By Paul McCreath: When one looks at some of the fighters who have challenged for various world title belts over recent years you have to wonder how they were considered qualified. Many clearly did not belong in the same ring as the champion but can you believe that about 20 years ago there was a fighter who fought for a world title belt in spite of the fact that he had only one leg? This is the story of that fighter-Craig Bodzianowski.
Craig as you might suspect from his name was of Polish extraction but he was an American born with two normal legs in Orland Park Illinois,a suburb of Chicago.When he began his pro career as a 21 year old cruiserweight in 1982 he quickly built up a good following among the large Polish community around the Windy City area.After winning his first 13 bouts with 11 KOs he was looked at as a rising star with great potential.
All this great promise vanished in a flash in May of 1984 when Craig was terribly injured in an horrific motorcycle crash.His right leg was badly mangled and had to be amputated 9 inches below the knee. For any other athlete further hopes of a career in sports would have ended at this point but not for Craig.The “Gator” as he was known still had a lot of fight left in him. He was fitted with a prosthetic leg and resumed training.He managed to get his license to box back and in December of 1985 he returned to the pro ring against the same opponent he had met in his last bout before the accident,a trial horse named Francis Sargent. Their first bout had gone the distance but this time Craig won in 2 rounds.His career was back on track.What followed was 3 more wins including his best yet by 3 round KO over fellow undefeated Chicago area fighter Bobby Hitz. Bobby is the same guy who is now a successful promoter around Chicago.
Craig’s winning streak came to an end at 17 fights when former cruiser champ Alonzo Ratliff outpointed him by majority decision in August 1987. Ratliff had lost his title only 3 fights before.The Gator then added three more wins before his rematch with Ratcliff.Unfortunately the result was the same,a 10 round majority decision loss.After this came three more wins and a draw with veteran Andre Crowder.Craig set the record straight in a rematch by winning a 2nd round KO.
Next up in December 1989 was James Warring a former kick boxer with a 9-1 pro record as a boxer.Warring won a unanimous decision and went on three fights later to win the IBF title from Johnny Nelson. If Craig was losing the odd fight he was at least losing to good fighters.This loss didn’t hurt him much because after one more tune-up win he was offered a title match with WBA champ Robert Daniels.In July 1990 Daniels won over 12 rounds to retain his title.This would be Craig’s last loss.He finished his career with 7 more wins before retiring at age 32 with a 31-4-1 record with 24 KOs. He was never stopped in his whole career and his only losses came against fighters who at one time or another held a world title belt.He may not have ever been a champion but for shear courage and fortitude there are few who could match Craig Bodzianowski. He should be very proud of his accomplishments and it is a pity we don’t have more like him today.
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