It is easy to dismiss him as just another old journeymen fighter who can’t say good-bye to the ring, but there’s more – much more – than meets the eye with Zoltan Petranyi, who is surely one of Hungary’s most colourful boxing personalities.
On the one hand, the 45-year-old is still an active boxer, who has fended off all challengers for his Hungarian heavyweight title over the last seven years. On June 10, he will get into the ring again on a show he stages himself at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Budapest to face one-time Mike Tyson-conqueror Danny Williams in what could well be the last fight for both boxers.
If indeed that turns out to be Petranyi’s final ring appearance, you can rest assure that he will not be bored without an active ring career to pursue, because on the other hand, he has already for many years made a name for himself as a promoter. Zoltan emphasizes that “both the fighting and the promoting are important and very exciting for me, but of course I know that I must soon stop my own career. However, I definitely intend to remain busy as a promoter!”.
How this is possible for a man who ranks among Europe’s busiest heavyweights remains a mystery, because he so far has packed 67 fights (47-20) in a 16-year-career as a fighter. Nevertheless, Zoltan is listed on boxrec.com as the promoter of more than 140 pro shows since 2005. As astonishing as that number may sound, one has to keep in mind that most of these shows were of the minor club category. Still, it is quite an achievement, because sponsors are hard to come by in Hungary and television exposure for boxing is zero.
“The boxers I manage with my company Profibox Promotion have to fight abroad in order to earn the money that allows us to promote them at home,” Zoltan explains.
With the WBF supporting his activities, Petranyi has already produced three world champions as a promoter. Tamas Kovacs briefly reigned as WBF World Light Heavyweight champion, while Zita Zatyko is the current WBF Women’s World Super Middleweight champion and WBF Women’s World Bantamweight champ Renata Szebeledi – who defends her crown this week – won her blue WBF belt under Petranyi’s guidance.
A trio of WBF International titleholders complement Zoltan’s success with the World Boxing Federation. “I like to work with the WBF,” Petranyi says, “because I can always rely on them to respect what was verbally discussed.”
Recently, he introduced tournament-format competitions in Hungary and those “Super 4” one-night box-offs have quickly become a fan-favourite.
