Joseph Ventazha ( French Joseph Ventaja ; February 4, 1930 , Casablanca - August 11, 2003 , Bordeaux ) is a French lightweight boxer . In the first half of the 1950s, he played for the French team: bronze medalist of the Helsinki Summer Olympics, European champion, participant in many international tournaments and match meetings. In the period 1956-1958 he boxed on a professional level, but without special achievements.
 Joseph Ventazha | ||||||||||||||
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| fr. Joseph Ventaja | ||||||||||||||
| general information | ||||||||||||||
| Citizenship |  France | |||||||||||||
| Date of Birth | February 4, 1930 | |||||||||||||
| Place of Birth | Casablanca | |||||||||||||
| Date of death | August 11, 2003 (73 years old) | |||||||||||||
| Place of death | Bordeaux , France | |||||||||||||
| Weight category | featherweight (57 kg) | |||||||||||||
| Professional career | ||||||||||||||
| First fight | September 17, 1956 | |||||||||||||
| The last battle | November 10, 1958 | |||||||||||||
| Number of battles | 18 | |||||||||||||
| Number of wins | 13 | |||||||||||||
| KOs | 9 | |||||||||||||
| Defeat | five | |||||||||||||
Medals
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Biography
Joseph Ventazha was born on February 4, 1930 in the city of Casablanca , Morocco , but soon he emigrated with his family to France. He achieved his first serious success in the ring in 1951, when he won a gold medal in the lightweight division at the European Championship in Milan. This was followed by victories in match meetings with the national teams of Sweden and Denmark. Thanks to a series of successful performances, he won the right to defend the country's honor at the Helsinki Summer Olympics - he managed to get to the semi-lightweight semi-finals here (including taking the upper hand over the Soviet boxer Yuri Sokolov ), after which he lost to the Italian Sergio Caprari with a score of 1: 2. Having received a bronze Olympic medal, he continued to enter the ring as part of the national team of France, taking part in all major international tournaments. So, in 1954, he represented the European team in a match meeting with the US team.
In 1956, Ventazha decided to try himself among the professionals and left the French team. During the year he spent eleven victorious matches in a row, however, from the middle of 1957 a series of setbacks began, the Frenchman was defeated three times. In May 1958, he had the opportunity to compete for the French lightweight champion title, but reigning champion Louis Poncy was stronger by knocking out in the eleventh round. After this failure, Vantage once again entered the ring, lost again and soon decided to end his career. In total, in professional boxing, he spent 18 fights, of which 13 ended with victory (including 9 ahead of schedule) and lost 5 times.
He died on August 11, 2003 in the city of Bordeaux .
Links
- Joseph Ventazha - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
- 1951 European Boxing Championship Results
- Joseph Ventazha - professional boxing statistics for BoxRec