Mate Parlov – Idol of Yugoslavia

“To be born a hundred more times, I would still be a boxer a hundred times.”

He experienced defeat once, while countless times he emerged victorious: the greatest boxer of former Yugoslavia, Olympic, amateur, and professional champion – Mate Parlov. Born in Imotski, but Pula became his home, besides being a successful restaurateur, he was also a poetry enthusiast. A man who said he could not be a nationalist after becoming a world champion.

Mate Parlov was born on November 16, 1948, in Imotski. He started boxing at the age of 16 when the Pula Boxing Club opened in 1964. He ended his career at the age of 32, and in those 16 years of amateur boxing, alongside numerous other titles, he was a two-time Golden Glove winner, a two-time European champion, Olympic champion (Munich, 1972), and a world champion. In his professional career, he was the European champion and defended that title three times, and he was twice the WBC world champion. When he retired in 1984, he became the coach of the Yugoslav team in Los Angeles, where the greatest success in the history of Yugoslav boxing was achieved – winning gold, silver, and two bronze medals. After that, he completely withdrew from boxing.

With all possible honors and merits, he became a member of the WBC’s “Hall of Fame,” alongside boxers like Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, and Joe Frazier. He graduated in economics and completed the last exam in postgraduate studies, but the only thing that interested him was his tavern world, where he would simultaneously drink, talk, serve, and sing a little. Long ago, he inadvertently used to break glasses because he would grip them too tightly, but later, as he himself said, “the hand became more refined.”

He died of lung cancer in 2008 at the age of 59. At the end of 2021, a street in Belgrade was named after him, while in Pula, a sports hall bears his name.