Marek Piotrowski vs. Don Wilson
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| Date | November 4, 1989 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park, Illinois, USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | Vacant FFKA and PKC Light Heavyweight Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Piotrowski defeated Wilson via split decision after twelve rounds. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Marek Piotrowski vs. Don "The Dragon" Wilson was a light heavyweight kickboxing bout that took place in Chicago, Illinois, USA on November 4, 1989, in which heavy favourite Wilson lost in a surprise upset.
Marek Piotrowski had a storied amateur career in Europe, winning the gold medal in full contact kickboxing (-81 kg) at the W.A.K.O. World Championships 1987, before emigrating to Chicago, Illinois, USA and turning professional. In August 1989, he defeated Rick Roufus to win the PKC U.S. Middleweight Championship. This would be his last fight at middleweight, however, as he then moved up to light heavyweight to face Don "The Dragon" Wilson.
Wilson came from a karate and kung fu background and started his career fighting in his native Florida in 1974. After winning the Florida state and American titles, he took the WKA Light Heavyweight Championship of the World in October 1980 when he defeated Andy White by knockout. He had defended the title eight times by the time of the Piotrowski fight, and also took the KICK World Light Heavyweight title from Curtis Crandall and the WKA Cruiserweight World title from Maurice Smith in 1983. In October 1988, Wilson won the ISKA cruiserweight title by beating Rob Salazar, and then in March 1989 defeated Ferdinand Mack for the PKO World Light Heavyweight Championship.[1]
Although Piotrowski held an impressive win over Rick Roufus, he was considered a relative newcomer to the sport and an underdog against Wilson, who had defeated fighters such as Dennis Alexio, Branko Cikatić and Maurice Smith.