Up and coming Croatian fighter Vido Loncar appeared to blow his chance of having a career in boxing after a moment of madness in the ring led to him being banned for life.
The 18 year-old Loncar was competing in a light heavyweight bout against Algirdas Baniulis at the 2014 European Youth Boxing Championships in Zagreb, Croatia when the incident took place.
Loncar became infuriated when the Polish referee, Maciej Dziurgot, who has over 30 years experience officiating in the sport, gave him a standing count and then waved off the fight.
At first the youth returned to his coaches, but then when he was called over for the decision to be announced he suddenly sucker-punched the middle-aged referee with a powerful right hand that floored him.
As his opponent, Baniulis fled the ring, and his own coaches watched on rather than attempting to intervene, Loncar continued to pound on the grounded referee with a further seven punches, before other officials were able to grab a hold of his legs and drag him out of the ring.
Loncar was then arrested, while Dziurgot was taken to the hospital suffering from a concussion and broken ribs.
The Croatian Boxing Federation acted swiftly after the incident, condemning Loncar’s actions and banning him for life, while the International Boxing Association (IBA) also provisionally banned him at the time and opted to revoke his coaches licenses.
This is the worst thing that could happen, CBF general secretary Marko Marovic said at the time. This is a disgrace to Zagreb and Croatia. All our efforts that we put into organizing the event were trashed. The boxing image of Croatia was destroyed in seconds.
However, two years later it’s somewhat surprising to discover that authorities have apparently decided to give the now 20 year-old Loncar a second chance, as official boxing records reveal that he has logged a 3-0 professional record since March of 2016, competing at cruiserweight.
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As for Dziurgot, who’s one of Poland’s most respected boxing officials, he was able to put the traumatic incident behind him and returned to the ring to referee at an event two months after the attack.
