Jump to content

Norwegian boxers of the 70's


BoztheMadman
 Share

Recommended Posts

The 70's was certainly the strongest era for Norwegian boxing. While none of their boxers won a world title back then, 2 of them fought for it: light heavyweight Harald Skog and super featherweight Svein-Erik Paulsen. There was also Kristian Høydahl, a super lightweight of note, who scored a couple of notable victories. The sport would experience a sharp decline in Norway in the 80's, following the 1981 ban of professional boxing which lasted until 2016. Despite the emergence of talents like Magne Havnaa in the late 80's and Ole Klemetsen, Anders Styve and Thomas Hansvoll in the 90's, there would never be the same kind of interest for the sport until today, when it seems to regain its stature.

 

Harald Skog was a very tall (6'4) and lanky light heavyweight from Oslo, born 22 August 1949 in Gjerstad, southwest of Oslo. He had a successful amateur career and was a 5-time Norwegian champion at the same weight, as well as a Scandinavian Championships silver-medallist in 1970. He also participated in the 1971 European championships and ended fifth. He represented the AIK Lund club in Oslo. He qualified for the 1972 Olympics in Munich and won by a walk-over in the first leg. He then beat Seifu Mekkonen of Ethiopia 5-0 on points, but in the third leg he was brutally stopped by the excellent Cuban Gilberto Carillo, eventual silver medallist, by TKO 1. He then decided to start his pro career, having his first fight 29 November 1972, in Nordstrandhallen, South Oslo and beating Kid Silent by KO 4, with a left-right. He was promoted by Norwegian managers Erik Stenerud and Bjørn Dahl, but with the assistance of Mogens Palle of Team Palle. He won his first 7 fights and then drew against Hans Thomsen in the 8th. On 8 October '74 he experienced his first triumph by beating the Dane Tom Jensen by TKO 4 to win the Scandinavian title, at Messehallen in Oslo. Skog was completely dominant and sent Jensen down twice in the first round before stopping him with an uppercut that forced Jensen to take the knee. He scored 6 more wins, most notably against Rudiger Schmidtke, the former European champion, by KO 6 in Ekeberg Hall, Oslo. Now 15-0-1, Skog was given the biggest fight of his life against Victor Emilio Galindez, the WBA champion. Galindez, though a lot shorter at 5'9, was famous as a very ferocious fighter, the "Argentinian bull".

 

It was 28 March '76 in Ekeberg Hall when Skog found himself helpless against Galindez's assault and was knocked out in 3 rounds. It was the second world title fight held in Oslo, to my knowledge. Skog also lost his next fight to another Argentinian, Avenemar Peralta, a vastly more experienced boxer, who won on points in 8 rounds in Oslo. Skog came back and beat the Ghanaian-English Victor Attivor by TKO 6 and then fought to a draw against Jose Ignacio Iniguez of Spain. He was then matched for the European title against the champion Mate Parlov of Yugoslavia. It was Skog's first fight abroad, in Basel, Switzerland, 9 July '77. He lost the fight clearly on points after 15 rounds to the crafty Parlov, who was only 2 inches shorter. Skog's career deteriorated after that and his last notable victory was over then-upstart Tom Collins, a hard-hitting future European champion. Harald decisioned him in 8 at Chateau Nef in Oslo, 9 May '78. In 1979, he was knocked out for the second and last time by Karl Canwell in 2 rounds and then won one more fight by PTS6 against Valentino Nardini in 1980 before calling it quits. His record is 25 wins (8 by ko), 6 losses and 2 draws. Skog has since retiring become a very respected trainer and has trained Thomas Hansvoll, the WBA lhw title challenger, among others. He also boxed in an exhibition bout against Muhammad Ali in 1979, being the only Norwegian who has been in the ring with the legend. He stated:"I managed to land five blows in those three rounds, I reckon."

 

Kristian Høydahl was born in Elsfjord, Mo i Rana in Northern Norway, 25 August 1946. He moved to Oslo to start training boxing and then had 15 amateur fights, winning the beginners, juniors and seniors national titles. His pro debut was a very quick affair, as Høydahl knocked out his opponent in only 48 seconds! It was 18 March '71 in Nordstrandshallen and his opponent was the Algerian Djiemai Belhadri. A left hook and a short right did the trick. Fighting at light welterweight, Høydahl went 8-0 and then stepped up in class against experienced Italian Piero Ceru, 6 April '73. Except for shaking Ceru in the 3rd round, Høydahl was on the receiving end most of the time and lost on points after 8 rounds. Høydahl then drew against 14-0 Raul Molina and stopped the Irish veteran Des Rea by KO5 before getting knocked out by Nigerian Jonathan Dele in 2 rounds in Hamburg, Germany. He took the fight without the knowledge of his promoter and manager Erik Stenerud, which Stenerud later described as "mischievous". He then scored his perhaps best victory when he knocked out the seasoned and solid British Pat McCormack in 1 round, 8 October '74 in Oslo. McCormack had wins over Jørgen Hansen and Børge Krogh, the best Danish fighters in the welter divisions back then. But Høydahl flew at the Irish-born veteran from the start and hit him with a series of hard punches, flooring him twice before the fight was waved off. After avenging the loss to Ceru on points, Høydahl faced Jørgen Hansen in a fight for the Scandinavian welterweight title, at the Jordal Amfi hockey arena in Oslo, 19 June '75. Hansen proved to be just too good for the tattooed Norwegian and stopped him in the 7th round with a series of combinations.

 

Høydahl's last victory of note was against the former European super feather champion Lothar Abend of Germany. Abend was stopped by a cut on his forehead in the 5th round of an even fight and thus Høydahl won by TKO. In his next fight, Høydahl surprisingly lost to the 9-11-3 Jurgen Voss, who made him take standing counts three times and won on points in an 8-rounder. Also in his next fight Høydahl experienced defeat, but due to a broken finger which made him pull out of a fight against Tiger Quaye of Britain, after 4 rounds. Høydahl then defeated the world title challenger Mimoun Mohatar of Morocco by an 8-round decision in 1978, but again lost that same way to Mauro Valentino, 10 June '79. He then retired but came back in 1982 and fought in Helsinki, Finland, beating the no-hoper Ali Pehlivan of Turkey by TKO 2. However, that would be his final fight. His ring career ended with a record of 19 wins, 10 by ko, 6 losses and 1 draw. In 1980, he became a ring referee. Afterwards he retired from boxing altogether and went back to the north, becoming an avid outdoorsman and training dogs for hunting and sledge-pulling. Kristian Rickard Höidahl, as his full name was, died suddenly of a heart attack during a training session, 17 December 2002, aged 56.

 

Svein Erik Paulsen was the best Norwegian boxer of the 70's and one of the best ever also. I have already written about him, so I will only include the highlights: born and boxed out of Trondheim, was the 2-time Scandinavian champion and took part in the 1972 Olympics as a lightweight, advancing to the quarterfinals where he lost on points. Paulsen won the European super featherweight title by TKO 3 against Lothar Abend in 1974. He made 4 defenses of it, most notably against Antonio Puddu by UD15 and Giovanni Girgenti also by UD15. He challenged the WBC champion Alfredo Escalera in 1975 but was beaten by TKO 9. Paulsen also beat the former WBA bantam champion Arnold Taylor on points and was knocked out once more by Jeronimo Lucas in 3. He retired in 1978, with the record of 21 (5), 2 and 1. He was known as "The Nail",

 

Bjørn (Bjoern) Rudi was a heavyweight, the best Norwegian heavyweight in the 70's and one of very few heavyweights in their boxing history to fight as a pro. Standing 6'6, he was a giant for that time in boxing (as he would be today as well, more or less) and had reasonably good skills and power, but was slow and therefore perhaps didn't score as many knockouts as he could have.Rudi was born in Kristiansand but later moved to Tønsberg, both towns are on the south-central coast of Norway. He started boxing at 14 years of age, when his friends took him to the local boxing club AIK Lund in Kristiansand. In 1971, he won the Norwegian amateur championships. He won 73 fights as amateur, boxing for AIK Lund, 14 as a member of the Norwegian national team. He turned pro in 1973, having his first fight at Nidaroshallen in Trondheim, 10 May, and beating Manfred Ackers on points in 6 rounds. Rudi was only 19 at the time while Ackers was a veteran. Rudi won 11 fights before losing his 12th to Derek Simpkin in England, 24 April '75, by PTS8. Rudi had moved to England in 1975 and sparred with Joe Bugner. He avenged the loss to Simpkin on 12 December that same year, also by PTS8. On 2 March next year, he met his first true test, the 16-0 John L Gardner, one of the best British heavyweights back then. At Royal Albert Hall, Rudi again experienced defeat, losing by a TKO3 to the hard-hitting but much shorter Gardner. Before that, he knocked out Levi Forte in 3 rounds; Forte had earlier gone 10 against George Foreman. In his next fight, Rudi fared no better, as he got stopped due to a cut eye in 7 rounds against Neville Meade, a rather dangerous opponent. His last two wins were over John Depledge on points and Earl Falconer by KO6, before losing his last fight to Terry Mintus by PTS6, 6 April '78 in Oslo. Disappointed with the loss to a journeyman, Rudi retired, aged only 24. His record is 17 wins, 7 by ko, and 4 lossses, 2 by ko. He later worked as a security guard at a welfare office in Ålesund before settling in Tønsberg. In 1988, he returned to the ring for an exhibition match against then-national champion Einar Nilsen. He believes he turned pro too early and therefore didn't have the career he could have had.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...