Karl Mildenberger

Karl Mildenberger
Mildenberger in 1966
Born	Karl Mildenberger (1937-11-23)23 November 1937 Kaiserslautern, Germany
Died	4 October 2018(2018-10-04) (aged 80) Kaiserslautern, Germany
Nationality	German
Other names	Milde
Statistics
Weight(s)	Heavyweight
Height	6 ft 1+1⁄2 in (1.87 m)
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	62
Wins	53
Wins by KO	19
Losses	6
Draws	3

Karl Mildenberger (23 November 1937 – 4 October 2018) was a German heavyweight boxer. He was the European Heavyweight Champion from 1964 to 1968, during which he retained the title six times. He unsuccessfully challenged Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight title in September 1966.

Mildenberger learned the fight trade, growing up in Occupied Germany. A cousin of his father's, a former boxing champion during the Third Reich, began Karl's fistic education; he then joined the boxing program run by FC Kaiserslautern. He eventually displayed enough promise to be sent to Mannheim for training, as Mildenberger lived in the French Sector of the occupation, which forbade the practice of prizefighting; Mannheim, in the American Sector, had no such restriction.^[1]

Mildenberger lost his first fight for the European Heavyweight title when he was knocked out by Welsh boxer Dick Richardson in one round in April 1962. Karl rebounded with wins over Joe Erskine, Archie McBride, Joe Bygraves and a knockout win over Billy Daniels. Mildenberger then got a draw with highly ranked Zora Folley in April 1964. Later that year, Mildenberger scored a first-round knockout over Sante Amonte to capture the European Heavyweight title.^[2]

After defending his European title three times, Mildenberger fought Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight Title in September 1966. Mildenberger, the first southpaw to fight for the World Heavyweight title, frustrated the champ for most of the fight, but ultimately lost by TKO when the referee stopped the fight at 1:28 of the twelfth round following a flurry of punches by Ali. Years later, Angelo Dundee said a tenth round punch to the liver area hurt Ali, whose ability to withstand body blows was legendary.^[3]

In 1967, Mildenberger participated in a tournament staged by the World Boxing Association to determine the new heavyweight champion after Ali was stripped of the title for refusing induction into the US military draft. In the first round of the tournament, getting off the deck, he lost to Oscar Bonavena by a clear twelve-round decision.^[4]

Mildenberger was not the same afterwards, and was knocked out by contender Leotis Martin in seven rounds (April 1968). Subsequently, in September 1968, Mildenberger's career ended when he lost the European Heavyweight title to Henry Cooper by eighth round disqualification after headbutting his opponent. Mildenberger has said of his timing of retirement, "If I had retained the title, I would have relinquished it. Win, lose or draw, I would have retired, anyway. ...This was the end. I was unharmed. No terrible things had happened to me."^[5]

Mildenberger worked as a lifeguard after his retirement from boxing. He died at the age of 80 on 4 October 2018.^[6][7]

53 wins (19 knockouts, 34 decisions), 6 losses (4 knockouts, 1 decision, 1 DQ), 3 draws[8]
Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round	Date	Location	Notes
Loss	53–6–3	Henry Cooper	DQ	8	18 September 1968	Empire Pool, London, England	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Loss	53–5–3	Leotis Martin	KO	7	5 April 1968	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	53–4–3	Gerhard Zech	PTS	15	30 December 1967	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Loss	52–4–3	Oscar Bonavena	UD	12	16 September 1967	Waldstadion, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	52–3–3	Amos Lincoln	TKO	6	6 May 1967	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	51–3–3	Billy Walker	TKO	8	21 March 1967	Empire Pool, London, England	EBU Heavyweight Title. Referee stopped the bout at 1:43 of the eighth round.
Win	50–3–3	Piero Tomasoni	PTS	15	1 February 1967	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Loss	49–3–3	Muhammad Ali	TKO	12	10 September 1966	Waldstadion, Frankfurt, Germany	For WBC, The Ring, and lineal heavyweight titles.
Win	49–2–3	Ivan Prebeg	PTS	15	15 June 1966	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Win	48–2–3	Eddie Machen	PTS	10	3 February 1966	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	47–2–3	Gerhard Zech	PTS	15	26 November 1965	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Win	46–2–3	David E. Bailey	PTS	10	10 September 1965	Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg
Win	45–2–3	Piero Tomasoni	PTS	15	14 May 1965	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Win	44–2–3	Kirk Barrow	KO	5	9 April 1965	Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg
Win	43–2–3	Jefferson Davis	PTS	10	22 January 1965	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	42–2–3	Ollie Wilson	TKO	4	4 December 1964	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Draw	41–2–3	Amos Johnson	PTS	10	20 November 1964	Deutschlandhalle, Charlottenburg, Berlin
Win	41–2–2	Santo Amonti	KO	1	17 October 1964	Deutschlandhalle, Charlottenburg, Berlin	EBU Heavyweight Title.
Draw	40–2–2	Zora Folley	PTS	10	17 April 1964	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	40–2–1	Archie McBride	PTS	10	25 January 1964	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	39–2–1	Billy Daniels	KO	3	29 November 1963	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	38–2–1	Joe Erskine	PTS	10	13 October 1963	Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
Win	37–2–1	Wayne Bethea	PTS	10	6 July 1963	Deutschlandhalle, Charlottenburg, Berlin
Win	36–2–1	Von Clay	PTS	10	10 May 1963	Deutschlandhalle, Charlottenburg, Berlin
Win	35–2–1	Ulli Ritter	PTS	10	20 April 1963	Ostseehalle, Kiel, Germany
Draw	34–2–1	Archie McBride	PTS	10	26 January 1963	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	34–2	Joe Bygraves	PTS	3	30 November 1962	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	33–2	Alonzo Johnson	PTS	10	17 November 1962	Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
Win	32–2	John Robert Henry	PTS	8	6 October 1962	Messesporthalle, Cologne, Germany
Win	31–2	Federico Friso	PTS	10	1 September 1962	Messesporthalle, Cologne, Germany
Loss	30–2	Dick Richardson	KO	1	24 February 1962	Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany	EBU Heavyweight Title. Karl knocked out at 2:35 of the first round.
Win	30–1	Pete Rademacher	PTS	10	20 January 1962	Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
Win	29–1	Howard King	PTS	10	24 November 1961	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	28–1	Wayne Bethea	PTS	10	3 November 1961	Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg
Win	27–1	Young Jack Johnson	PTS	10	29 September 1961	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	26–1	José González Sales	KO	2	10 September 1961	Eisstadion, Cologne, Germany
Win	25–1	Walter Haufft	TKO	2	3 June 1961	Eisstadion, Cologne, Germany
Win	24–1	Frankie Daniels	PTS	10	28 April 1961	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	23–1	Törner Åhsman	TKO	4	17 March 1961	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	22–1	Hal Carter	TKO	8	20 January 1961	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	21–1	Franco Cavicchi	PTS	10	7 December 1960	Bologna, Italy
Win	20–1	Hans Friedrich	TKO	3	26 November 1960	Festhalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
Win	19–1	Robert Archie Moore	PTS	8	29 October 1960	Ostseehalle, Kiel, Germany
Win	18–1	Alain Cherville	TKO	4	1 October 1960	Westfalenhallen, Dortmund, Germany
Win	17–1	Alex Buxton	PTS	8	6 May 1960	Ernst Merck Halle, Mitte, Berlin
Win	16–1	Francois Kania	KO	3	22 April 1960	Ostseehalle, Kiel, Germany
Win	15–1	Sammy Langford	TKO	3	8 April 1960	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	14–1	Ron Redrup	TKO	7	13 February 1960	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	13–1	Jimmy Slade	PTS	8	30 December 1959	Sportpalast, Schoeneberg, Berlin
Win	12–1	Wim Snoek	PTS	8	12 December 1959	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Loss	11–1	Helmut Ball	KO	7	7 November 1959	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	11–0	Arthur Howard	PTS	8	4 July 1959	Deutschlandhalle, Charlottenburg, Berlin
Win	10–0	Wim Snoek	PTS	8	6 June 1959	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	9–0	Jacques Bro	KO	5	9 May 1959	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	8–0	Pedro Klijssen	PTS	8	24 April 1959	Grugahalle, Essen, Germany
Win	7–0	Alain Cherville	PTS	8	14 March 1959	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	6–0	Louis DeBolster	KO	3	14 February 1959	Landwirtschaftshalle, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Win	5–0	Andre Wyns	PTS	8	13 December 1958	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	4–0	Jose Mariano Moracia Ibanes	PTS	8	5 December 1958	Bayernhalle, Munich, Germany
Win	3–0	Andre Oueille	TKO	5	15 November 1958	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany
Win	2–0	Guenter Huber	PTS	4	9 November 1958	Schwarzwaldhalle, Karlsruhe, Germany
Win	1–0	Manfred Striemer	KO	1	15 October 1958	Killesbergpark, Stuttgart, Germany

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
1	—	0–0 (1)	Muhammad Ali	—	2	Jun 4, 1979	Grugahalle, Essen, West Germany	Non-scored bout

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karl Mildenberger.

• Brunt, Stephen (2002). Facing Ali. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-829-3.