Mihai Leu also known as Michael Löwe (born 13 February 1968, in

Hunedoara Hunedoara (; ; ) is a municipiu, city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in southwestern Transylvania near the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, and administers five villages: Boș (''Bós''), Groș (''Grós''), Hășdat (''Hosdát ...

) is a Romanian former

professional boxer 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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed between 1991 and 1997. He held the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

title in 1997. Leu retired after one title defense, against Michael Carruth, becoming the third

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an boxer to retire as an undefeated world champion, after Jack McAuliffe and Terry Marsh. Due to an injury, he was forced to abandon boxing but unwilling to give up the world of sports, he turned to be a

rally driver Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (sometimes called "rally racing" in United States), navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed ...

. He later became a national rally champion.

Amateur highlights

He started boxing in 1977 at the Hunedoara Constructorul club. In 1981 he moved to the Hunedoara Metalul from where in 1982 he moved on to Dinamo Bucharest. During his time with Dinamo, he won the national championship four consecutive years: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986. In 1986, he moved to Steaua Bucharest and also became part of the national team. In 1987, he became World Junior Champion. In total he fought 200 amateur matches, out of which he won 190.

Professional career

In 1991, he became a professional boxer in Germany (using the name Michael Löwe). He would go on to win the vacant WBO welterweight title in 1997 by defeating Santiago Samaniego. He would defend the title once against Irish challenger Michael Carruth, before retiring in 1998.

Professional boxing record

Rally career

In 1998 he started his new career at the wheel of a

Ford Ka The Ford Ka is a small car manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1996 to 2016 as a city car and from 2014 to 2021 as a subcompact car. It entered its second generation in 2008, produced by Fiat in Tychy, Poland. A third generation was introduced ...

and after only three years, he managed to become Romania's rally vice-champion. He had already participated in rallying before, having made his debut in 1994, at the

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

Rally, in a

Volkswagen Golf GTI Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it is today after World War II by British A ...

. Five years later, in 2003, he became Romania's national champion driving a

Hyundai Accent WRC The Hyundai Accent WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Hyundai Castrol World Rally Team by Motor Sport Developments to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Hyundai Accent road car, and was debuted at the 2000 Rally ...

, with

co-driver A co-driver is the navigator of a rally car in the sport of rallying, who sits in the front passenger seat. The co-driver's job is to navigate, commonly by reading off a set of pacenotes to the driver (what lies ahead, where to turn, the severity ...

Ciprian Solomon. After failing to win another race after his championship winning year, Mihai Leu gave up competitive rallying in 2008, only to return in 2010, as team-manager of Jack Daniel's Rally Team, in the Romanian National Rally Championship (CNR).

Personal life

He is the son of Nicolae Leu, a well-known Romanian rally driver of the `70s–`80s. His brother, Victor, also made his debut in car racing in 1999, as his

. He is married and has a son Marco, born in 1993, who is a winter sportsman. He is involved in politics along with the

Partidul Conservator The Conservative Party (, PC) was a conservative political party in Romania. It was founded in 1991, approximately two years after the fall of Communism in Romania, originally under the name Romanian Humanist Party (, PUR). From 2005 until 3 Dec ...

, despite failing to secure a place in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, in the 2007 national elections. He works part-time as assistant at the Tibiscus University in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

. In 2014, he had colon cancer and received surgery in Bucharest and treatment in Vienna.

References

External links

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World Junior Championships 1987eWRC-results
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Leu, Mihai 1969 births Living people Romanian male boxers Sportspeople from Hunedoara Romanian rally drivers World welterweight boxing champions World Boxing Organization champions Undefeated world boxing champions Romanian expatriate sportspeople in Germany 20th-century Romanian sportsmen