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Bobby Czyz, (born February 10, 1962), is a
Poland|Polish-United States|American boxing|boxer.
A New Jersey native, he is both a former world
light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.

He was a member of the United States amateur
boxing team that sadly died in the LOT Polish
Airlines plane crash in Poland in 1980. However,
an auto accident one week before the fatal trip
prevented him from being on that plane.

Czyz had a quick start to his professional boxing
career in the early 1980s and he was soon in line
for a shot vs. world middleweight champion Marvin
Hagler. He had to start from scratch, however,
after suffering a 10-round loss at the hands of
veteran Mustafa Hamsho in November 1982.

He went up in weight, put another string of wins
together, and in September of 1986, he finally
found himself in a ring with a world champion,
International Boxing Federation|IBF light
heavyweight champion Slobodan Kacar, who was
destroyed by Czyz's bombs in 5 rounds.

Czyz made three exciting defenses - a one-round
annihilation of David Sears, a see-saw
second-round KO of Willie Edwards, and a
fifth-round TKO of Jim McDonald - before taking on
'Prince' Charles Williams in October 1987.  Czyz
scored an early knockdown of Williams, yet the
challenger not only stayed in the fight, but also
hammered shut Czyz' left eye on way to scoring a
TKO victory and thus seizing the title after eight
rounds of boxing.

Czyz then lost a decision to Dennis Andries in May
1988, followed by a couple of victories, in turn
followed by two cracks at the world title in 1989.
 Czyz, despite truly good efforts on his part in
both challenges, lost both of them - a 12-round
decision to Virgil Hill in North Dakota for the
WBA version in March, and a 10th-round TKO loss to
Williams in an IBF title rematch in June.

Czyz went on to stop then-undefeated Andrew
Maynard in seven rounds in June 1990, then jumped
up to cruiserweight.  He challenged Robert Daniels
for Daniels' World Boxing Association|WBA world
cruiserweight championship in March 1991, and won
a unanimous decision.  Two defenses, against Bash
Ali and Donny Lalonde, were made (both by
unanimous decision) before Czyz vacated the title.

After being stopped by David Izegwire in August
1994, Czyz retired and became a television boxing
analyst. With his new career, Czyz has worked
alongside Steve Albert and Ferdie Pacheco,
covering fights in many locations worldwide. In
December 1994, he covered the first world title
fight ever held in Ecuador as a member of
Showtime's crew.

In 1996, he made a brief comeback as a competitive
boxer in the heavyweight division, but lost by
knockout in six rounds to Evander Holyfield and
quickly retired again.  Czyz has continued doing
color commentary for Showtime, and loves signing
autographs for his fans. He doesn't contemplate
another return to the ring as a boxing|boxer.

On February 6 of 2003, Czyz was stopped by New
Jersey police and charged with drunken driving. On
March 8 of that year, he was sentenced to 10 days
in jail for the charge.

He has since been inducted into the
Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.