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10: Top Olympic fighters of all time

Fighters Network
30
Jul

10. Jerzy Kulej – Polish junior welterweight (1964-1968)

Kulej was one of the greatest fighters Poland ever produced as he compiled a 317-25-6 record that included two European championships and two Olympic golds in the junior welterweight class. He is the first man to capture back-to-back golds at junior welterweight – and the only other man to match him will be profiled later.

Kulej overcame his lack of height with a textbook high guard, lively legs and well-timed blows that knifed through his opponents’ defenses. He sailed through the field in Tokyo; following a first-round bye, he shut out Argentina’s Roberto Amaya, posted 4-1 victories over Great Britain’s Richard McTaggart and Romania’s Iosif Mihalic as well as a 5-0 win over Ghanaian Eddie Blay to earn a spot in the gold medal match against Soviet southpaw Evgeni Frolov. Kulej outclassed Frolov by staying one step ahead every second of every round en route to a 5-0 win.

The road was tougher four years later in Mexico City as he survived a pair of 3-2 decisions against Janos Kajdi of Hungary in round one and East Germany’s Peter Tiepold in round three (he beat Italy’s Giambattista Capretti 4-1 in round two) before regaining form in the semis by shutting out Finland’s Arto Nilsson in the medal round. He closed out his Olympic career with another tough 3-2 verdict over Cuba’s Enrique Requeiferos.



Following his career he acted in Polish movies and was a commentator for Polsat Sport until he suffered a heart attack in December. A subsequent battle with cancer proved too much and Kulej died July 13 at age 71.

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