In the guest corner from West Palm Beach, Florida by way of Orange, New Jersey, his record an outstanding 44 wins against eight defeats with 28 wins by knockout, the former IBF Light Heavyweight Champion, former WBA Cruiserweight Champion and former WBU Super Cruiserweight Champion, Bobby Czyz (Chez).

A member of the High IQ Society Mensa, when Czyz turned down four partial pre-med scholarships and a free ride to West Point to instead pursue professional boxing, everyone said he must not be THAT smart! Not a religious man, Czyz says he was driven to become a boxing champion to achieve some form of immortality, to be remembered. Having established his legacy in six weight classes and having been inducted into several halls of fame, one might say he achieved his goal.

But the boxer’s first real life challenge happened long before he ever stepped into a ring—that of surviving his father’s brutal abuse. Czyz describes his father as a “violent disciplinarian” who beat everyone in the house.

He’s made his peace with his father, who died when he was 21, and says that he turned the suffering he endured into something positive. His father forced him to go to the gym six days a week, beginning at age ten.

When he was only eleven, he took a sparring match with a Junior Olympic Champion and from that moment on, he knew he would become a champion himself one day.

His mother is a different story. Every bit as harsh as his dad was, his mom was kind, saintly even. He compares the pair to Hitler and Mother Teresa. Whether because of it or despite his upbringing, he says he never so much as raised his voice to his own wife. Czyz defies the paradigm of the abused becoming the abuser. In fact, he loved both his parents and in particular wanted to make his father proud.

Next up, Czyz is going back to another bailiwick in which he excels, broadcasting. Believe it or not, bare knuckle boxing is legal again.

Stay tuned for Matt’s FAST FIVE to find out who, of all the boxers Czyz’s faced, hit him the hardest AND to learn a great riddle.

Czyz invites everyone to reach out to him on www.bobbyczyz.com.

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In each episode of Life’s Tough – Boxers Are TOUGHER! host Matthew Pomara, licensed amateur boxer, and boxing writer and contributor to “The Ring” magazine and “NYFights.com,” talks to men and women in the boxing industry whose hard-won victories and personal triumph and perseverance inspire listeners to fight on.  Because life isn’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

CHECK OUT all our inspiring podcasts at https://www.lifestough.com/