László Papp

László Papp started boxing in 1942 when he was 16-years-old. World War II then interrupted his career, but at the age of 19 he took up the gloves again and competed for the BVSC. He won his first individual national championship title in 1946, followed by six more individual and two team championship titles until 1956. Between 1947 and 1956 he boxed for the Hungarian national team. At the international level he won two European championships and three Olympic gold medals. László Papp was the first boxer in the history of the Olympic Games to win three gold medals. Since then, only two Cuban boxers, Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon, have been able to repeat this achievement.

After his third Olympic victory Papp turned professional in 1957, where he won 11 out of 29 matches by knockout, 12 by points, and 4 by technical knockout. Two matches ended in a draw, although according to experts and newspapers, Papp was the better fighter in these matches as well. László Papp fought his “home” matches in Vienna, in the Stadthalle, because he was not allowed to box professionally in Hungary. In 1962 he became a professional European champion, a title he defended six times. At the end of 1964 the Hungarian communist state sports administration forced him to end his career, depriving him of the opportunity to win the world championship title. He was never able to recover from this injustice with the ban leaving its mark on him for the rest of his life.

After the forced end of his career he became a coach. Under the leadership of László Papp, the Hungarian Boxing Team won an Olympic and World Championship gold medal, two Olympic silver medals, and several Olympic and World Championship bronze medals. László Papp retired in 1992. He then opened his own boxing school, which unfortunately had to be closed due to lack of financial support. He then helped with a few clubs, and finally had to stop coaching in 1996 due to illness.

In 1957 the story of the victory over Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in Melbourne was adapted into a feature film entitled “Heavy Gloves”. László Papp himself played the main role in the film.