Jurgen Lutz a pioneering trailblazer from Germany

Jurgen Lutz passed away June 13, 2019, a pioneering trailblazer from Germany. He founded the iconic Bulldog Gym in Karlsruhe in 1982    He was a world leader in the martial arts world before he turned his attention to women’s boxing.

As Regina Halmich mentor and coach he steered her in the way of success through Universum Box Promotions. He became vice president of the WIBF and later co-founded and became president of the GBU.

He founded the ‘Shooting League’ a German/European female boxing league that promoted and discovered many of Europe’s boxing stars.

He also founded the ‘Youth Challenger’ program, a league for young fighters in 2003. He was the editor of ‘Lady Boxing Magazine’ a German publication.

Barbara Buttrick, co-founded the WIBF with Jimmy Finn in 1993 and the GBU with Jurgen Lutz in 1997.

Jurgen,   his best-known protégés were Regina Halmich and Vincent Feigenbutz,  both of whom he built into successful professional athletes. He made Halmich’s boxing career possible and he was Halmich’s first trainer, mentor and manager.  His great commitment led to the development of women’s boxing. In 2005 he looked after 87 female boxers and had turned 20 women into boxing professionals.

In 1993 he created the Shooting League of the European Newcomer Womenboxing Organization (ENWO) based in Manchester . This association should enable women to train in  boxing in the semi-professional field and to fight within a league. Due to considerable pressure from the other camps and associations, this was dissolved again in 1999.

He was the co-founder and vice president of the Women’s International Boxing Federation (WIBF) . Through the connection of the WIBF to the Global Boxing Union , he was also president there. Within the WIBF he founded and led the Young Challenger team as a youth league from 2003.

He was also the editor of Lady Box magazine from 1998 until he was finally was hired in 2001 and host of the international event Boxing LIVE – The Next Generation.

Jimmy Finn told WBAN, “I came in contact with Jurgen in 1993 after a friend of his John Brokaw from the USA visited me in London.  John was a USA Air force commander and they had a base in Karlsruhe, so he knew Jurgen. They were also connected through the martial arts world.”

Jurgen was the founder and President of the WKA (World Kickboxing Association), and competed in Karate from a young age.  Because of his interest in martial arts he spent some time in Thailand in the late 1970’s and 80’s.

He founded the Bulldog Gym in his hometown Karlsruhe in 1982. It was a multi-purpose martial arts gym, and the first Thai Boxing gym in Germany.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s Jurgen had many German, European and world champions of Kickboxing, Karate and Thai boxing from his gym, and it was one of the strongest in Germany.

He had a number of female participants including a young rising female kickboxing star, Regina Halmich. She was the one that most enjoyed full contact competition.

Finn said, “Through his contacts in the United Kingdom and Ireland he had heard of my interest on the female side of these sports. However we hadn’t made contact until John Brokaw introduced us in late 1993.  As it happened I had sponsored a boxing match for Deirdre Gogarty in Ireland in 1991 because I was friends with P J Bennis who owned a gym in Limerick, and I also owned a store there.   I set up and operated a chain of office stores in Ireland that I ran for almost 20 years before selling them in 1992. I then spent a year in Australia, before I returned to live in London in early 1993.”