
Fritz Sdunek (; 18 April 1947 – 22 December 2014) was a German
professional boxing
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
trainer and previously an
amateur boxer
Amateur boxing is a variant of boxing practiced at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as many associations.
Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration, comprising three rounds of three ...
. Regarded as one of the most successful and famous boxing trainers, he trained, among others, such world champions as
Wladimir and
Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv[Dariusz Michalczewski
Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish former professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2005. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA, IBF, WBO and lineal light heavyweight titles ...]
. He was born in
Lüssow,
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
.
Sport career
Fritz Sdunek's career started in amateur boxing. Its highlight was a victory at a ''Students Championship of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
'' in 1968. He won 99 of his 129 amateur fights, then decided to become a trainer.
In 1979 he graduated from the ''Deutsche Hochschule für Körperkultur'' (a university) with a diploma as a sport teacher.
Since the 1960s Sdunek was a member of a sport club ''Traktor
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. ...
'', where he also worked as a trainer until 1989. There he trained among others
Andreas Zülow
Andreas Zülow (born 23 October 1965) is a retired amateur boxer from East Germany who won a Lightweight gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. He also won the silver medal at the 1989 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Moscow, and ...
, who won a gold medal (lightweight) at
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...
.
From 1994 until his death in 2014 Sdunek was active as a trainer for a famous
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
boxing promotion organization ''
Universum Box-Promotion''.
Private life
Fritz Sdunek was born in 1947 in post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
Germany, on a territory which soon became
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. His birthplace is the village of
Lüssow near the
Baltic sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and fr ...
, today part of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in pop ...
.
Sdunek was married and had two children - a son and a daughter. His daughter was married to
Ahmet Öner, a German of Turkish descent, head of Hamburg professional promotional firm ''
Arena Box-Promotion'' and ex-professional boxer.
Death
He died in a hospital in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
on 22 December 2014, at the age of 67 following a heart attack he had suffered earlier on the island of
Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that co ...
.
Boxen: Trainer-Legende Fritz Sdunek ist tot
Retrieved 22 December 2014.
Boxers trained by Fritz Sdunek
Fritz Sdunek trained many boxers, both professional and amateur.
Previously trained:
* Vitali Klitschko
Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko (; uk, Віта́лій Володи́мирович Кличко́ ; born 19 July 1971) is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv[Zsolt Erdei
Zsolt Erdei (born 31 May 1974) is a Hungarian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2014. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO and lineal light-heavyweight titles from 2004 to 2009 (making eleven c ...]
* Felix Sturm
Adnan Ćatić (born 31 January 1979), known as Felix Sturm, is a Bosnian-German professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2003 to 2004, the WBA middleweight ...
* Ola Afolabi
* Wladimir Klitschko
Wladimir Klitschko; an equivalent English spelling is Vladimir Klichko . His full name in uk, label= Ukrainian is, Володимир Володимирович Кличко, Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko, . ( uk, Володимир Вол ...
* Dariusz Michalczewski
Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish former professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2005. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA, IBF, WBO and lineal light heavyweight titles ...
* Juan Carlos Gómez
* Artur Grigorian
* Ralf Rocchigiani
* Thomas Ulrich
Thomas Ulrich (born 11 July 1975, in Berlin) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2012. He challenged twice for a light-heavyweight world title: the WBC title in 2005, and the WBO/ lineal titles in 2006. He also held th ...
* István Kovács
* Mihai Leu
* Károly Balzsay
* Sebastian Zbik
* Mario Veit
* Alexander Dimitrenko
Alexander Viktorovych "Sascha" Dimitrenko ( uk, Олександр Вікторович Димитренко; born 5 July 1982) is a Ukrainian-born German former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2019, and held the European heavyweigh ...
* Denis Boytsov
Denis Nikolayevich Boytsov (russian: Денис Николаевич Бойцов; born 14 February 1986) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2015.
Amateur career
Boytsov has had a decorated amateur career, includin ...
* Khoren Gevor
* Sinan Şamil Sam
Sinan Şamil Sam (23 June 1974 – 30 October 2015) was a Turkish heavyweight professional boxing, professional boxer(Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijani origin). As a professional boxer, Sam won the European Boxing Union, EBU,WBC
international and WBC Med ...
* Akhmed Kotiev
Akhmed Yakubovich Kotiev (russian: Ахмед Якубович Котиев; born January 15, 1968) is a Russian former professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2000. He held the WBO
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organizatio ...
* Grigory Drozd
* Aleksandr Alekseyev
* Andreas Zülow
Andreas Zülow (born 23 October 1965) is a retired amateur boxer from East Germany who won a Lightweight gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. He also won the silver medal at the 1989 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Moscow, and ...
* Nenad Borovčanin
Nenad Borovčanin (Serbian Cyrillic: Ненад Боровчанин; born 25 March 1979) is a Serbian boxer.
He held the Interim WBO European Cruiserweight title from 11 June 2011 to 2012. His head coach is Miroslav Borovčanin (since 2006.).
...
References
Sources
Information about Fritz Sdunek
on the web site of '' Universum Box-Promotion'' — source for the most of the facts featured in this article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sdunek, Fritz
1947 births
2014 deaths
People from Vorpommern-Greifswald
German male boxers
East German male boxers
Boxing trainers
Sportspeople from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Recipients of the Banner of Labor