Fritz Sdunek (; 18 April 1947 – 22 December 2014) was a German professional boxing trainer and previously an

amateur boxer Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...

. Regarded as one of the most successful and famous boxing trainers, he trained, among others, such world champions as Wladimir and

Vitali Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv Dariusz Michalczewski Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish former 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 ...

. He was born in Lüssow,

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Sport career

Fritz Sdunek's career started in amateur boxing. Its highlight was a victory at a ''Students Championship of

'' in 1968. He won 99 of his 129 amateur fights, then decided to become a trainer. In 1979 he graduated from the ''Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur'' (a university) with a diploma as a sport teacher. Since the 1960s Sdunek was a member of a sport club ''Traktor

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...

'', where he also worked as a trainer until 1989. There he trained among others Andreas Zülow, who won a gold medal (lightweight) at

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. From 1994 until his death in 2014 Sdunek was active as a trainer for a famous

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

boxing promotion organization '' Universum Box-Promotion''.

Private life

Fritz Sdunek was born in 1947 in post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Germany, on a territory which soon became

. His birthplace is the village of Lüssow near the

Baltic sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, today part of

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

. Sdunek was married and had two children - a son and a daughter. His daughter was married to Ahmet Öner, a German of Turkish descent, head of Hamburg professional promotional firm '' Arena Box-Promotion'' and ex-professional boxer.

Death

He died in a hospital in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

on 22 December 2014, at the age of 67 following a heart attack he had suffered earlier on the island of

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...

.Boxen: Trainer-Legende Fritz Sdunek ist tot
Retrieved 22 December 2014.

Boxers trained by Fritz Sdunek

Fritz Sdunek trained many boxers, both professional and amateur. Previously trained: *

Vitali Klitschko Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv Zsolt Erdei Zsolt Erdei (born 31 May 1974) is a Hungarian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2014. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO and lineal light-heavyweight titles from 2004 to 2009 (making eleven c ...

* Felix Sturm * Ola Afolabi *

Wladimir Klitschko Wladimir Klitschko; an equivalent English spelling is Vladimir Klichko . His full name in uk, label=Ukrainian is, Володимир Володимирович Кличко, Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko, . ( uk, Володимир Вол� ...

Dariusz Michalczewski Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish former 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 ...

Juan Carlos Gómez Juan Carlos Gómez (born 26 July 1973) is a Cuban former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2014. He held the WBC cruiserweight title from 1998 to 2002, and challenged once for the WBC heavyweight title in 2009. Amateur career *Ama ...

* Artur Grigorian * Ralf Rocchigiani *

Thomas Ulrich Thomas Ulrich (born 11 July 1975, in Berlin) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012. He challenged twice for a light-heavyweight world title: the WBC title in 2005, and the WBO/ lineal titles in 2006. He also held t ...

* István Kovács *

Mihai Leu Mihai Leu also known as Michael Loewe (born 13 February 1969, in Hunedoara) is a Romanian former professional boxer who competed between 1991 and 1997. He held the WBO welterweight title in 1997. Leu retired after one title defense, against Mich ...

Károly Balzsay Károly Balzsay (born 23 July 1979) is a Hungarian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2012. He won the WBO super-middleweight title in 2009 by defeating Denis Inkin, making one successful defence before losing to Robert Sti ...

Sebastian Zbik Sebastian Zbik (born 17 March 1982) is a German professional boxer and the former WBC middleweight Champion of the world. He resides in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Professional career Zbik won the interim WBC middleweight title against Italia ...

Mario Veit Mario Veit (born 22 December 1973) is a German former professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determi ...

* Alexander Dimitrenko *

Denis Boytsov Denis Nikolayevich Boytsov (russian: Денис Николаевич Бойцов; born 14 February 1986) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2015. Amateur career Boytsov has had a decorated amateur career, including ...

* Khoren Gevor * Sinan Şamil Sam * Akhmed Kotiev * Grigory Drozd * Aleksandr Alekseyev * Andreas Zülow * Nenad Borovčanin

References

Sources

Information about Fritz Sdunek
on the web site of '' Universum Box-Promotion'' — source for the most of the facts featured in this article {{DEFAULTSORT:Sdunek, Fritz 1947 births 2014 deaths People from Vorpommern-Greifswald German male boxers East German male boxers Boxing trainers Sportspeople from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Recipients of the Banner of Labor