Armand Krajnc (born 7 August 1973) is a former Swedish professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2004. He held the WBO middleweight title from 1999 to 2002, and challenged once for the unified WBA (Super) and IBF super-middleweight titles in his final fight in 2004.

Early life Krajnc's parents emigrated from Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia to southernmost Sweden, Scania before he was born. Before his professional career, he obtained first Dan, represented by the Black Belt, within the Karate style of Shotokan. This prepared him to become a hard-hitting boxer. When he began his professional career he moved to Malmö and commuted on a weekly basis to his new German boxing club and promoter in Lübeck in northern Germany.

Professional career Known as "Lion", Krajnc turned pro in 1996, moving to Lübeck and signing up for a German promoter to avoid the Swedish ban on professional boxing. Three years later, in 1999, he won the WBO Middleweight Title by technical knock out (TKO) against Jason Matthews. Krajnc defended the title three times, before losing it to Harry Simon in 2002.

One of Krajnc's title defenses was against the Stockholm celebrity and fellow Swede Paolo Roberto. Krajnc had a low personal opinion of the latter and there was considerably controversy preceding the fight. For instance, Krajnc once compared Roberto to a fjolla (sissy) and stated that Roberto had better talents in painting female toes, referencing an appearance by Roberto in a Swedish commercial TV-program. It was primarily Roberto's entertainment appearances in television, which Krajnc obviously found unfitting a professional boxer.

Based strictly on his boxing record, Roberto was unlikely to receive a title shot, and the personal animosity contributed to the fight being made. 3 November 2001, the match was held in Kranjc home arena in Germany. The distance between Lübeck and Scania is fairly short, and between 1500 and 2000 Scanian fans had met up in Lübeck, in order to, together with his German supporters, give their best possible support for Krajnc. Roberto, who was well-known from Swedish television, not only for boxing, would rather have met Krajnc in Mariehamn, Åland. But the challenger couldn't choose location of this event. Which in Sweden became a very media covered event (though the ban on professional boxing made it impossible to televise it live).

Against a combination of joined Germans and Scanias supporters, Roberto's worst assumptions regarding the crowd, proved to be true. He was "the crook" - and Krajnc "the hero", only a few Swedish journalists from Stockholm presumably held on Roberto. Surprisingly the challenger, who before this fight had put on a great deal of muscles, took the fight to the cards. Here, however, Kranjc won easily and unanimously, while Aftonbladet columnist Lars Angrell wrote "Why wasn't the assaulting beatings of Paolo Roberto stopped !?".Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet 4 November 2001, the pink sport pages After the match Kranjc was magnanimous towards Roberto at the press conference, and claimed Paolo Roberto as a great boxer. Their enmity ended with the match, and so did the ban on limited professional boxing after a total prohibition over a period of more than 30 years.

In June 2001 Krajnc vacated his WBO title after a dispute with promotional group Universum Box-Promotion, but was later reinstated as champion by the WBO. In 2004 he challenged WBA and IBF Super Middleweight Title holder Sven Ottke but lost a decision.

Life after boxing Krajnc nowadays lives in Ystad, also in Scania where he teaches boxing to youngsters. He's also competed in the tv-series Mästarnas mästare (Champion of Champions), which he also won.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes32Loss29–3 Sven OttkeUD1227 Mar 2004 31Win29–2 Andy LiebingTKO4 (8)13 Dec 2003 30Win28–2 Peter ZsilakTKO2 (8), 4 Oct 2003 29Win27–2 Eliseo NogueiraPTS825 Apr 2003 28Loss26–2 Sergey TatevosyanTKO7 (10), 14 Sep 2002 27Loss26–1 Harry SimonUD126 Apr 2002 26Win26–0 Paolo Roberto123 Nov 2001 25Win25–0 Artur DrinajKO3 (8), 28 Jul 2001 24Win24–0 Bert SchenkTKO6 (12), 7 Oct 2000 23Win23–0 Jonathan CornKO2 (12), 11 Mar 2000 22Win22–0 Jason MatthewsTKO8 (12), 27 Nov 1999 21Win21–0 Peter KlugeTKO5 (8)18 Sep 1999 20Win20–0 Michel SimeonKO3 (8)10 Jul 1999 19Win19–0 Christian VeleaTKO3 (10), 24 Apr 1999 18Win18–0 Csaba OlahPTS613 Mar 1999 17Win17–0 James McCrayTKO3 (8)13 Feb 1999 16Win16–0 Anthony IvoryPTS828 Nov 1998 15Win15–0 Leroy OwensPTS814 Nov 1998 14Win14–0 Jean Paul D'AlessandroTKO5 (6), 24 Oct 1998 13Win13–0 Danny DefevereTKO2 (8)2 May 1998 12Win12–0 Bahre Ahmeti814 Mar 1998 11Win11–0 Vedran AkrapPTS1014 Feb 1998 10Win10–0 Mimoun KhaddaKO2 (8)20 Dec 1997 9Win9–0 Djaafar FilaliKO3 (6)11 Oct 1997 8Win8–0 Gyorgy Mizsei67 Sep 1997 7Win7–0 Youssef BakhoucheTKO2 14 Jun 1997 6Win6–0 Stefan MagyarTKO2 26 Apr 1997 5Win5–0 Lajos PatkoKO1 (6), 8 Mar 1997 4Win4–0 Gejza StipakTKO1 11 Jan 1997 3Win3–0 Anton LascekTKO1 16 Dec 1996 2Win2–0 Francesco Fiorentino213 Dec 1996 1Win1–0 Ferousi Ilunga35 Oct 1996

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