The Middleweight Contender Laszlo Papp is for me one of the biggest what if's in boxing history. Forming part of the 3x Olympic Golden Medalist trio, along with Cuba's Felix Savon and Teofilo Stevenson, unlike the latter, Laszlo turned pro 1 year (1957) after winning his last Golden medal against the future WBC Light-Heavyweight champion Jose Chegui Torres. Laszlo finished his amateur career with a record of 301 wins, 12 losses and 6 draw, scoring 55 first round KOS in the process. This content is protected Laszlo Papp beats Jose Torres The Hungarian southpaw began his career by winning a points decision against 31-29-21 Alois Brand and the level of his opposition increased whilst his career unfolded, beating men such as Ralph "Tiger" Jones. In the 16th of May, 1962, Laci beat the reigning EBU European Middleweight Champion, Chris Christensen, by technical knockout in the 7th round of a 15 rounder, he would hold this title 2 years and defend it 6 times in rematches to Chris and another handful of notable contenders, such as Peter Muller (who he had already beaten twice before achieving the title), Luis Folledo, undefeated Hippolyte Annex and so on. His last defense, and also last bout came in the 19th of September, 1964, The left handed Magyar marvel defeated Mick Leahy by PTS in a 15 rounder, Mick was just coming off of a win against an ancient Ray Robinson. Laszlo was supposed to fight for the Undisputed Middleweight Championship in 1965 against one of the most underrated World Champions of all time in Joey Giardello. Unfortunately, this never came to be, as the Hungarian government refused to allow him to fight for the world title because boxing for financial gain was "incompatible with socialist principles." The final nail in the coffin would come in the same year of 1965, when the Hungarian government revoked his permit to travel abroad, effectively killing his career for good. It is also said that injuries in his brittle hands periodically kept him out of the ring for periods of time. Laszlo Papp retired in 1965, with a record of 27 wins (15 knockouts), 0 losses and 2 draws. "I was one step away from a world title shot but it would have meant going to America and my government didn't approve," "I think it was just jealousy. I was earning more money than most of them. There was a lot of antagonism." The WBC named Laszlo Papp as an honorary champion in 1989 and was designated as the best amateur-professional fighter of all time in 1991, and was finally elected as a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001. This content is protected Laszlo Papp with his honorary WBC belt This content is protected Jose Sulaiman, WBC's president handwritten words to the Hungarian fans of boxing about Laszlo Papp This content is protected Papp wins the EBU title against Chris Christensen This content is protected Papp defends the title against Peter Muller This content is protected Papp retains the title one last time against Mick Leahy One can only wonder what would've happened had Laszlo Papp continued his ascend. What do you think would've happened?
Im a very big fan of Papp for multiple reasons. For me the issue concerning his pro career was he wasn't allowed to turn pro until he was already too old and past his best yrs.
He was like Teofilio Stevenson. An all time great amateur but with no real surety as to what he might have been in the pros.