John W. Wiksen
John W. Wiksen was born July 20, 1914 in Sandefjord, Norway. As an amateur boxer, he became a sparring partner for fellow Norwegian, and former World Champion, Pete Sanstol, for Sanstol's 1935 fights with Joey Carr, Werner Riethdorf, Hans Schiller, Sixto Escobar and Panama Al Brown. (A piece written by Wiksen, called Sanstol Mot Brown I Oslo, was included as a chapter to Sanstol's autobiography Gjennom Ringen, published in June 2006.) The following year Wiksen lost to Henry Tiller, the eventual Silver Medalist in the Berlin Olympic Games.
Wiksen became a journalist for the Norwegian magazine Sports Manden, for which he interviewed boxers Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Baksi, Freddie Mills, Ray Famechon, among others. In 1947 he wrote a popular Norwegian book about the heavyweight division--To par boksehansker ("Two pair of boxing gloves").
Wiksen was closely connected to the Norwegian Professional Boxing Association from its start in 1957.
Circa 1966, he was the manager of Norwegian boxing hopes Tore Magnussen, Johnny Romsaas, and Thor Erik Hognrö. With his fluency in the German and Spanish languages, he was able to get his boxers bouts outside of Oslo, when the financial situation in Norway made professional boxing there almost impossible. He managed to secure European lightweight championship fights for Tore Magnussen against Pedro Carrasco (1969) and Miguel Velazquez (1970).
Wiksen died in March 1999 in Oslo, Norway.