The Cyber Boxing Zone Newswire

Official Press Release Universum Box-Promotion
New challenger for The Tiger: Drake Thadzi

HAMBURG, 11 November 1998. 'The Tiger' has been champion for four years now. When he defends his title for the 14th time on 12 December in Frankfurt, Dariusz Michalczewski will enter the record books.

In the past 100 years, there has only been one world light heavyweight champion who defended his title 14 times consecutively -- Bob Foster. Foster, now 59 years old (who in his prime challenged heavyweight geats Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali) was world champion in the 175-pound class from May 1968 to June 1974. After his 14th successful title defense he vacated his belts and retired.

But Dariusz Michalczewski (38 Fights, 38 Wins, 31 KOs) will have to struggle hard for the chance to catch up with his legendary predecessor and write boxing history - against an awkward and tough challenger.

The 33 year old Drake Thadzi, who was born in the Southeast-African state Malawi, is feared for his tough and powerful fighting style. Thadzi, who brings the experience of 39 professional fights (30 Wins, 8 Losses, one Draw, 25 KOs), could celebrate the best win of his career in 1997, when he outpointed the former two-division champion James Toney over 12 rounds.

In the past five years the cosmopolitan Thadzi, who was living several years in Canada before making his home in Boston, Massachusetts, has lost only one single fight. In 1995 he missed a 12 round decision against reigning world champion Virgil Hill.

In his last fight in August of this year Drake Thadzi again proved his punching power impressively. In front of his home croud in Boston Thadzi stopped the tough 'Iceman' John Scully in the seventh round. Scully had never been stopped before in his 10 year professional career - including several fights against world champions and top-10 contenders.

When Drake Thadzi will fight on 12 December in Frankfurt against 'The Tiger' for the WBO world title, it will be his second stay in Germany. In June of 1994 Thadzi was fighting in Dortmund on the undercard of the world title contest between Henry Maske and Andrea Magi.

German Boxing News http://welcome.to/boxing/

Upcoming Fights

Current Champions

Boxing Journal

On-line Encyclopedia

News

Main Page

[Return to Top]