Bjorn Rudi vs. Manfred Ackers

Bjorn Rudi beat Manfred Ackers by PTS in round 6 of 6

• Date: 1973-05-10
• Location: Nidarohallen, Trondheim, Norway

19- year old heavyweight debutant Bjorn Rudi of Norway outpointed the German super- veteran Manfred Ackers (8 wins, 59 losses and 4 draws ). It was a 4 rounder where Rudi showed the Trondheim- crowd that he mastered the left jab and could throw an occational right. Ackers, fighting since 1963, was overweight and slow but seasoned enough to never be in trouble.

The name of Manfred Ackers suddenly surfaced again in Oslo newspapers in 1975, two years after the German' s retirement. An Oslo tabloid was making its own investigations into theories of fixed fights in Norway. One piece of evidence was that the German heavyweight Ackers was seen receiving money from a Norwegian promotor after his fight with Bjorn Rudi. The promotor in question admitted he had given money to Ackers - the German had bought some tax free goods for him on his way to Norway by boat. This was ( and still is ) a highly common and perfectly legal practice among Norwegians, as many find the price of tobacco and alcohol unreasonably high within the country's borders. The accusations of fixed fights never resulted in a police investigation.

Source: Erik Stenerud: Norsk proffboksing 1972- 1980, Oslo 1984