Jorgen Hansen died with barely a whisper in modern boxing circles and a true boxing character deserves more than a whisper. The fighter with the potent right hand and the suspect everything else made himself a legend in Denmark where whistles and boos for one performance switched to cheers and applause for the next and the Danes have a way of clapping which is possibly unique to them; a slow clap, a handclap that everyone in the audience follows and when they do it sends tingles down the spine. How Hansen must have savoured that handclap in a 13-year career of disappointment, defeat and divine redemption!
Jorgen turned pro late after a fine amateur career - at the age of 26, and he rattled off 22 straight wins before Roger Menetrey, a proud and courageous Frenchman, survived an early beating to stop the exhausted Dane in 10 rounds in Copenhagen in 1972 in Hansen's first shot at the European welterweight title. Hansen swore he would never box another 15-rounder and defeat really did take something out of him as he began losing to men he should have beaten and losing to them at home. OK, Ghana's Eddie Blay beat him on a cut but Dublin's rugged Pat McCormack belted him in four rounds and a canny but sleep-inducing Brazilian by the name of Everaldo Costa Azevedo snatched an eight-round decision. It looked grim for the ageing Hansen but he clutched at straws and grabbed a handful, beating Blay and Azevedo in rematches and that man McCormack – twice. He even allowed himself 12 rounds to outpoint Azevedo in a fight billed as a world title eliminator.
Enter Mogens Palle, a uniquely generous promoter who delivered world champions when world champions were as scarce as George Foreman distance fights (the 'first' George Foreman) and he delivered Italy's Bruno Arcari, the WBC light-welterweight champion, right to Hansen's Copenhagen doorstep, which must have cost a fortune because southpaw Arcari had lost only twice in 60 fights by making Italy his own personal fortress. Yes, Hansen dropped down a division but there was no indication that the always lean challenger was dead at the weight - or worried about the 15 rounds - when in the fifth of a bruising if messy encounter he copped a nothing punch as the referee was untangling the two fighters and went down and stayed down.
Hansen quite clearly dived in an attempt to win the world title by disqualification (the French referee counted him out) and the Danish press rounded on him, demanding his retirement. The disgraced loser, who was now 30, found himself on the road where he lost in South Africa, in Italy a couple of times (one of them to future European welterweight champion Marco Scano) and in the old Yugoslavia to old rival Azevedo, who stopped him this time. It looked all over when, back in Copenhagen in January 1977, he bailed out yet again at the hands of an inexperienced Dutchman but promoter Palle now had the gifted Ayub Kalule on his hands, a former world amateur champion from Uganda, and he needed main events in those early Kalule days so he induced Scano to defend his European title against Hansen in Denmark and Hansen, now known as “the old one”, flattened Scano in five rounds with one of the biggest right hands of the year to gain sweet revenge.
It was pretty unbelievable but Hansen dropped the belt just two months later when he got slung out in the 13th round for butting against Joerg Eipel in Germany, a talented young German man who frustrated him with clever boxing, and his career looked dead and buried when Philadelphia's Mike Everett, a blown-up light-welterweight and nowhere near as good as his notorious brother Tyrone, coldcocked him in the first round in Copenhagen in February 1978 in what can only be described as a career-ending knockout. Make no mistake about it, Hansen was 'out'. (Tyrone was shot and killed by a jealous girlfriend when she caught him having sex with a man).
Nevertheless, promoter Palle opened that fat wallet of his and, two months after the Everett disaster, convinced new European champion Alain Marion to defend against Hansen in Randers and amazingly, the veteran did it again when he smashed the young and previously unbeaten Frenchman in six one-sided rounds with his lethal right hands but this time his reign lasted only four months when he got disqualified for a punch after the bell against Austria's Joseph Pachler in his first defence. Pachler went down but he wasn't remotely hurt and his cut and swollen face told the story of the fight. Hansen, by now 36, had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
He came back quietly with four wins to secure an unlikely fight with our own Dave “Boy” Green, a world class animal of a fighter gunning for Wilfred Benitez and Carlos Palomino (again) but who lowered his sights and accepted a huge offer to defend his European title in Denmark in the summer of 1979. Green, 31-1 (25), walked right through his opponents and he dropped Hansen in the second round with a series of head and body shots but that only served to rouse the challenger who began to nail Green as he came in, to the roars of the crowd, and was actually in charge by the end of the round. It was more of the same in the third and the crowd sensed that something special was about to unfold. Suddenly, Hansen dropped Green with his big right hand and down went the champion, clearly in a bad way. He beat the count but Hansen was all over him and dropped him a second time, the crowd now in a frenzy. Again, Green beat the count but he could barely stand and the referee did the only thing he could do. “I'm all right,” mouthed Green as his seconds carried him back to his corner. Hansen had won the European welterweight title for the third time.
You know, Hansen is quite simply one of the greatest European champions of all time. He went on to make six defences of the title, including two over Danish rival Hans Henrik-Palm, and won 23 of his last 24 contests, the only loss in an insane match with Pipino Cuevas in Houston in 1981 (Kalule topped the bill against Sugar Ray Leonard.) Pushing 40, he retired after a points win over former world champion Perico Fernandez in December 1982 with a record 78-14 (35). The grand old man of Danish boxing was gone and now he's gone for good but his legend forever lives on in Denmark.
