Laszlo Papp

László Papp
Papp, 13 December 1955
Statistics
Real name	László Papp
Nickname(s)	Laci Papp
Rated at	Middleweight Light Middleweight
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Nationality	Hungarian
Born	(1926-03-25)March 25, 1926 Budapest, Hungary
Died	October 16, 2003(2003-10-16) (aged 77) Budapest, Hungary
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	29
Wins	27
Wins by KO	15
Losses	0
Draws	2
No contests	0
Medal record Men's boxing Representing  Hungary Olympic Games 1948 London Middleweight 1952 Helsinki Light Middleweight 1956 Melbourne Light Middleweight European Amateur Championships 1949 Oslo Middleweight 1951 Milan Light Middleweight

László Papp (March 25, 1926 – October 16, 2003) was a Hungarian professional boxer from Budapest. A southpaw, he won gold medals in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, and the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia. In his final Olympic competition, he beat José Torres later the professional light-heavyweight world champion, for the gold medal, to become the first boxer in Olympic history to win three successive gold medals. It was a remarkable run of Olympic Boxing supremacy, in that of his 13 Olympic fights, he won 12 of them without losing a round, and dropped only a single round in his last final - to Torres. There would not be another triple gold medalist for 20 years, when Teofilo Stevenson won three, followed by Felix Savon as the latest one of the three men to accomplish the feat.

Papp was an Olympic gold medalist three times, at middleweight in London in 1948, then as a light middleweight in Helsinki in 1952 and in Melbourne in 1956. Papp also was the European middleweight champion as a middleweight in 1949 at Oslo and at light middleweight at Milan 1951. He scored 55 first round knockouts as an amateur.

1948 London (England)

1952 Helsinki (Finland)

1956 Melbourne (Australia)

Papp, despite having hand trouble, turned professional in 1957, and immediately began rising in the Middleweight ranks. However, Hungary was a Communist country at the time and professional boxing was not permitted. Papp had to travel to Vienna, in Austria, for training and for his fights. In spite of this disadvantage, he beat several top-ranking contenders for the European Middleweight title, including veteran Tiger Jones, French champion Hippolyte Annex and Chris Christensen. After Christensen, Papp defeated Randy Sandy of the United States. In 1964, after Papp had already signed up for the world championship title bout, Hungary's Communist leadership brought his professional career to an end by denying him an exit visa. The reason for this was that professional boxing was not permitted in Communist Hungary and the government resented Papp's successful by-passing of the restriction by staging his fights abroad.