Tarmo Tapani Uusivirta (February 5, 1957, Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä

Jyväskylä is the capital of Central Finland and the largest city on the Finnish Lakeland, north-east of Tampere and north of Helsinki, on northern coast of lake Päijänne. The city has been continuously one of the most rapidly growing cities in Finland since World War II. The city is surrounded...

 – December 13, 1999) was a Finnish boxer who won the European Amateur Championship in 1979 and fought professionally from 1982 to 1992.

Amateur career

In addition to the European Championship in 1979, Uusivirta won the silver medal in the World Championships in both 1978 and 1982. His hopes for Olympic glory were shattered at the 1980 Games

Boxing at the 1980 Summer Olympics

Boxing at the 1980 Summer Olympics took place in the Indoor Stadium of the Olympiski Sports Complex in Moscow. The boxing schedule began on 20 July and ended on 2 August...

 in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 with a second round loss to the eventual bronze medalist Jerzy Rybicki

Jerzy Rybicki

Jerzy Rybicki is a retired boxer from Poland, who represented his native country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, Canada...

. The referee stopped the contest in the second round after Uusivirta suffered a cut in the corner of his eye.

Altogether, Uusivirta fought 171 amateur bouts and won 150 of them.

Professional career

Uusivirta started his professional boxing career in 1982. In 1986, he fought a draw with the then reigning European Champion Alex Blanchard in a non-title match. In 1987, he won the future European Champion James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

. In 1988, he faced Alex Blanchard again, this time for the IBF European Super Middleweight Title. The match ended in a draw. In 1992, Uusivirta was offered a chance to fight James Cook for the EBU (European) super middleweight title. However, Uusivirta suffered an injury shortly before the match and had to give up the close bout in the 7th round.
Uusivirta's professional boxing record was 31 fights, 24 wins (16 knock outs), 4 losses and 3 draws.

After career

After finishing his career Uusivirta continued living near the boxing sports. However, he grew bitter and said that if he'd had a chance to go back he would never go into professional boxing. Eventually, his alcohol problem cost him his job as a fireman. Uusivirta committed suicide at the age of 42 in 1999.