Marek Piotrowski boxer

Marek "The Punisher" Piotrowski (born 14 August 1964) is a Polish retired heavyweight kickboxer and boxer. He is a former ten time kickboxing world champion.At around the age of 13 or 14, Piotrowski studied jujutsu achieving green belt before becoming interested in Kyokushin karate when he was at age of 18. In 1984 (in under 25 years old class) he won the Polish Juniors karate championship, following this up the next year by winning the Polish Senior championship. He became a karate black belt 1st dan in July 1993. His official karate record is 13 fights, with 13 victories.At the beginning of 1987, Piotrowski began to focus on kickboxing, in particular, full-contact, which was prohibited in Poland at the time. On 11 October 1987 he entered the 81  kg category of the 6th W.A.K.O. World Championships, a tournament for amateur kickboxers, held in Munich, Germany. Piotrowski won the competition defeating Hungarian Károly Halász in the final. Later that year he entered and won the Full Contact Kickboxing World Cup '87 in Budapest, Hungary and also won the Polish national kickboxing title. He had several more fights in 1988 in Poland and Europe, amassing a 17-0 amateur kickboxing record.In 1988 Piotrowski decided to leave Poland for the USA where he was determined to become a professional world champion, something he was unable to do in his own country due to the Communist-era rules on professionalism. He had his first professional fight in Rockford, Illinois in October 1988 against Bob Handegan whom he defeated via knockout in the 4th round. On 19 August 1989, in his fifth fight on American soil, Piotrowski sent shockwaves through the kickboxing community by outworking the reigning national champion Rick "The Jet" Roufus in a 10th round unanimous decision win. Piotrowski took Roufus's P.K.C. middleweight U.S belt.As a result of his upset victory over Roufus, Piotrowski had his world title shot against the legendary Don "The Dragon" Wilson. On 4 November 1989, in Chicago, Illinois he defeated Wilson and took his belts, becoming the world champion of the P.K.C. and F.F.K.A kickboxing organizations, while Wilson had to vacate his I.S.K.A. world title due to the loss (which Marek did not gain due to it not being an I.S.K.A. sanctioned event). As a result of his victories over two world class fighters, Piotrowski earned the nickname "The Punisher".