Thyge Petersen became the first two-time European champion in 1930 at the Budapest edition where Hungary won the medal standings .
The third edition of the European Boxing Championships was held in Budapest, Hungary from June 4 until the 8th in 1930. The venue of the 1930 European Boxing Championships was the Industry Hall in Budapest short after the 1929 World Economic Crisis. Hungary won the team rankings in 1930 when Denmark’s heavyweight boxer Thyge Petersen became the first two-time champion.
The number of the boxers increased up to 64 in the 3rd European Boxing Championships in Budapest which was a record in the short history of the continental event. The following 11 nations attended in the third edition of the European Boxing Championships in Budapest: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, and Sweden.
Germany, Hungary, Poland and Italy sent maximum number of eight boxers to the Budapest 1930 European Boxing Championships. Finland and Romania were the new debutants in the continental event and both earned medals on their first participation.
Hungary won the medal standings with three gold and two silver medals in 1930 while Italy, Denmark and Germany were also achieved titles in Budapest. Poland, Romania, Sweden, Finland and Norway produced medals in 1930 at least one bronze.
Istvan Enekes was only 19 in the event but he had fantastic footwork and claimed Hungary’s first gold medal in the 1930 European Boxing Championships. The Hungarian teenager defeated Poland’s Mieczyslaw Forlanski in the final of the flyweight but he reached his career highlight the Olympic title two years later in Los Angeles. The Hungarian Boxing Association holds the Istvan Enekes Memorial Tournament for their youth boxers in Budapest on February every year to remember his greatness.
Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games quarter-finalist Janos Szeles trained in the famous club of Ferencvaros and following his national titles, the 21-year-old boxer won the bantamweight over Romania’s Marin Plaesu. The third-in-a-row Hungarian title was achieved by Gyula Szabo who joined to the national team in 1929. The featherweight boxer won several international dual matches before his European title in 1930 which he earned after beating Italy’s Cesare Saracini.
Mario Bianchini was 19 by the time of the 1930 European Boxing Championships but the Rome-based boxer had enough skills to win the lightweight in Budapest. His final opponent was a four-year-older boxer Hungary’s Olympian Sandor Szobolevszky but Bianchini had the skills to manage his European title in 1930. His grandson David Bianchini was a well-known football player in the Serie A in the 1990’s. Bianchini’s teammate Clemente Meroni claimed Italy’s second gold medal in 1930 when he defeated the Hungarian favourite Lajos Szigeti in the final of the middleweight.
Germany earned four gold medals in the second edition of the European Boxing Championships in 1927 and three-years later their team won one title in Budapest. Cologne was one of the capitals of the German boxing and their next talent Jupp Besselmann opened his campaign in Budapest with a KO success over Finland’s Vale Resko. The German National Champion controlled his further fights against Italy’s Cesare Desio and Poland’s Witold Majchrzycki.
Thyge Petersen became the first boxer in the history of the European Boxing Championships who won the event twice. The Paris 1924 Olympic Games silver medallist won his first European title in 1925 and repeated that performance in Budapest five years later. The 28-year-old six-time National Champion triumphed over in the final of the heavyweight Germany’s Albert Leidmann who was killed in action at the World War II.
Denmark’s Michael Michaelsen achieved bronze medal at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games and also at the Berlin 1927 European Boxing Championships. He was already 31 at the Budapest 1930 European Boxing Championships but had enough experiences to beat Sweden’s Bertil Molander in the title bout of the heavyweight.
List of the winners in the 1930 European Boxing Championships
Flyweight (50.8kg): Istvan Enekes, Hungary
Bantamweight (53.5kg): Janos Szeles, Hungary
Featherweight (57.2kg): Gyula Szabo, Hungary
Lightweight (61.2kg): Mario Bianchini, Italy
Welterweight (66.7kg): Jupp Besselmann, Germany
Middleweight (72.6kg): Clemente Meroni, Italy
Light heavyweight (79.4kg): Thyge Petersen, Denmark
Heavyweight (+79.4kg): Michael Michaelsen, Denmark
