BIG LAD(islav) HUSARIK SAYS GOOD-BYE TO THE RING!

The ultimate heavyweight journeyman plans to quit on winning note

14.07 - When 38-year-old Czech heavyweight Ladislav Husarik turned pro in 1994, with a 6-round decision loss in Germany, he moaned “Why did the ref say it was a slip when I clearly knocked my opponent down?”. Nine years and another 38 fights later, Husarik came back from Belgium wondering why he was disqualified and not even the president of the Belgian Boxing Federation could figure out a reason.

In between those bouts, the rotund but irrepressable “Big Lad” carved out his own personal niché as Europe’s ultimate heavyweight journeyman, the man you have to beat in order to be taken serious. Not that Husarik himself was a bad fighter to begin with. A double Czechoslovakian amateur champion, he won a world bronze at the world championships, had more than 200 unpaid contests and actually beat Henry Akinwande. However, despite setting into a “will-fight-anybody-at-any-time” mode upon turning pro just short of his 30th birthday, he despised getting shafted by so-called neutral officials time and again until the very end.

Often times, Husarik was laughed at upon entering the ring, because with his big belly and reduced hairline he resembled more a guy coming from the next pub than a professional fighter. People expected him to fall quickly at the feet of younger, chiselled opponents, but when he actually gave them a good tussle, Ladislav was cheered like a poor-man’s version of Butterbean.

“I understand the concept of building young fighters up,” Husarik once said, “but this is supposed to be sport and when I win, why don’t I win?”. Only six times he did win officially and the sweetest one of those came in 1997, when Augustin Ngou, a highly touted African prospect on the verge of signing a contract with Don King, dropped a 6-round decision to the Czech. It remained Ngou’s only pro loss in his whole career.

One of the biggest robberies of his career happened two years earlier in Finland and Olaf Schroeder, whose company Fight Production managed Husarik throughout, picks up the story. “I was in Helsinki with Milan Konecny and his trainer Jan Cejna, who also trained Ladislav. The night before the show, the promoter was desperate to find an opponent for Jukka Jarvinen and he made a very good offer for Ladislav to come over. Ladislav was always ready to accept on the shortests of notices, so I rang him and asked if he could catch a flight in a few hours. Funnily, he wasn’t aware that we were in Finland, so hung up the phone thinking I was trying to fool him. It took me three calls to convince him this was legitimate! He finally arrived at just a couple of hours before, went from the airport straight to the hall and proceeded to punch Jarvinen from pillar to post only to be declared a looser. The next morning, this robbery made big headlines in the local papers and to this day I wonder how those officials can live with the crime they committed.”.

But nothing could destroy Husarik’s spirits and he continued to mix with future world, European, Intercontinental and around a dozen national champions. He fought Wladimir Klitschko on one days notice, boxed Luan Krasniqi, Timo Hoffmann, Georgi Kandelaki, Matthew Ellis, Mark Potter…in short, a who-is-who of European heavyweight boxing.

“I had a better relationship with Husarik and his family – he is happily married and has a beautiful teenaged daughter – than with some champions,” recalls Schroeder in a look-back. “The best example is when he once fought in Romania and had to travel alone with his trainer. I didn’t trust those promoters and insisted the money to be on my account before Ladislav started the journey. When he was back home, I called to ask for his account number, but he told me ‘Just keep the money until we next meet, there’s no safer place for it than in your hands!’”.

In a strange way, boxing was still good to Ladislav. He travelled most of Europe and towards the end of his career was able to quit the safe job as a police officer to start his own car tire business. He even build his family self-handedly a small house at home in Usti (Czech Republic), an effort that “got me in the best shape of my life,” the rather lazy trainer Husarik explains with a smile.

Now, Europe’s leading heavyweight journeyman has decided to call is quits: “I’m just getting too old for this game and have very little time on my hands these days.” A decision that has met the full approval of manager Schroeder – until he discovered that only one more fight and Ladislav would hit the 40-bout-mark. “I felt that I owe it to Ladislav to stage him a nice farewell from the ring after all those years that he gave to boxing and, not to forget, he also made some money for Fight Production.”

Consequently, Husarik will climb the stairs once more and for the final time in his life on July 19 in Berlin. His opponent in a four-rounder will be Slovakian Peter Simko, a fighter with probably one of the worst records in Europe. It will be the first time, as a professional, that Husarik is a huge favourite to win and who can begrudge him the opportunity to say good-bye to boxing with his hand raised…as it should be after almost 10 years of service to the sport.