Bobby Czyz
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Bobby Czyz, (born February 10, 1962), is a Polish-American boxer. A New Jersey native, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.
He was a member of the United States amateur boxing team that sadly died in the LOT Polish Airlines plane crash in Poland in 1980. However, an auto accident one week before the fatal trip prevented him from being on that plane.
Czyz had a quick start to his professional boxing career in the early 1980s and he was soon in line for a shot vs. world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler. He had to start from scratch, however, after suffering a 10-round loss at the hands of veteran Mustafa Hamsho in November 1982.
He went up in weight, put another string of wins together, and in September of 1986, he finally found himself in a ring with a world champion, IBF light heavyweight champion Slobodan Kacar, who was destroyed by Czyz's bombs in 5 rounds.
Czyz made three exciting defenses - a one-round annihilation of David Sears, a see-saw second-round KO of Willie Edwards, and a fifth-round TKO of Jim McDonald - before taking on 'Prince' Charles Williams in October 1987. Czyz scored an early knockdown of Williams, yet the challenger not only stayed in the fight, but also hammered shut Czyz' left eye on way to scoring a TKO victory and thus seizing the title after eight rounds of boxing.
Czyz then lost a decision to Dennis Andries in May 1988, followed by a couple of victories, in turn followed by two cracks at the world title in 1989. Czyz, despite truly good efforts on his part in both challenges, lost both of them - a 12-round decision to Virgil Hill in North Dakota for the WBA version in March, and a 10th-round TKO loss to Williams in an IBF title rematch in June.
Czyz went on to stop then-undefeated Andrew Maynard in seven rounds in June 1990, then jumped up to cruiserweight. He challenged Robert Daniels for Daniels' WBA world cruiserweight championship in March 1991, and won a unanimous decision. Two defenses, against Bash Ali and Donny Lalonde, were made (both by unanimous decision) before Czyz vacated the title.
After being stopped by David Izegwire in August 1994, Czyz retired and became a television boxing analyst. With his new career, Czyz has worked alongside Steve Albert and Ferdie Pacheco, covering fights in many locations worldwide. In December 1994, he covered the first world title fight ever held in Ecuador as a member of Showtime's crew.
In 1996, he made a brief comeback as a competitive boxer in the heavyweight division, but lost by knockout in six rounds to Evander Holyfield and quickly retired again. Czyz has continued doing color commentary for Showtime, and loves signing autographs for his fans. He doesn't contemplate another return to the ring as a boxer.
On February 6 of 2003, Czyz was stopped by New Jersey police and charged with drunken driving. On March 8 of that year, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for the charge.
He has since been inducted into the Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.