Laszlo Papp is dead
Posted: 17 Oct 2003, 03:02
Budapest, 16 October 2003.
After a long, cruel illness, Papp, the Hungarian boxer three times Olympic Champion (1948, 1952, 1956), is dead. Communist block allowed him to pass professional and he succeeded, after some boycotts of Western federations, to grasp European crown of Middleweight. Later on, his patron, the Minister of Culture, was thrown out, then he was obliged to come back (he boxed in Vienna, Austria) in Hungary retiring at 38 years of age. His rumoured fight vs. Joey Giardiello never took place. It is remarkable how an ideology becomes ridiculous in agonizing itself whether it should be better for a Comunist, pure and amateur hating the Capitalistic money and bourgeois values, to beat the Capitalist boxers or to avoid their contact, afraiding corruption. In fact, his patron thought Papp's victories got glory for the Party (and Hungary), the opponents thought that boxing with professionals, Papp would have become a servant of the Western block. What sillyness !!
After a long, cruel illness, Papp, the Hungarian boxer three times Olympic Champion (1948, 1952, 1956), is dead. Communist block allowed him to pass professional and he succeeded, after some boycotts of Western federations, to grasp European crown of Middleweight. Later on, his patron, the Minister of Culture, was thrown out, then he was obliged to come back (he boxed in Vienna, Austria) in Hungary retiring at 38 years of age. His rumoured fight vs. Joey Giardiello never took place. It is remarkable how an ideology becomes ridiculous in agonizing itself whether it should be better for a Comunist, pure and amateur hating the Capitalistic money and bourgeois values, to beat the Capitalist boxers or to avoid their contact, afraiding corruption. In fact, his patron thought Papp's victories got glory for the Party (and Hungary), the opponents thought that boxing with professionals, Papp would have become a servant of the Western block. What sillyness !!