Boxer who went 12 rounds with Muhammad Ali. An appreciation

KARL Mildenberger, who has died aged 80, was a European heavyweight champion who took Muhammad Ali to 12 rounds in a 1960s world heavyweight title bid at a time when The Greatest was in his prime. Mildenberger was arguably - after former 1930s world champion Max Schmeling - the best world class heavyweight boxer produced by Germany in the 20th century.

A protegee of an uncle who had been a German amateur champion, Karl Mildenberger combined shrewd ring nous with a toughness and resilience that enabled him to last against Ali when Britain's Henry Cooper twice only managed to go five rounds on the two occasions that the pair clashed inside the ropes.

Indeed, when Mildenberger challenged Ali for the latter's world crown in 1966, had the gutsy German boxer won that contest then he - and not American Michael Moorer - would have become the first ever southpaw fighter to win boxing's ultimate prize.

Mildenberger first captured the attention of British boxing fans when he challenged Welsh hardman, Dick Richardson, for the European heavyweight crown but it was not a happy experience. The ruthless ring operator Richardson knocked out the German challenger in the first round.

However, that result should not be used to deny Mildenberger's own inherent qualities at world level - a view taken by Max Schmeling who was at ringside to support Mildenberger in his 1966 challenge for Ali's title. Mildenberger actually hurt Ali several times with stiff hooks to the liver area.

After defeating Italian Sante Amonte for the European heavyweight crown in 1964 Mildenberger subsequently held the title for two years until 1966.

Neither should it be forgotten by British fans that Mildenberger burst the bubble of English big punching Billy Walker. When the duo clashed in 1967 in London, Walker was outboxed and stopped inside eight punishing rounds which left the heavily touted Englishman a beaten and bewildered man.

Again, although the German was eliminated in a seven-man tournament to find a successor to Ali in 1968, the Greatest having been stripped of his title outside the ring for purely political reasons - it took someone of the ultra toughness of Argentinian hardman Oscar Bonavena who went 14 rounds with Ali to beat Mildenberger.

Mildenberger's overall record of 53 wins, six losses and three drawn verdicts is adequate testimony to his boxing class.

He may not have reached the dizzy levels of business success that his sometime mentor Schmeling did after becoming Coca Cola's main franchisee in West Germany in the 1950s, but Mildenberger was frugal with his savings, scorning the kind of extravagant conspicuous consumption that has proved over the years to be a principal reason for many ex boxing champions' descent into penury. Witness Mildenberger and his wife Miriam - who survives him - eschewing fancy suburban splendour and living in a less salubrious industrial area while keeping a tight control of the boxer's hard-won financial resources.

BRIAN DONALD