record for the most consecutive successful world title defenses at light-heavyweight.

Final fight In October 2004, it was announced that Michalczewski would come out of retirement to box France's Fabrice Tiozzo for the WBA light heavyweight title on 26 February 2005 in Hamburg. Michalczewski was stopped in six round, then he announced his retirement in May 2005.

Michalczewski was to come out of retirement to fight German boxing icon but suspected cheat Sven Ottke in Germany in May 2008, but the bout never materialized.

In popular culture Tiger Energy Drink is named after the famous boxer. His picture and text "Recommended by Dariusz 'Tiger' Michalczewski" appears on the cans and bottles.Tiger Energy Drink#Facts Dariusz Michalczewski struck a friendship with performer Mark Wahlberg, known at the time by his stage name Marky Mark of the formation Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. In 1995, Marky Mark released a track called "No Mercy" about his friend Dariusz Michalczewski, including excerpts in Polish from Dariusz, who also appears in the video clip shot by Frank Papenbroock.Video clip of No Mercy by Marky Mark about Dariusz Michalczewski "No Mercy" appears in the album The Remix Album by Prince Ital Joe and Marky Mark, although this particular track is a solo effort by Marky Mark. In 2006, a documentary was made by Pawel Kocambasi alias P.M.Starost. The 60-minute documentary entitled "Tiger" took part in Filmfest München and won the award for the Best Documentary at the Biberacher Filmfestspiele.

Social involvement In 2003 Dariusz Michalczewski established foundation "Równe Szanse" (equal chances) which was aimed at supporting initiatives for youth from dysfunctional families."Równe Szanse” – Fundacja Sportowa Darka Michalczewskiego Since 2014 he supports the social campaign for civil union and the right for adoption by homosexual couples.Michalczewski: Popieram adopcję dzieci przez pary homoseksualne - Sporty walki - Najnowsze wiadomości - Dziennik.pl

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes50Loss48–2Fabrice TiozzoTKO6 (12), 26 Feb 200549Loss48–1Julio César González1218 Oct 200348Win48–0Derrick HarmonKO9 (12)29 Mar 200347Win47–0Richard HallTKO10 (12)14 Sep 200246Win46–0Joey DeGrandisKO2 (12)20 Apr 200245Win45–0Richard HallTKO11 (12), 15 Dec 200144Win44–0Alejandro LakatosKO9 (12), 5 May 200143Win43–0Ka-Dy KingTKO7 (12), 16 Dec 200042Win42–0Graciano RocchigianiTKO10 (12), 15 Apr 200041Win41–0Montell GriffinTKO4 (12), 28 Aug 199940Win40–0Muslim BiarslanovTKO7 (12), 3 Apr 199939Win39–0Drake ThadziTKO9 (12), 12 Dec 199838Win38–0Mark PrinceKO8 (12)19 Sep 199837Win37–0Andrea MagiTKO4 (12)20 Mar 199836Win36–0Darren Zenner6 (12), 13 Dec 199735Win35–0Nicky PiperTKO7 (12), 4 Oct 199734Win34–0Virgil HillUD1213 Jun 199733Win33–0Christophe GirardTKO8 (12)13 Dec 199632Win32–0Graciano RocchigianiDQ7 (12), 10 Aug 199631Win31–0Christophe GirardUD128 Jun 199630Win30–0Asluddin UmarovTKO5 (12), 6 Apr 199629Win29–0Philippe MichelUD127 Oct 199528Win28–0Everardo Armenta Jr.KO5 (12), 19 Aug 199527Win27–0Paul CarloKO4 (12), 20 May 199526Win26–0Roberto DominguezKO2 (12), 11 Mar 199525Win25–0Nestor Hipolito GiovanniniKO10 (12), 17 Dec 199424Win24–0Leeonzer Barber1210 Sep 199423Win23–0Melvin WynnKO2, 28 May 199422Win22–0David DavisKO7 (10)23 Apr 199421Win21–0David VedderDQ119 Feb 199420Win20–0Sergio Daniel Merani9 (12)20 Nov 199319Win19–0Mwehu BeyaPTS1211 Sep 199318Win18–0Juan Alberto BarreroKO5 (10)26 Jun 199317Win17–0Noel MageeTKO8 (12)22 May 199316Win16–0Pat AlleyKO43 Apr 199315Win15–0Ali SaidiKO10 (10)13 Feb 199314Win14–0Willie McDonaldKO2 (8)12 Jan 199313Win13–0Mike Peak88 Dec 199212Win12–0Keith WilliamsTKO217 Nov 199211Win11–0Cecil SimmsKO27 Nov 199210Win10–0Steve McCarthy3 (10), 29 Sep 19929Win9–0Sylvester WhiteTKO528 Aug 19928Win8–0Richard Bustin4 (8)27 Jun 19927Win7–0Terrence WrightTKO222 May 19926Win6–0Robert JohnsonTKO2 (8), 4 Apr 19925Win5–0Sean MannionTKO321 Feb 19924Win4–0Yves MonsieurTKO4 (8)28 Jan 19923Win3–0Zoltan HabdaTKO2 (6)10 Jan 19922Win2–0Peter CenkiTKO215 Oct 19911Win1–0Frederic Porter216 Sep 1991

Titles in boxing Major world titles WBA light heavyweight champion (175 lbs) IBF light heavyweight champion (175 lbs) WBO light heavyweight champion (175 lbs) WBO cruiserweight champion (200 lbs)

Regional/International titles IBF Inter-Continental light heavyweight champion (175 lbs) German International light heavyweight champion (175 lbs)

Television viewership

Germany

Date Fight Viewership () Source(s) Dariusz Michalczewski vs. Richard Hall II Dariusz Michalczewski vs. Derrick Harmon Dariusz Michalczewski vs. Julio César González Dariusz Michalczewski vs. Fabrice Tiozzo Total viewership 26,500,000

Poland

Date Fight Viewership () Source(s) Dariusz Michalczewski vs. Julio César González Total viewership 5,794,000

See also List of light heavyweight boxing champions List of WBA world champions List of IBF world champions List of WBO world champions

References

External links

Dariusz Michalczewski profile at Cyber Boxing Zone