László Papp: Facing the Best

The tenacious British middleweight boxer John Wright had no immediate reason to worry when, on familiar ground at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, he faced a young opponent named László Papp. Wright had, after all, amassed a sterling record of amateur performances, and he was heavily favored to defeat all comers.

Papp, however, had himself earned an impressive record in his native Hungary, where he won 47 amateur bouts by knockout. He quickly defeated Wright for the Olympic gold medal and then returned to newly communist Hungary, where he found work as a deliveryman in Budapest, hauling heavy boxes up narrow streets and stairways.

Strong and quick, Papp decided to trim down to fight as a light middleweight in the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland. It was perhaps a fortuitous decision: had he remained a middleweight, he would have had to face the legendary American fighter Floyd Patterson. Instead, after defeating five contenders in elimination bouts, Papp fought the South African light-middleweight great Theunis van Schalkwyk, going three tough rounds until landing a right hook and bringing his opponent to his knees.

Papp returned to his deliveryman’s job in Budapest and continued to train. In 1956, at the age of 30—considered old for a boxer—he traveled to the Melbourne Games just after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. He later remarked that he had considered not attending the Games but resolved to win another medal for Hungary to call attention to his country’s troubles.

Again Papp defeated a field of contenders, facing a tough young American, José Torres, in the gold-medal match. The two battled closely over three rounds until a decision was awarded in Papp’s favor. Papp took his third Olympic gold medal that day.

After the Melbourne Games Papp received permission from the Hungarian government to fight professionally, becoming the first boxer from a communist country to do so. Although in 1962 Papp became the professional middleweight champion of Europe, the Hungarian government refused to allow him to challenge for the world championship. Papp retired, undefeated, in 1965. He later became the boxing coach for the Hungarian Olympic team.