The first world professional boxing champion born in Ukraine

#sports #boxing It makes sense to talk about John Gutenko, a native of Rakhiv, who in 1914 became the world champion in bantamweight (up to 53.5 kg). He was known to the boxing world as Kid Williams, and the fans gave him the nickname “Baltimore Tiger“. Actually, two factors make our character Kid Williams - his birthplace and his surname. Here is what the Transcarpathian local historian Mykhailo Markovych wrote about him on Facebook: “In the world of American sports, he is known as Kid Williams and the “Baltimore Tiger“. But for us, he is more interesting as John Gutenko - this is the athlete's real name. And he was born on December 1, 1893, nowhere else than in our Transcarpathian Rakhiv, where he lived until the age of 11. His mother is German, his father is Danish. It is interesting how fate brought them to Transcarpathia...“. This information needs clarification. We do not know the champion's real name: in all sources he appears as John or Jonathan, but it is very difficult to imagine that a Slavic boy