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42-year-old
Zbigniew
Lagosz
is a former Polish national
Kickboxing Champion.
He never boxed competitively in
the traditional sense,
but his
fighting
idol was always a traditional
boxer: The one and only Mike
Tyson.
Originally from
the city
Gorzów Wielkopolski in Western
Poland, he now lives in Krakow
in the southern part
with wife Magdalena and daughter
Emilia.
It
is probably safe to say, he is
not your typical boxing-person.
Highly
educated, he is a graduate of
Krakow´s AGH University of
Science and Technology with a
Ph.d. in religious studies, and
also the author of several books
and numerous articles on various
subjects within his field.
In addition to working with
academic research, Lagosz also
works in construction and
was
heavily
involved in
the building of two out of three
total Ski Jumping hills in
Poland.
Interesting and impressive as
that may be,
when it comes to sports,
fighting is
more to his liking.
Besides his background in
Kickboxing, Lagosz started
operating
as an amateur boxing-judge
at
a very early age, still in his
teens.
In 2000,
still only twenty-four,
he obtained licenses
with the national federation in
Poland
to work as a professional judge
and referee.
In 2009 he joined the World
Boxing Federation (WBF) when it
was re-established after some
years of inactivity, and has
since been an important part of
its growth.
Lagosz is not only
a member of the
WBF
Championship Committee,
where he gives his input on
which boxers can be approved to
fight for WBF titles,
he
also
officiates many WBF championship
fights
around Europe.
Weather it be his work in the
committee, at ringside as a
judge or supervisor, or in the
ring refereeing, he
is doing an excellent job in
all
capacities, and in
2016 he was awarded with WBF
Referee of the Year honors.
“My
favorite thing to do in boxing,
is refereeing a world
championship fight”, says
Lagosz,
who has shared a ring with,
among many others, Polish icons
Andrew Golota and Tomasz Adamek.
As all good officials, he
doesn't allow himself to be in
awe of the boxers he judge or
referee, but that is not to say
he hasn't been influenced by
major names in the sport:
“I
look up to the legendary
referees, and I have always
especially admired American
Mills Lane. I have studied him,
and tried to learn from what I
saw."
Boxing-insiders and fans
will know that Mills Lane,
famous for his “Lets get it on”
catchphrase, for many years was
a courtroom judge outside of
boxing, and a big advocate for
fairness and
justice
both inside and outside the
ring.
Not surprisingly, Lagosz is on
the same page as his
refereeing-role-model:
“In
a perfect world I would love to
see boxing return to its sports
purity”, he says, likely
realizing its
a fairy-tale dream, as he
continues:
“Obviously
I would like all the dishonesty
to
go away, such as judges giving
decisions to the promoters boxer
when its not deserved.”
In
the meantime, hoping against
hope that his wish for the sport
will come true one day, Lagosz
continues his quest to do his
best for the WBF, while at the
same time taking care of his
other projects outside of
boxing.
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