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Bobby Czyz
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Robert Edward "Bobby" Czyz (born February 10, 1962) is a retired American boxer. A New Jersey native of mostly Polish and Italian descent, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.
Czyz was born in Orange, New Jersey. He lived in Wanaque, New Jersey and attended Lakeland Regional High School.
Nicknamed "Matinee Idol", Czyz was a member of the United States amateur boxing team whose other members died in the LOT Polish Airlines plane crash in Poland in 1980.
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Encyclopedia
Robert Edward "Bobby" Czyz (born February 10, 1962) is a retired American boxer. A New Jersey native of mostly Polish and Italian descent, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.
Czyz was born in Orange, New Jersey. He lived in Wanaque, New Jersey and attended Lakeland Regional High School.
Nicknamed "Matinee Idol", Czyz was a member of the United States amateur boxing team whose other members died in the LOT Polish Airlines plane crash in Poland in 1980. Because of an auto accident one week before the fatal trip, Czyz was not on the plane.
Professional career
Czyz had a quick start to his professional boxing career in the early 1980s and he was soon in line for a shot against world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler. He had to start from scratch, however, after suffering a 10-round loss at the hands of veteran Mustafa Hamsho in November 1982.
Czyz went up in weight, put another string of wins together, and in September 1986, he finally found himself in a ring with an undefeated world champion, IBF light heavyweight champion Slobodan Kacar (Olympic Gold medallist of 1980). Czyz beat him in five rounds.
Czyz made three defenses - a one-round defeat of David Sears, a see-saw second-round KO of Willie Edwards, and a fifth-round TKO of Jim McDonald - before taking on 'Prince' Charles Williams in October 1987. Czyz scored an early knockdown of Williams, yet the challenger not only stayed in the fight, but also hammered shut Czyz' left eye on way to scoring a TKO victory and thus seizing the title after eight rounds of boxing.
Czyz then lost a decision to Dennis Andries in May 1988, followed by a couple of victories, in turn followed by two cracks at the world title in 1989. Czyz, despite truly good efforts on his part in both challenges, lost both of them - a 12-round decision to Virgil Hill in North Dakota for the WBA version in March, and a 10th-round TKO loss to Williams in an IBF title rematch in June.
Czyz went on to stop then-undefeated Andrew Maynard in seven rounds (the second undefeated Gold medallist he KO'd) in June 1990, then jumped up to cruiserweight. He challenged Robert Daniels for Daniels' WBA world cruiserweight championship in March 1991, and won a unanimous decision. Two defenses, against Bash Ali and Donny Lalonde, were made (both by unanimous decision) before Czyz vacated the title.
Life after boxing
After being stopped by David Izegwire in August 1994, Czyz retired and became a television boxing analyst. With his new career, Czyz worked alongside Steve Albert and Ferdie Pacheco, covering fights in many locations worldwide. In December 1994, he covered the first world title fight ever held in Ecuador as a member of Showtime's crew.
In 1996, he made a brief comeback as a competitive boxer in the heavyweight division, but lost by knockout in six rounds to Evander Holyfield and quickly retired again. The fight was somewhat controversial, as it appeared that Czyz's corner was coaching him to blame an injury to his back for his reason to quit on his stool. Czyz continued doing color commentary for Showtime, but was let go after pleading guilty to his fourth drunken-driving offense in six years after being caught speeding in Readington Township, New Jersey. Czyz's case received a lot of attention as he was a multiple repeat DUI case, and was a driver behind the NJ Assembly revisiting its legislature . Czyz, who was a Raritan Township, New Jersey resident at the time, was given a six-month license suspension for each of his three drunken driving convictions in 1998, 1999 and 2000. It was discovered that he was sentenced improperly as a first-time offender after his fourth arrest, which occurred in February 2003 in Readington Township, where he was caught driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.14 percent. The state limit at that time was 0.10 percent.
Outside of the ring
Later he went on to marry Kimberly Ross on October 27, 1992. They then had a daughter, Mercedes Czyz.
He has since been inducted into the Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.
Czyz is a member of Mensa, the organization for people who have scored in the highest 2% of takers in an IQ test. He even wore a shirt with "MENSA" on it while walking to the ring to fight Evander Holyfield.
See also
- List of boxing triple champions?
External links
- Michael Swann's 2007 multi-part interview with Bobby Czyz
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