Who is Tom Schwarz?
The eagerly-awaited announcement of the next Tyson Fury fight was met with some disappointment from fight fans when the unheralded Tom Schwarz was named.
So BBN decided to track down the boxer plucked from obscurity to get to know him better ahead of the June 15 meeting with ‘The Gypsy King’ at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Here’s 10 interesting facts that you might not already know about the German:
Early Years
Born on 29/04/1984 in Halle an der Saale, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany; Tom now lives in nearby Magdeburg, which is right in the middle of Hanover and Berlin.
Explosive Start!
His professional debut was six years ago on August 29, 2013, against 34-year-old Mario Schmidt, who he astonishingly knocked out in just 20 seconds!
KO Count
The heavy-hitter has scored eight first-round KOs; three second-round KOs; two third-round KOs; and three fourth-round KOs; totalling 16 stoppages from 24 bouts overall, which presents a 67% KO ratio. His last six fights have all ended early.
The X Factor
Schwarz used to date German singer Annemarie Eilfield, who was a product of the German version of X Factor.
Prizefighter
In his sixth pro fight, less than a year after his debut, a young Schwarz entered a four-man heavyweight tournament and won by beating Lukas Filka (6-3) in the semi-final and Ante Verunica (2-0) in the final.
Coming of Age
In his 15th professional fight on November 15, 2015, Schwarz challenged for his first professional title against fellow unbeaten German Ilja Mezencev (10-0) for the vacant WBO Youth world heavyweight title. Schwarz was down in the final seconds of round one but went on to stop the baby-faced Mezencev in the seventh following a series of unanswered right hands that left him bouncing of the ropes.
Strap Season
He defended the WBO Youth world heavyweight title twice and added the WBC version on his second defence against undefeated Dennis Lewandowski (9-0).
He then added the WBO Intercontinental title to his growing hoard on April 22, 2017, with a second round stoppage of 40-year-old Bosnian Adnan Redzovic (18-1-0).
Next was the German heavyweight title which he bagged with a fourth-round TKO win over Samir Nebo (10-1-1), which he defended once, along with his WBO I-C belt, against Dereck Chisora opponent Senad Gashi (16-0) in 2018. Gashi was disqualified in the sixth-round for repeated head-butts.
Four succesful defences of his WBO ranking title against opposition with a combined record of 44-2-1 awarded him the WBO #2 ranking he has today that consequently earned him his shot at former Lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Stats
The heavyweight is 6ft 6” tall, has fought 89 professional rounds of a scheduled 184, resulting in a 67% ratio. His vanquished opponents combined have a record of 279-184-13.
His victories can be summarised as: 15 KOs (8 TKOs), six unanimous decisions, one points decision, one retired and one disqualified.
Record-breaker
Schwarz has ruined the unbeaten record of six of his opponents – Ante Verunica (2-0); Vaclav Pejsar (4-0); Ilja Mezencev (10-0); Dennis Lewandowski (9-0); Senad Gashi (16-0); Julian Fernandez (11-0).
SES Boxing
He is part of the same stable as Robin Krasniqi (49-5), who has held the WBO European; WBO International and WBA Continental light-heavyweight titles; as well as the WBA Inter-Continental, WBO Inter-Continental and EBU (European) super-middleweight straps.
European heavyweight champion and Dereck Chisora conqueror Agit Kabayel (19-0) is also part of their talented stable.