33-year old Hungarian former WBO and WBA regular supermiddle champ [Karoly Balzsay] (pictured) have announced his retirement. Balzsay sites injuries, the recent financial problems with Universum and a feeling of that it’s long way back to the top as reasons for leaving boxing.

Karoly holds a college degree in sports management and is currently involved in a program of training kids and feels he’s leaving professional boxing at the right time.

 

Balzsay goes out with a record of 25-2 and his last fight - in April 2012 - defeated stablemate Dimtri Sartison in what probably was his career best performance. After that a unification bout vs interim champ Brian Magee was on the cards but never happend and as it was Karoly’s last payday was reportedly a stepaside fee to allow Brian Magee to be crowned regular WBA champ and thus open the door to Magee vs Kessler.

 

Balzsay was an amateur standout and represented Hungary in the Olympic Games 2000 and 2004 before turning pro with Spotlight Boxing in 2004. In 2009 he won the WBO title with a points win over Denis Inkin but suffered an upset loss to Robert Stieglitz later the same year. In another upset he lost to then stablemate Eduard Gutknecht and there were rumors of a serious back injury that forced him to pull out of a EBU title fight against Amin Asikainen. But as stablemate and Dimitri Sartison got injured Balzsay stepped in on short notice and beat current WBA interim champ Stas Kashtanov to win the WBA regular title that Sartison had been forced to relinquish.