Citizenship topics have not changed much in decades, and a former communist country, neighboring Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania, is not exceptional to the long list of tales.
This beautiful country located in East-Central Europe is Hungary, filled with a rich history, amazing people, food and an astonishing landscape.
One is about an individual with a big heart, an athlete from Hungary, the challenges of the society and the politics back in the days when his sportive career was thriving. The life of László Papp is full of interesting and fascinating details, and there were things hard to overcome.
Hindrance for the next step
László Papp, a boxing ‘legend’, who lost one match only. Such a pity he could not ‘claim’ the most desired trophy. The proclaimed Champion did not receive a travel Visa of his home country Hungary.
Papp is the first boxer in the Olympic history, who won three gold medals in a row.
László Papp is these days one of the best boxing athletes ever and died in 2003. He lost one fight only in his entire career and is a three-time Olympic champion in the years 1948, 1952 and 1956. He could not participate in the World Championships because the then communist regime in Hungary did not issue a visa for the United States.
Laszlo Pap was born on March 25, 1926 in Budapest, where he became a professional boxer.
He won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London in the middleweight category, and in 1952 in Helsinki in the semi-middleweight. He repeated the success in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia (also a semi-central category). In his last appearance at the Olympics, he defeated Jose Torres, who later became world champion.
How powerful and successful he was in the sport is also shown by the fact that, he won 12 of the 13 Olympic fights and lost a single round in the Torres final only. For the next 20 years, there has not been any boxer who has won three Olympic golds in a row. Only Cuban boxers Felix Savon and Teofilo Stevenson could repeat this fantastic success latter on.
In addition, he scored 55 knockouts as an amateur in the first round. He was European Champion in 1949 in Oslo and 1951 in Milan.
The best amateur and professional boxer of all time.
During his professional career since 1957 he faced obstacles with the communist era in Hungary, which did not allow professional boxing in those years. He had to travel to Vienna for training and fighting. Despite this drawback, he beat many of Europe’s top boxers including Tiger Jones. He wanted to compete for the 1964 World Cup, however, Hungary did not give him a visa and at the time he ended his career. He had a great chance to take on the world title as he was undefeated in the ring (17 wins, 2 draws). In 2002 he entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He died in Budapest in 2003 and is named after the sports arena in that city, known as a concert venue and home to a national hockey team.
А Citizenship Investment Program, CIP, or CBI, Citizenship by Investment, could have come handy in the 50’s for László Papp. A second passport. featured with a wide set of countries to travel to, without worries about the entry visa. Roaming the planet freely without a hefty paperwork regime does not come with every passport even 70 years later.
In the future we will investigate further these topics and on the Balkans’ Citizenship activities.
*Illus I. 26.11.51 Deutsche Box-Sportler in Budapest. Am 18. November 1951 wurden in der Budapester Sporthalle die Boxmeisterschaften zwischen einer Auswahlmannschaft der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Ungarischen Volksrepublik ausgetragen.Die Boxkämpfe endeten mit einem Sieg der ungarischen Sportler. UBz: Der Olympiasieger Papp (Ungarn) boxt gegen Schultze (DDR).
