Simich, Lyubisha

Lyubisha Simich was born on February 27, 1963 in the city of Smederevo of the Podunay district of Yugoslavia .

Amateur career

The first serious success at the adult international level was achieved in the season of 1980, when he joined the main team of the Yugoslav national team and won the championship of the Balkans. A year later, he visited the European Championships in Finnish Tampere , where, however, he could not be among the winners, in the first duel with a score of 1: 4, he was defeated by Finn Jarmo Esquelinen. He took part in the standings of the world boxing championship in Munich , at the stage of the quarter finals he was stopped by the Soviet boxer Yuri Alexandrov , who eventually won this tournament. In 1983 he became the silver medalist of the Mediterranean Games in Casablanca and performed at the European Championship in the Bulgarian Varna - he again dropped out during the qualifying stage.

Thanks to a series of successful performances, Simic won the right to defend the honor of the country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles - he boxed here in the bantamweight category, in the opening match he lost to the representative of the Dominican Republic Pedro Julio Nolasco and thereby lost any chance of becoming one of the winners.

In 1985 at the European Championships in Budapest, Lyubisha Simich defeated all rivals in the lightest weight division, including in the finals he defeated the famous Bulgarian boxer Alexander Hristov . In addition, this season won the bronze medal at the World Cup in Seoul . At the 1987 European Championship in Turin in the quarterfinals he met again with Alexander Khristov and this time lost to him with a score of 0: 5.

Being one of the leaders of the boxing team of Yugoslavia, Simich successfully passed the selection for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , but did not have much success here - in the first start lightweight fight, he was defeated by the representative of the Soviet Union Mehak Ghazaryan .

After the Seoul Olympics, Lyubisha Simich remained in the main squad of the Yugoslav national team and continued to take part in major international tournaments. So, he participated in the European Championships in Athens and the World Championships in Sydney. In addition, in 1991 he played the lightweight champion at the Mediterranean Games in Athens and defeated all opponents in the tournament bracket here. In total, over a long amateur career, he spent more than 500 fights, a total of nine times became the champion of Yugoslavia in different weight categories, three times won the championships of the Balkans ^[1] .

Professional career

Having completed his career in amateur boxing, in April 1993, Simich made his debut in the professional ring - he won his first opponent on points in four rounds. However, he already lost his next fight to a little-known boxer-debutant. He boxed mainly in the territory of Serbia, won several significant victories in the lightweight category, in particular, in 1995 won the title of international champion according to the World Boxing Council (in the same year he tried to defend the obtained championship belt, but received a cut and after the tenth round had to refuse from further continuation of the battle).

Despite the defeat, Simic continued to enter the ring and in the second half of the 1990s made a series of five victories, including winning and defending the title of intercontinental lightweight champion according to the International Boxing Federation . In 1998, during the second defense of the title, he was defeated on points and soon decided to end the career of a professional athlete ^[2] .

In 2005, at the age of 42, he returned to professional boxing for the sake of one fight and added another victory to his track record. Thus, in total Lyubisha Simich held 16 professional fights, of which 13 won (including 6 ahead of schedule) and 3 lost.

• Lyubisha Simich - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Lyubisha Simich (English) - professional boxing statistics on BoxRec