March 19, 2022 -  Nikolina Ćaćić, an Olympian and Croatia's best female boxer, secured Croatia's first medal at the Under-22 European Boxing Championships in Poreč by qualifying for the semifinals.

Nikolina Ćaćić, who has already achieved historic achievements at the age of 21, brought the first medal to Croatia women's boxing and placed as the first Croatian female boxer in history at the Olympic Games. 

Ćaćić was the world and European runner-up in the juniors, and she added another big medal to the already impressive collection. After winning the quarterfinal fight in the category up to 52 kg against the three-time European and world champion in the junior categories Marie Moorehouse, Nikolina now awaits an even easier fight on paper. Ćaćić will fight Ukraine's Sabina Novosad for the finals on Sunday. While she came two steps away from gold, she has ensured a minimal bronze medal. 

Unfortunately, the other two Croatian boxers were not equally lucky. Dea Bolanča was stopped, while Pitbull Split member Ana Stojanović also lost in her debut performance at the European Championships in the category up to 63 kg after a great fight against Finland's Naiima Bulhan. Stojanović, a former taekwondo fighter and kickboxer with a short boxing experience and too few fights at the international level, firmly opposed the excellent Finnish boxer. 

Saturday brings an opportunity for Croatian boxers to secure three more medals. The most is expected from the World Championship quarterfinalist, Gabriel Veočić, who will face Lukas Ferneza from Slovakia in the category up to 75 kilograms. Noah Ježek will also fight his quarterfinal match against Mateusz Urban from Poland in the 71 kg category, while 18-year-old Deni Alagić will look for a way to the medal in the 63.5 kg category against Kerem Ozmen from Turkey.

Source: Fight SiteFight Site

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September 10, 2021 - A Croatian boxing spectacle will be witnessed tonight thanks to Filip Hrgović, Željko Mavrović, and Peter Milas!

Filip Hrgović has his first fight this year in Klagenfurt tonight. Before him, in one of the pre-fights, Željko Mavrović enters the ring for the first time since 1998, and the great evening of Croatian boxing is completed by Petar Milas, whose opponent in Paris is one of the best young heavyweights of today, Tony Yoka, reports Index.hr.

Boxing has not been in the center of attention of the Croatian sports public for a long time, but tonight's program is an excellent reason to change that for at least one day.

Hrgović's first fight in 10 months

Hrgović had not fought since November last year when he defeated Rydell Booker in the fifth round by technical knockout and formally won the IBF International heavyweight title in the US. 

Since then, Hrgović and his camp have complained that no one wants to accept a fight against him, picking on some of the top heavyweights who could bring him closer to fighting for the world title. In the meantime, he duly ignored Alen Babić's challenges, justifying that he was below his level, and then arranged a fight with Montenegrin Marko Radonjić, the 229th heavyweight on BoxRec's list.

Radonjić is a 31-year-old from Cetinje who has 22 professional fights and 22 victories behind him, all by knockout. The ratio seems scary, more impressive than Hrgović's (12 wins, 10 knockouts), but Hrgović is by far the most renowned fighter he has ever encountered.

At yesterday's weigh-in in the center of Klagenfurt, Hrgović weighed 112 kilograms, which is in line with his usual weight for fights, while Radonjić weighed slightly more (113.2 kg).

Mavrović returns after 23 years

At the same Matchroom boxing event, Željko Mavrović will return, who last fought in 1998 for the world title against Lennox Lewis. Croatian boxing fans remember the seventh round, in which Mavrović had the fantastic Briton on the ropes. Still, he failed to finish it and eventually lost by a unanimous decision of the judges.

And such a defeat, the first after 27 consecutive victories, was quite an undertaking given Lewis' power at the time, and many expected his career to flourish after that, as he had not yet entered his 30s, the best years for a boxer. He is now in his 50s, and they are long behind him, but after watching the clash of the legends between Mike Tyson and Roy Jones, he became motivated, and now his ultimate goal is to arrange a fight against Tyson.

Mavrović went from boxing to entrepreneurship, but his business with macrobiotics failed. In recent years, he has been sought after in numerous roles in the world of boxing, but he has not held any of them, except for commentary on RTL. He left it to others for tonight because he would be on the opposite side of the camera.

His opponent is the 26-year-old Georgian Ramazi Gogichashvili, a "journeyman" who fights often and mostly loses. He has won 14 fights in his career, lost 35, and two ended in a draw, but even such a ratio is misleading as he has won only two of 26 fights in the last five years. He was last caught by Croatian boxer Agron Smakići two weeks ago and knocked out by Alen Babić two years ago.

At the official weigh-in, Mavrović weighed 99.2 kg, and Gogičašvili weighed significantly more - 111 kg.

The Croatian Boxing Federation did not issue a license to Mavrović, so tonight will be a revival fight.

Split's Milas faces Yoka

In Paris, a little further west at the Roland Garros tennis center, an event will take place where Peter Milas will fight the young French star Tony Yoka. Like that of Hrgović and Radonjić, it will be a clash of two undefeated boxers. Yoka has won all ten fights (eight by knockout) and Milas all 15 (11 by knockout).

Like Hrgović, the 26-year-old from Split owns the international champion belt, but according to the IBO version. This will be his first fight in almost two years when he defeated South African Johnny Muller by a unanimous decision. Yoka has a path similar to Hrgović's, whom he defeated in the semifinals of the Olympic Games in Rio 2016. Milas is conceived as one of his opponents on the way to the world title.

Milas fights with about 100 kilograms, so this time as well. He weighed in at 100.8 kg, and Yoka at 108.3.

Of all three Croatian fights tonight, the first on the program is Mavrović's, expected at 19:30, with a broadcast on RTL 2.

Filip Hrgović should start at around 22:30, and Milas should be in the ring against Yoka at around 22:00. RTL will broadcast these two fights on its first channel.

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June 6, 2021 - Luka Plantić is the first Croatian boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo!  

Luka Plantić (24) won a spot in the quarterfinals of the Olympic qualifiers in the light heavyweight category (81 kg) against Irishman Emmat Brennan and became the first Croatian boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, reports T.portal. 

Plantić started the match aggressively against the powerful Brennan, and in the first minute, the referee counted on the Irish boxer. The Sesvete fighter kept his advantage until the end, and all five referees gave him their vote and unanimously declared him the winner.

At the beginning of the qualifications in London in 2020, Plantić defeated Austrian seed Umar Dzambekov, and on Friday, broke the Armenian Gora Nersesyan in the first round.

"We worked for this moment for a year and were preparing for the qualifiers. I came fully ready, made great progress, and knew that no one could stop me. The quarterfinals against the Irish boxer was like a World Cup final to me, a lot of pressure, and as I announced - I knew I was a bigger fighter than him and than anyone and that I would prove it. It wasn’t easy; he’s excellent, he didn’t give up all three rounds. I had the strength for a few more rounds, but after the first two, it was clear that I had a big advantage and that I could also save a little for the semi-finals. The fight with Whittaker will be much more relaxed, without pressure, now I will enjoy boxing, and we will celebrate the success upon our return to Croatia," said Luka.

Earlier, Croatian boxer Marko Milun (24) failed to qualify for the Olympic qualifiers quarterfinals in Paris in the super heavyweight category (+91 kg). In the round of 16, Milun lost by unanimous decision of the refs (5-0) to the favorite of the category, Briton Fraser Clarke. The more experienced Clarke managed to impose his style of fighting and used more weight. From such a static, dirty fight with a lot of pushing and wrestling, pulling and holding Milun, Clarke managed to place two strong shots in the first and second rounds, forcing the ref to count Milun twice. On his Facebook profile, the modest athlete from Dicmo, a member of Leonard from Zagreb, realistically assessed the long-awaited fight with the powerful Briton:

"Today marks the end of a major chapter in my life. Everything I did, I did precisely because of this opportunity that I unfortunately missed. As for the fight, I never got away with it, so that I won't do it this time either. We both did our best, and in the heat of the fight, I lost consciousness at the very beginning. I suspect a punctured eardrum, but whatever it is, I was not fully aware of the fight," said Milun.

He is left hoping that he can go to Tokyo through the World Boxing Federation ranking list because only four super heavyweights will qualify directly from Paris, i.e., only the semifinalists.

Nikolina Ćaćić, in the 57 kg category, will fight in the quarterfinals for Tokyo on Sunday, June 6, in the afternoon program.

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