Marijan Beneš
Encyclopedia
Marijan Beneš ' onMouseout='HidePop("37855")' href="/topics/Belgrade">Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
) is a former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
n boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, still considered one of the best in the Yugoslavian history
Former Yugoslavia
The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
. After a brilliant amateur career, culminating in the gold medal in European Amateur Boxing Championships
European Amateur Boxing Championships
The European Amateur Boxing Championships is the highest competition for boxing amateurs in Europe, organised by the continent's governing body EUBC, which stands for the European Boxing Confederation...
in Belgrade, he turned professional in 1977, and won the European Boxing Union
European Boxing Union
The European Boxing Union is an organization that oversees competition in that sport over the continent of Europe.-History:The EBU started life as the International Boxing Union in Paris in 1910...
title in the light welterweight
Light welterweight
-Professional boxing:The light welterweight class is a weight division in professional boxing that has a limit of 63.5 kg or 140 pounds...
in 1979. Beneš withdrew from the ring in 1983, after a severe eye injury.
Biography
Marijan was born in Belgrade to CroatCroats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
father Josip and Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
mother Marija (neé Vuhić). Under the influence of his father, a music teacher, Marijan played piano and violin in his childhood. He had three brothers and one sister. He spent his childhood in Tuzla
Tuzla
Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 83,770 inhabitants, while the municipality 131,318. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants...
. However, his life will take a radical turn when he (allegedly) entered the ring at the age a 10 and won against an 18 year old opponent. When he was 16, he signed for the Slavija boxing club in Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
, where he would stay during his amateur career.
He is a staunch opposer to "Greater Serbs and Greater Croats", maintaining his Yugoslav
Yugoslav
Yugoslav refers to:* Yugoslavia** Kingdom of Yugoslavia** Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia** Federal Republic of Yugoslavia* Yugoslavs...
identity.
Career
During his amateur career, Beneš won 9 titles in SR Bosnia, 4 titles of Yugoslavian champion, and a number of other competitions. In 1973, he won the European title in light welterweight in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
and he received the "Golden Badge", an award for the Best Athlete of the year in Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. Soon after he caught hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
, a fact that could mean the end of the career. "Radically stubborn" (as he said himself), and devoted to boxing, he decided to continue. He also participated in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but lost in the second round.
He turned professional in 1977, rising quickly to the European top. On 17 March 1979, in his hometown Banja Luka, he won the EBU title knocking down the defender, French boxer Gilbert Cohen, in the fourth round. He defended the title successfully four times, and lost on points in 1980 to then WBA champion Ayub Kalule, in a match regarded as one of toughest in the Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
ever. He eventually lost the EBU crown to Louis Acaries in 1981.
A heavy injury on the left eye effectively sealed his career. It is not exactly known which match caused it; by one account, it was a match with Louis Mincillo in 1983, and by another, it originated from the 1979 match with Sandy Torres in Zenica
Zenica
Zenica is an industrial city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the capital of the Zenica-Doboj Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity...
, and the condition worsened since. During the career, he suffered a number of other injuries: 26 bone fracture
Bone fracture
A bone fracture is a medical condition in which there is a break in the continuity of the bone...
s and damaged vocal cords, that cause him to speak silently and slowly. He is currently blind on his left eye. Beneš withdrew from the ring in 1983, fighting only two more exhibition matches in 1990s.
Aftermath
His brother was killed in 1992, during the Bosnian WarBosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. Marijan participated in the war. At the end of the war in 1995, Beneš (of non-Serb origin) was forced to leave
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
after a number of threats. He sold his possessions cheaply, and during the war he stayed in Medulin
Medulin
Medulin is a small town and municipality in the southern part of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia. As of the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 6,552, while the settlement proper has 2,633 inhabitants.Medulin's economy is based on tourism...
and Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, in poverty. He divorced from his wife Stana, who moved to Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
, Serbia, with their daughters Žanet and Marijana. As he put it, "everything turned around; people started hating each other overnight… there are great people, but the war helped me realize who is the real people and who is scum." He returned to Banja Luka in 1996, after the end of the war, continuing to live in modesty. "I lived in Croatia, people respected me, but I'm used to the old friends".
In 2004, a documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
of Beneš's life, titled Bio jednom jedan šampion (Once Upon a Time There Was a Champion) was recorded in the production of Independent Television Banja Luka. Despite modest ambitions, it toured all over the former Yugoslavia, and Beneš was frequent guest on promotions.
Beneš still lives in Banja Luka, in modesty, mostly financed by his sister Ljiljana. He published a book of poems Druga strana medalje (Another Side of Coin), devoted to sports, and he said that he has written a dozen more, and that he plans to publish them. He still trains every day and has healthy diet.