Rudi Lubbers

Rudi Lubbers
Lubbers in 1965
Born	Rudolfus Josefus Maria Lubbers (1945-08-17) 17 August 1945 Heerhugowaard, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Statistics
Weight class	Heavyweight
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Boxing record
Total fights	36
Wins	28
Wins by KO	13
Losses	8

Rudi Lubbers (born 17 August 1945) is a Dutch retired professional boxer who competed at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. In 1964 he finished ninth as a light heavyweight and in 1968 fifth as a heavyweight.

Amateur career

1964 Olympic record

Below are the results of Rudi Lubbers, as a Light Heavyweight at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics:

• First round-bout lost to Cosimo Pinto (Italy) via points decision

1968 Olympic record

Below are the results of Rudi Lubbers, as heavyweight at the 1968 Mexico Olympics:

• First round-bout won against Talaat Dahshan (Egypt) via DQ
• Second round-bout lost to Joaquin Rocha (Mexico) via points decision

Professional career

Lubbers turned pro in 1970, and won the Dutch heavyweight title in 1971, which he held until his retirement in 1981. Lubbers competed twice for the European heavyweight title, the first time in 1973, against Joe Bugner and the second time in 1975, versus the Italian Domenico Adinolfi but fell short both times. His most notable fight happened on October 20, 1973, against Muhammad Ali in Jakarta. It was evident during the fight, Lubbers was clearly no match to Ali; Lubbers lasted the full 12 rounds and lost via Decision. Lubbers last fought Gordon Racette on November 27, 1981, when he lost via Technical knockout in the third round and retired soon after.

Personal life

After retiring Lubbers moved to Portugal, he was arrested in 1986 on charges of drug smuggling. He served a sentence of four years and was released from prison in 1990. Upon his release, he tried to make a living working in carnivals with his wife Ria. In his later years Lubbers became homeless and in 2009 he was living in a run-down caravan with his 20 dogs. As of 2018, Lubbers was living in Bulgaria with Ria and their 16 stray dogs in a malfunctioning van which lacks water, electricity and sanitary facilities.