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Mate Parlov


BoztheMadman
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Mate Parlov was the greatest boxer Yugoslavia and Croatia ever had. He was the first professional boxer from a socialist country in Eastern Europe to win a world title. He was known as a crafty and tricky technician who had power but mostly preferred to box rather than slug. At 6'2 he was a tall light heavyweight who later ventured into the cruiserweight division and became one of the first fighters in that division to fight for a world title. Although he failed to capture a world title there, he captured one at light heavyweight. His career was not long due to the fact that he entered professional ranks at the age of 26, but still he accomplished something only one other Yugoslav fighter would-winning a world title. He was also the first Yugoslav boxer to win an Olympic gold medal, in 1972.

 

Parlov was born 16 November 1948 in Imotski, in the far south of Croatia. Early on, he moved with his parents to Split, the biggest city on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, which was then a part of Yugoslavia. He studied economics while at the same time boxing as amateur. He had 276 amateur fights, winning 257. In 1968, he first competed in the Olympics in Mexico City, but was eliminated on points in the third round by Chris Finnegan, who was the eventual gold medallist, at middleweight. In 1971 he captured the European championships at light heavyweight. The next year, he participated in the Munchen Olympics and this time went to the top, winning by TKO 2 in the final against Gilberto Carillo of Cuba. Along the way, he defeated Miguel Angel Cuello of Argentina by walk-over, whom he would later face as a professional. In 1973 he again became the European champion at light heavyweight and in 1974 crowned his outstanding amateur career with a victory in the world championships in Havana, Cuba. After that, all that was left to win was a professional world title. He turned professional on 31 May 1975 and beat Dante Lazzari by TKO2 in Opatija, Croatia. He won his first 12 fights, also beating Karl Zurheide, a semi-noted contender, by KO1. On 21 May 1976, he faced the young Matthew Franklin of Philadelphia, who would later become the WBC champion and change the name to Matthew Saad Muhammad. The fight was in Milan, Italy and Franklin/Muhammad was too good and prevailed by UD after 8 rounds. On 10 July, Parlov captured the European lhw title by stopping Domenico Adolfi by TKO11 and then defended it five months later against Aldo Traversaro by UD. On 3 December he again faced Saad Muhammad and this time the fight went 10 rounds before it ended as a draw, in Trieste, Italy. Mate would make two more defenses of the European title, against Harald Skog of Norway and Francois Fiol of Switzerland, both on points. He was now ready to challenge for the big title.

 

And that chance came against the man he beat without fighting in the Olympics, Miguel Angel Cuello. As John Conteh had vacated the WBC belt for not fighting Cuello due to not reaching an agreement over the money and television rights, Cuello won the vacant title by stopping Jesse Burnett in 9 rounds. Coincidentally, this fight would go the same amount of rounds and Parlov became the first Yugoslav professional world champion when he knocked Cuello out in 9th round in Palazzo Dello Sport in Milan on 7 January 1978, a date that would remain in the memory of all Yugoslav fans. He had one non-title fight when he beat Tony Greene by TKO 6 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. He then accepted the offer to fight against John Conteh himself and that fight happened on 17 June at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade, which was packed with 40,000 spectators. The outcome would be protested by Conteh and surely also British journalists, for they all thought he had deserved the verdict but after 15 rounds, two of the judges gave the fight to Parlov while the scoring referee himself scored it for Conteh, and with a wide margin. However, what is sure is that the fight was close and could have gone either way. Few expected that Parlov would lose his title to Marvin Johnson, an unpolished American puncher and brawler who had been stopped by Matthew Saad Muhammad. But Johnson simply was too strong and too efficient at his game for Mate to have an answer with his European boxing style and Mate succumbed to his attack after 10 rounds, on 2 December in Marsala, Sicily. He was stunned several times in round 9 before he was floored in round 10 by a left hook. He got up but the referee took one look at his face and stopped it. He was cut over the right eye already in round 2 and his nose had sustained significant damage.

 

Having obviously struggled to make the weight for the Johnson fight, Parlov entered the newly-created cruiserweight division in 1979 and won two fights there, second one against Australian Tony Mundine, who was a hard puncher, by decision. On 8 December that year, he faced Marvin Camel, a Native American, in a fight for the vacant WBC cruiser title. The fight happened in Mate's hometown of Split and after 15 hard-fought rounds one judge had Camel well ahead but the other two had it even and thus nobody got the title. A rematch was mandated and happened on 31 March next year, this time in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was the first time Parlov fought on American soil and outside of Europe in general. Again the fight went the distance but this time all three judges favoured Camel and so Parlov's professional career ended on a disappointing note. He was now almost 32 and chose to retire, with a record of 24 (12 ko's), 3 losses and 2 draws. In 2006, at the World Boxing Council's annual convention, Mate Parlov was honoured by the WBC's president Jose Sulaiman who made him their honorary champion and thus, 26 years after retiring, he got his final belt. Sadly, Parlov died on 29 July 2008 of lung cancer, aged 59. He had lived in Pula for a long time and he died there, on the way to the hospital. During the war, he received the fleeing Marijan Benes and his family and they stayed with him for a while. He declared himself anti-nationalist during the time when nationalism was at it's strongest in Croatia, his homeland. He was the champion of Yugoslavia and that is something you don't give away. Rest in peace Mate.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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