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UPDATE: AFTER FIVE
DECADES IN BOXING, WBF VICE
PRESIDENT JEAN-MARCEL NARTZ
RETIRES! (JUNE 26, 2019).
Jean-Marcel
Nartz was born in Saint-Die,
France in 1946. At the age of
two he went to Hamburg, Germany
to live with his grandparents,
and four years later he moved to
Cologne to reunite with his
mother and stepfather, who
was an electrician for
engineering company Siemens.
The stepfathers job as an
electrician would turn out to be
the reason Jean-Marcel got
interested in boxing, as he was
often hired to do the lighting
for big professional shows in
Cologne, Dusseldorf and
Dortmund. He brought the young
boy along, and a life-long
relationship was born.
“My
stepfather took me to all these
shows, and I got to see fights
with famous German boxers such
as Peter Muller, Bubi Scholz,
Heinz Neuhaus, Erich Schoeppner
and Karl Mildenberger”, explains
Nartz. “Boxing soon became my
life, and I started reading
everything I could get my hands
on.”
Jean-Marcel never boxed
competitively himself, because,
as he puts it, he didn't have
the talent for it, but he did
train boxing. Not surprisingly,
being a young man in the sixties
and seventies, his boxing idol
was Muhammad Ali, whom he would
later have the pleasure of
meeting.
He started working as a chef
from age fifteen, a job he would
hold for thirty years in various
cities. From 1981 to 1991 Nartz
was a Head Chef, but boxing was
always his main passion. So when
he moved to London in 1967, he
did little else than cook and
watch fights.
In London, a city he would call
his home for the next five
years, promotions took place
several times each week, and
Nartz went to all he could.
Venues such as York Hall, Royal
Albert Hall and Wembley Arena
quickly became his stomping
grounds.
During his time in London he
befriended legendary British
promoter Mickey Duff, who became
his mentor and taught
Jean-Marcel everything he needed
to know to become a good
matchmaker and technical
director for shows.
In 1973 Nartz returned to
Germany. While he continued
working in the kitchens of nice
restaurants, the experiences he
gathered in London, and the
knowledge he obtained from Mr.
Duff, eventually lead to
matchmaking and technical
director jobs with Sauerland
Event and later Universum Box
Promotion.
In fact, it was Nartz who
enticed, and helped,
Hall-of-Fame promoter Wilfried
Sauerland, who at the time had
done just one previous show in
Lusaka on request of the Zambian
government with whom he was in
business, to kick-start
professional boxing in Germany.
Eventually, he established
himself as one of the most
respected and accomplished
matchmakers in Europe, and was
involved in some of the biggest
fights, with some of the biggest
names. A dream career for
someone who was a boxing-fan
more or less his whole life.
When he eventually decided to
retire from being a matchmaker
and technical director, in 2009,
he still had a desire to stay in
boxing.
In an
interview a few years ago,
Nartz explained:
”After
I finished my contract with
Universum Box Promotion I wanted
to still be involved with
boxing, but at the same time not
have to travel too much and
spend many weeks away from home.
When I met (WBF President)
Howard Goldberg in 2009 in
Dessau, we had a nice discussion
and decided to do something
positive for boxing, and the
Federation looked honest to me,
and the potential also looked
very interesting.
So, it was a good fit, and we
build up the organization with
the promise of always being
straight forward and honest.”
Nartz accepted to join the WBF
as a board member after that
meeting with Goldberg in 2009,
and became Vice President the
following year. Now, just a few
months away from his 72nd
birthday, he is still going
strong and also enjoys working
as a very capable judge for WBF
championship fights.
“We
are doing some good fights with
the WBF”, says Nartz. “We are
always improving, and I think
that if only television would
realize that the WBF is honest,
in contrast to the so-called
bigger organizations who is not
doing a very good job
sporting-wise, it would be
easier for us to compete with
them.”
Never a fighter inside the ring,
he is always a fighter outside
the ring and very much willing
to continue the fight to advance
the WBF, saying:
“I
hope to remain fit for a long
time, and to be able to continue
doing some good things for the
WBF. The WBF is in my heart!”
Asked how he would like to be
remembered, once he do decide to
call it a day, he is quite blunt
when stating:
“I
was never a good diplomat, but
all my friends, and even my
enemies, knows that I am always
straight and fair.”
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