Vilmos Jakab

In his youth Vilmos Jakab competed in both wrestling and boxing, eventually settling for the latter. He competed for Szakipari Építők between 1965 and 1970, and then for Újpesti Dózsa between 1971 and 1978. He won two Hungarian championship titles, both in middleweight and light heavyweight, between 1973 and 1977. He was a member of the Hungarian boxing team between 1974 and 1976. He competed in the light heavyweight category at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where he was defeated in the second round, finishing in ninth place.

In 1982 Jakab left Hungary and went to Paris, and shortly afterwards to Munich, where he lived for two years. There he made his professional boxing début fighting three matches, winning two of them, before leaving for the United States in 1984. In America he also helped the preparation of the Montreal middleweight Olympic champion, Michael Spinks, who was already a professional at the time. Later he was responsible for the security of the most prestigious entertainment venue, mainly visited by American stars, and he looked after Mike Tyson and Bruce Willis, among others. He also published two books. The autobiographical “In the Shadow of the Stars” in 2013 in Hungary, and a story about a Kuvasz puppy’s journey in an unpredictable world under “Basa” in 2020 in the USA.