László Papp (25 March 1926 – 16 October 2003) was a Hungarian professional boxer from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. He was left-handed and won gold medals in the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ...

in London, the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, and the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, w ...

held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, Australia. In his final Olympic competition he became the first boxer in Olympic history to win three successive gold medals. He won 12 of his 13 Olympic fights without losing a round, dropping only one, in his last Olympic final, to American boxer

José Torres José ("Chegüi") Torres (May 3, 1936 – January 19, 2009) was a Puerto Rican-born American professional boxer. As an amateur boxer, he won a silver medal in the junior middleweight division at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1965, he d ...

. There was not another triple gold medalist for 20 years, when

Teófilo Stevenson Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence (29 March 1952 – 11 June 2012) was a Cuban amateur boxer who competed from 1966 to 1986. He won the Val Barker Trophy (1972) and was honored with the Olympic Order (1987). Stevenson is one of only three boxers to w ...

won three, followed by

Félix Savón Félix Savón Fabre (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Cuban amateur boxer, who competed from 1980 to 2000. Considered one of the all-time greatest amateur boxers, he became three-time Olympic gold medalist, and the World Champion six times ...

as the third of the three men to accomplish the feat.

Amateur career

Papp was an Olympic gold medalist three times, at middleweight in London in 1948, then as a light middleweight in Helsinki in 1952 and in Melbourne in 1956. Papp also was the European amateur middleweight champion as a middleweight in 1949 at Oslo and at light middleweight at Milan 1951. He scored 55 first-round knockouts as an amateur, his record was 301-12-6.

Olympic results

1948 London (England) *Defeated Valfrid Resko (Finland) KO 2 *Defeated

Jean Welter Jean Welter (2 May 1901 in Esch-sur-Alzette – 23 March 1977) was a Luxembourgian boxer who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics and in the 1928 Summer Olympics. In 1924 he was eliminated in the second round of the light heavyweight class af ...

(Luxembourg) KO 1 *Defeated Auguste Cavignac (Belgium) KO 1 *Defeated Ivano Fontana (Italy) 3-0 *Defeated John Wright (England) 3-0 1952 Helsinki (Finland) *Defeated Ellsworth Webb (United States) KO 2 *Defeated Charlie Chase (Canada) KO 2 *Defeated Petar Stankoff Spassoff (Bulgaria) 3-0 *Defeated Eladio Oscar Herrera (Argentina) 3-0 *Defeated Theunis Jacobus van Schalkwyk (South Africa) 3-0 1956 Melbourne (Australia) *Defeated Alberto Saenz (Argentina) KO 3 *Defeated

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski Zbigniew Jan Pietrzykowski (4 October 1934 – 19 May 2014) was a Polish boxer. He took part in three Olympic Games, each time winning a medal. He won a bronze medal at Melbourne 1956 in the light middleweight division, after losing in t ...

(Poland) 3-0 *Defeated

(USA) 2-1

Professional career

Papp, despite having hand trouble, turned professional in 1957 and immediately began rising in the

Middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

ranks. However, Hungary was a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

country at the time and professional boxing was not permitted. Papp had to travel to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, in Austria, for training and for his fights. In spite of this disadvantage, he beat several top-ranking contenders for the European

title, including veteran

Tiger Jones Ralph "Tiger" Jones (March 14, 1928 – August 20, 1994) was a boxer during the 1950s. Trained by Gil Clancy, Jones was a fixture of televised boxing in the 1950s, known for an aggressive style that pleased fans. His overall record was 52 victor ...

, French champion Hippolyte Annex and Chris Christensen. After Christensen, Papp defeated Randy Sandy of the United States. In 1964, after Papp had already signed up for the world championship title bout against Joey Giardello, Hungary's Communist leadership brought his professional career to an end by denying him an exit visa. Papp is one of the few boxers in history to ever retire undefeated in the ring. His fighting record was 27 wins, 2 draws, and no losses. 15 of his wins were by way of

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving strikin ...

Death

László Papp died in

in 2003.

Honours

Papp was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall Of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

in 2001. In 1989 WBC President

José Sulaimán José Sulaimán Chagnón (May 30, 1931 – January 16, 2014) was a Mexican boxing official. He was the president of the World Boxing Council. Biography Sulaimán's father was of Lebanese descent and his mother of Syrian descent and he was bor ...

gave Papp an award for 'Best amateur and professional boxer of all time' and granted him honorary champion status of the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

. Budapest's Papp László Sportaréna, a multipurpose building best known as a concert venue and the home ice of the Hungarian national hockey team, is named in his honour.

Professional boxing record

References

His biography at Hungary.hu
*
International Boxing Hall of Fame Bio
*

External links

Official homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papp, Laszlo 1926 births 2003 deaths Olympic boxers of Hungary Middleweight boxers European Boxing Union champions International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Boxers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Boxers from Budapest Olympic gold medalists for Hungary Olympic medalists in boxing Hungarian male boxers Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery