Tarmo Uusivirta

Tarmo Uusivirta

Personal information
Born	February 5, 1957
Died	December 13, 1999
Medal record Men’s Boxing Representing Finland World Amateur Championships 1978 Belgrade Middleweight 1982 Munich Middleweight European Amateur Championships 1979 Cologne Middleweight

Tarmo ("Tare") Tapani Uusivirta (February 5, 1957, Jyväskylä – December 13, 1999) was a Finnish boxer who won the European Amateur Championship in 1979 and fought professionally from 1982 to 1992.

Amateur career

In addition to the European Championship in 1979, Uusivirta won the silver medal in the World Championships in both 1978 and 1982. His hopes for Olympic glory were shattered at the 1980 Games in Moscow with a second round loss to the eventual bronze medalist Jerzy Rybicki. The referee stopped the contest in the second round after Uusivirta suffered a cut in the corner of his eye.

Altogether, Uusivirta fought 171 amateur bouts and won 150 of them.

Professional career

Uusivirta started his professional boxing career in 1982. In 1986, he fought a draw with the then reigning European Champion Alex Blanchard in a non-title match. In 1987, he won the future European Champion James Cook. In 1988, he faced Alex Blanchard again, this time for the IBF European Super Middleweight Title. The match ended in a draw. In 1992, Uusivirta was offered a chance to fight James Cook for the EBU (European) super middleweight title. However, Uusivirta suffered an injury shortly before the match and had to give up the close bout in the 7th round. Uusivirta's professional boxing record was 31 fights, 24 wins (16 knock outs), 4 losses and 3 draws.

After career

After finishing his career Uusivirta continued living near the boxing sports. However, he grew bitter and said that if he'd had a chance to go back he would never go into professional boxing. Eventually, his alcohol problem cost him his job as a fireman. Uusivirta committed suicide at the age of 42 in 1999.

References

• sports-reference