There are several people with this name, for others, see Christian Christensen (disambiguation).

Christian Kjeld Kristensen known as Christian "Gentleman Chris" Christensen, (21 May 1926 – 28 January 2005), was a Danish professional middleweight boxer. His heyday was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when he won the European middleweight title. Professionally, he had a 20.25% knock-out rate, winning 56 of his 79 professional fights. He was born in Kundby, Holbæk, Zealand, Denmark.

Amateur career Christensen boxed as a welterweight amateur for AK Falcon, and won the Junior Division of the Danish Amateur Boxing Union (Dansk Amatør Bokse-Union) championship (DM) in 1944. In 1946, he won the silver medal at the DM in the Senior Division, when he lost the final bout to Svend Møller. Then he won the Danish championship in the welterweight in 1947 and 1948 .

He participated as a welterweight in the European Cup in 1947, but lost his second match to Charles Humez of France. In 1948, Christensen represented Denmark at the Olympic Games in London. His first and only match was 7 August 1948 at the Empress Hall, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Kensington. He lost that match to Englishman Max B. Shacklady, and thus his chance at a medal. Other than those, Christensen participated in ten amateur boxing matches, and won nine of them. His last amateur fight was a test match against Ulf Olsen of Norway; Christensen won, but was later stripped of his victory because he had signed his first written professional contract just before the fight.

1948 Olympic results Below is the record of Christian Christensen, a Danish welterweight boxer who competed at the 1948 London Olympics:

Round of 32: Lost to Max Shacklady (Great Britain) by a third-round knockout

Professional career Christensen debuted as a professional boxer on 11 February 1949 in Copenhagen, matched against Said Boina. He came away with a victory on points after six rounds. In 1950 he won the Danish professional national championship in the welterweight division on 24 November, in a match against Martin Hansen. In 1952, he won the Danish championship in the middleweight division in a rematch against Martin Hansen. On 24 February 1954, in a match against the Swede Olle Bengtsson in Gothenburg for the Scandinavian middleweight Championship, Christensen was knocked out in the seventh round. In 1954 and 1955 he toured in the United States, where he fought eight matches, winning only three, including defeating former World title challenger Billy Graham, but losing the other five.

But by 1961, Christensen was back in the game, challenging Duilio Loi of Italy for the European Championship in the welterweight division. Duilo Loi won on points over Christensen after 15 rounds. Undeterred, Christensen met Scotsman John "Cowboy" McCormack in K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on 8 February 1962 for the European middleweight championship. Christensen was knocked down in the fourth round, but began to get up again. Before he could get to his feet and while the referee was still counting, McCormack struck Christensen down again, causing a general uproar, both inside and outside the ring. After the crowd quieted, Christensen was declared the winner on a disqualification. Christensen thus became the third Danish holder of the European championship, Knud Larsen and Jørgen Johansen having come before. Christensen lost the European middleweight championship in his next bout against the Hungarian 3-time Olympic gold medalist László Papp, who won on a technical knockout in the seventh round in Vienna on 16 May 1962.

On 3 February 1963, Christensen was matched against the American Emile Griffith at the Forum in Copenhagen. Griffith was at that time welterweight world champion and according to the Australian Boxing Federation was the world champion in the light-middleweight division as well. Although the match was announced as a world title fight in the light-middleweight division, only Australia recognized it as such, as Griffith was never generally recognized by any major boxing sanctioning organizations as a world Light-Middleweight champion. Griffith was clearly superior, and sent Christensen to the floor in the third round. Christensen took two more rounds before his cornermen throwing in the towel in round five.

During July 1964, at the Forum in Copenhagen, Christensen had a rematch against László Papp for the European Light-Middleweight Championship, but he was knocked out in the fourth round. In his last match as a professional at the age of 38, Christensen tried once again to regain a European Championship, this time as a Light-Middleweight, but he lost to Italy's Bruno Visintin. The fight was stopped after eleven rounds with Visintin gaining the victory on points.

Professional boxing record

ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes79LossBruno VisintinKO11 (15)12 Mar 196578Win56–18–4Ray PhilippePTS104 Feb 196577Loss55–18–4Milo SarensTKO3 (10)11 Dec 196476Win55–17–4Klaus KleinPTS101 Oct 196475Loss54–17–4László PappKO4 (15)2 Jul 196474Win54–16–4Fortunato MancaPTS1027 Feb 196473Win53–16–4Mauri BäckmanPTS101 Jan 196472Draw52–16–4Tony SmithPTS1022 Nov 196371Win52–16–3Stefan RedlPTS104 Oct 196370Loss51–16–3Emile GriffithTKO9 (15)3 Feb 196369Win51–15–3Wally SwiftPTS109 Nov 196268Win50–15–3Leopold PotesilKO5 (10)4 Oct 196267Loss49–15–3László PappTKO7 (15)16 May 196266Win49–14–3John McCormackDQ4 (15)8 Feb 196265Win48–14–3Bob CofieKO7 (10)1 Jan 196264Win47–14–3George AldridgeDQ9 (10)30 Nov 196163Win46–14–3Harko KokmeijerKO1 (10)2 Nov 196162Loss45–14–3Duilio LoiPTS155 Aug 196161Win45–13–3Luigi FurioPTS1028 Feb 196160Win44–13–3Ahmed SebbaneUD102 Feb 196159Win43–13–3André DavierPTS1026 Dec 196058Win42–13–3André MauguinKO8 (10)1 Dec 196057Win41–13–3Luis FolledoPTS103 Nov 196056Loss40–13–3Ahmed SebbanePTS106 Oct 196055Win40–12–3Sauveur ChioccaPTS122 Jun 196054Win39–12–3Hector ConstanceKO9 (10)7 Feb 196053Win38–12–3Helmut MistolPTS1012 Nov 195952Win37–12–3Emilio MarconiTKO9 (10)1 Oct 195951Loss36–12–3Fortunato MancaPTS1014 Jul 195950Win36–11–3Gerd MüllerPTS1012 Apr 195949Win35–11–3Jack SuberoKO5 (10)5 Mar 195948Win34–11–3Jacques HerbillonPTS105 Feb 195947Win33–11–3Theo BaarsPTS104 Jan 195946Win32–11–3Gaston MathieuPTS1013 Nov 195845Loss31–11–3Ted WrightPTS106 Oct 195844Win31–10–3Ahmed ben HamidaPTS1011 Sep 195843Win30–10–3Idrissa DionePTS1020 Mar 195842Win29–10–3Michel FrançoisPTS831 Jan 195841Draw28–10–3Toon SchuurmansPTS629 Nov 195740Win28–10–2Peter KingPTS87 Nov 195739Loss27–10–2Tony DiBiaseMD1028 Jan 195738Loss27–9–2Olle BengtssonTKO7 (10)24 Feb 195637Loss27–8–2Vince MartinezUD1023 Nov 195536Loss27–7–2Tiger JonesUD1023 Sep 195535Win27–6–2Gene PoirierTKO6 (10), 29 Aug 195534Loss26–6–2Danny GiovanelliUD1011 Apr 195533Loss26–5–2Tony DeMarcoTKO6 (10), 25 Sep 195432Win26–4–2Johnny LombardoUD1030 Aug 195431Win25–4–2Billy GrahamSD1019 Jul 195430Loss24–4–2Billy LauderdaleMD1022 May 195429Win24–3–2Cerra Bachir CherakaPTS1019 Mar 195428Win23–3–2Jean RuelletPTS108 Jan 195427Win22–3–2Rafael da SilvaPTS121 Oct 195326Win21–3–2Emmanuel ClavelKO5 (10)3 Sep 195325Loss20–3–2Gustav ScholzTKO10 (10)1 Mar 195324Win20–2–2Leo StaroschDQ9 (10)16 Jan 915323Win19–2–2Frits van KempenKO5 (10)13 Nov 195222Loss18–2–2Jimmy KingPTS1017 Oct 195221Draw18–1–2Gustav ScholzPTS1018 Sep 195220Win18–1–1Roger BaourPTS1018 Aug 195219Win17–1–1Kid DussartPTS1020 Mar 195018Win16–1–1Martin HansenPTS108 Feb 195217Win15–1–1Ernie VickersKO5 (8)17 Jan 195216Win14–1–1Jackie BraddockDQ5 (8)11 Dec 195115Draw13–1–1Carlo MolaPTS105 Oct 195114Win13–1Bruno MarosteganPTS1016 Mar 195113Win12–1Milo PasschierKO5 (8)16 Feb 195112Win11–1Henri HecquardKO5 (8)19 Jan 195111Win10–1Martin HansenUD824 Nov 195010Win9–1Émile ChochonKO5 (8)6 Oct 19509Win8–1Valère BenedettoPTS831 Mar 19508Win7–1Remy LeysKO7 (8)17 Feb 19507Win6–1Maurice OuezmanPTS820 Jan 19506Loss5–1Yrjö PiitulainenPTS82 Dec 19495Win5–0Bernard HyvonPTS84 Nov 19494Win4–0Areski Boina IIPTS87 Oct 19493Win3–0Aime LombardPTS88 Apr 19492Win2–0Roger DjabaliKO5 (6)4 Mar 19491Win1–0Areski Boina IIPTS611 Feb 1949

Retirement Christensen published his autobiography, Gentleman Chris, in 1964.

Christensen trained Danish and Norwegian boxers in Oslo and Copenhagen in the 1970s.

References