Heavyweight Boxer Krystian “Misiu” Dzienski: A Closer Look

By Donny “Golden Boy” Lalonde

Krystian’s son calls him “Misiu”, which is Polish for “Teddy Bear”. Since phonetics differs from English to Polish, his last name of “Dzienski” is pronounced “Jenski”. While not precise, this pronunciation is as close as Westerners will get.

We are sticking with the Teddy Bear handle for Krystian because it defines him as a person in so many ways. His kind, gentile demeanor lends itself to the nickname. Krystian is a very endearing and intelligent person. That being said, in the ring, he has an ability to draw into the other part of his persona, invoking ferociousness similar to a bear protecting its cub. You do not want to get too close to this “Teddy” Bear. You are challenging his family’s security by doing so.

Krystian’s father Andrzej is a very close friend and business partner of mine. When Andrzej [Andre] told Ronnie that Krystian was completing his college studies and his next goal was to explore a career in professional boxing, Ronnie suggested me as an advisor. I went to Ronnie’s home, we all met over a nice family BBQ and Krystian and I connected immediately. We spoke of his interest in boxing. I suggested that at 25 years old he is a late starter but that as Trevor Berbick (and most recently the current WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder, who also had a late start to boxing) proved that it is not impossible to become Heavyweight Champion of the World in spite of starting a career at a time many had decided to retire, or at least in some cases, should have retired.

The first step was to bring Krystian to Costa Rica, which is where I live, to explore his competitive nature as well as to challenge his internal reserve. The heat, the hills, and the gym being in San Jose, with an elevation similar to Denver, Colorado, all proved to be challenging for most athletes, including Krystian.

I put Krystian through rigorous routines, including sparring with some very tough boxers in gyms around the city. I am happy to say that he passed all those tests. It is one thing for a boxer to be a good athlete, or be fast, strong or have a good mind for the sport. But there are other essential ingredients if he should obtain success. Those qualities are not discernable by the naked eye. The components I was testing for are crudely but accurately defined as balls, heart, chin, guts, intestinal fortitude, desire, capacity to take a punch and keep focused and moving forward. As Mike Tyson so famously said “everyone wants to be a boxer until they get punched in the face”. Not everyone has the constitution to absorb punishment and continue to be focused and or interested in waging battle.

Krystian passed all the tests admirably and we started on the journey of developing fundamentals. After time doing this in Costa Rica, Krystian returned to Miami where he relocated his family, wife Paulina and 5 year old son Niko (phonetically translated from the Polish version of his name Nikodem), as a step toward positioning himself to develop his skills in the sport in a country he felt would best suit his needs.

Krystian decided this was the path he wanted to take, I was on board for this exciting ride with this gentle giant (Krystian is 6′ 5″ and 240 lbs). Andrzej saw in his son what he felt he needed to continue to support this journey in exploring his potential to be a successful professional boxer.

Before his death, Angelo Dundee mentored Matt Biamonte for about two-and-a-half years. After his death, we spent a number of months in his new Main Street Gym that Matt moved to. Matt was just starting his new business and the time he had to commit to that endeavor as well as developing his clientele in both boxing as well as boxing related fitness. Since I lived in Costa Rica and Krystain needed one- on- one training, we decided to start working with Jose Ribalta. I spent a lot of time with Krystian when he and I were in the same location, training him and passing on what I could. However, he needed more consistent one on one time and Jose stepped up to the plate.

Jose worked with Krystian for about 8 months and passed on the wisdom he had acquired from his notable career. We had to look around for another possibility for Krystian as finding sparring in Miami for a heavyweight was very difficult. It was my understanding that Matt was developing quite a stable of them at this point. I felt that a boxer who didn’t have amateur experience (as I didn’t relatively speaking only having had 15 amateur fights) needed to learn everything possible in the gym and the best way to do that is LOTS of sparring. Eventually, we had a different philosophical concept of what strategy and “style” Krystian would be most successful with, so we have since moved on from that relationship.

Trying to fight professionally without an amateur background can be a regulatory challenge in this day and age and Florida has stringent rules that suggest a boxer has to fight amateur before fighting professionally. Since I had no interest in an amateur career and had a successful professional one without much of an amateur career, I supported the idea of moving on to where we could get started in the professional aspect of the sport verses having to compete and spend time as an amateur. I drove all over Canada and the US to find sparring. When I fought Championship fights, people wondered where my ability to battle fighters that had so much more experience at Championship levels came from…I did my learning in the gyms with great and experienced fighters. It wasn’t the easiest path, but it worked for me.

Enter Lou Savarese, who many remember had an amazing career in professional boxing. His most notable fight was losing a close decision to George Foreman. His promotional company is called Savarese Promotions. Lou has been a friend since the early days of our careers, and now lives and promotes in Houston, Texas. The Houston commission allows boxers, after they showed an adequate skill level in the gym, an opportunity to fight professionally without an amateur back ground. Lou helped us overcome that challenge and Krystian is now a licensed, undefeated professional. That being said with a late start Krystian did need to find out the realities of professional boxing, so we did not make Krystian’s entry into the sport a walk in the park.

In Houston there are many more heavyweights for Krystian to spar with. I spent time with him as a trainer but again, needing day- in and day- out training, we needed to have another trainer for Krystain. Bobby Benton, who also trained Lou later in his career and currently trains a number of exciting up and coming professionals, was introduced to us. I watched Bobby work with his fighters. I spoke to him and realized we think very much alike in how and what is needed to develop a young talent. I believe a boxer needs to learn a number of different approaches to the game and learn from a number of trainers until the exact right relationship for a longer term relationship is found.
Under Bobby, Krystian prepared for his first fight against Jerome Aiken. Aiken had over 100 wins as an amateur Super Heavyweight. Bobby helped Krystian get ready for the fight. It was a great learning experience for Krystian as he had to overcome being hurt early, had to be patient and apply what he had learned in his preparation of over a year for his first fight and gut it out for a decision victory. A lesser person would not have shown the resolve that Krystian showed in his first ever bout. This is the heart that I saw when he made it to the top of the hill in Costa Rica.

His Chin was tested, his heart was tested, and his intestinal fortitude was tested. He passed all with flying colors. There will be many more tests of those same attributes over the years. Bobby works Krystian hard in the gym and Krystian is getting some very tough and valuable sparring in with Nagy Aguilara, a seasoned veteran who has had great battles with many top fighters, most notably a tough fight with multiple World Champion Tomasz Adamek. The tests happen daily and the guys have been awesome in helping Krystian learn as he goes.
There will be much higher mountains to climb and much bigger obstacles to overcome. He will have to face overcoming injuries and keeping focused on this dynamic endeavor, but we are on our way and I am so happy to be involved with helping a young man live a dream. Krystian’s journey has just begun. With a lot of help from a lot of friends, Matt Biamonte, Jose Ribalta, Lou Savarese, Bobby Benton and all the guys he has sparred with as well as the undying support of his father Andrej, his mother Olga, Paulina and the fans that saw him in his professional debut, this is a journey you will want to pay attention to.

We have jumped the first hurdle. Next up is July 9th on another Savarese Promotion in Houston. This is going to be an exciting journey and I invite you all to enjoy it with me. I will post his fight videos on this site as I get them and as we progress and overcome future challenges. Krystian is living his dream and may be a Teddy Bear at heart with a kind soul but in the ring he will become a protector of his dreams and family. Get ready to enjoy this ride with us. It is going to be an exciting one, one we can all enjoy together from the beginning.

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