TVP WEEKLY: The environment of boxers, fistfighters, fighters in the broadest sense, is not - to put it mildly - one of the holiest. Conflicts with the law are not unusual. You in this environment, on the one hand, had a reputation as a loving and caring father. And on the other: you are out of prison once again.

KRZYSZTOF „DIABLO” WŁODARCZYK: A lot of friends told me: "Krzysiek, so that you at least go to jail for some serious paragraph. They made you a criminal for driving without a licence." Did I cause an accident during that time? Did I hit a pedestrian? Did I kill? Was I under the influence of alcohol?

Do you remember the situation when a woman was hit on the zebra crossing by the car of a well-known journalist? The car was without inspection and the journalist without a driving licence. He was acquitted. I could give many examples where the perpetrator was in a worse legal position than me and was treated quite differently.

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I am the last person who wants to judge the judicial system in Poland, but in an identical case, one is treated as the worst criminal and the other is acquitted. To be clear: I admit to everything, and I know I did wrong. I regret getting behind the wheel at the time. I suffered extremely harsh consequences for it.

You once wrote a report on the embezzlements of Emil O., who allegedly took out more than half a billion zlotys from private and public entities. And he spent less time in prison than I did. He was supposed to have defrauded half of Poland and driven thousands of people into bankruptcy, I drove my car without a document. Is it the same scale? Because the punishment is the same.

Do you feel embittered? Bitterness? You have lost a year from your private life, but also serious contracts and big money.

Please bear in mind that I am already in my old age. 41 to be exact. For me, 9 months in jail means at least 3 years of professional career lost. No training, no diet, no preparation. In sporting terms, this is impossible to make up for. During this time I lost several lucrative fights. A lot of advertising contracts. My time for personal progression has escaped me.

But there is also a private life that is linked to my income. After all, I provide for my family by going out into the ring. If I don't go out, we have nothing to live on. And the worst thing, which cannot be converted into money - the emotional issues of my loved ones. Mr Karol, you don't even know how my family, my children, experienced it. Would you want your loved ones to treat you like a criminal? Would you want your child to ask why he doesn't have a dad?

Mr Krzysztof, why did you get into that car in the first place, even though you had a court ban on driving since 2018? ["Diablo", despite having lost his licence for exceeding the penalty point limit, got behind the wheel - editor].

I got in because I had to go to the doctor with my child. My daughter is 39 degrees Celsius and has been feverish for two days. She is not sleeping at all. She comes down in your arms. This is my third child. I can't imagine losing any of them. Or not help him. I am the one responsible for them and it is up to me to ensure their future.

A man in such a moment does not think. He does what he feels. What his heart tells him. I'm a simple guy, when something goes wrong, you have to do everything you can to help. How could I look at it dispassionately? In a moment like that you get on and go.

Someone with your status and your incomes could simply hire a driver.

Everyone thinks that if you're a famous athlete, you have unlimited funds. I used to run a company, and because of my friend's death I went bankrupt. At that time I lost a huge amount of money. To get out of that, I have to box.

If you don't box, you don't make money. If you don't win in boxing, you don't have advertising contracts. If you don't have prestigious fights, all the more so advertisers don't want to work with you. People think that 'Diablo' Wlodarczyk has a money printing machine. And in boxing it doesn't look like that.

I am a man of honour. If I have company debts left, I pay them from my own private funds. If I have obligations to my ex-partners, I will never behave like a jackass and leave them in the lurch. I will never say "fuck you" to people with whom I have had a relationship, either privately or professionally. Even if I have to borrow, I always give credit where credit is due.  

In total, you served nine months. A moment of stupidity, then almost a year of serving time. A seemingly innocent mistake, but the consequences are for a lifetime....

I volunteered to serve time myself. I didn't run, I didn't hide. I didn't make up crazy reasons. I didn't hire "prestigious" attorneys, but a decent law firm that was guided by the law, not by deals. The two attorneys who represented me in this case did the best they could. I am very grateful to them for this and I thank them from this place

I think, half jokingly half seriously, that everything in life has to be lived. But nine months is too long a sentence for such an offence. You want to punish me and teach me a lesson, give me a month or two. Don't ruin my life. 

Mr Krzysztof, I am an economic journalist. I need some specifics: how much did Krzysztof "Diablo" Włodarczyk lose?

Something in excess of one million zloty.

How did "doing time" look like?

It took me a very long time to recover from my first time in prison. Now I'm doing much better mentally. Both all the fuss and reminiscing about the past. Do you want to know what my life was like? I was running on a walker that was 9.5m long and 3m wide. And you run around: 25 circles one way, then 25 circles the other way so you don't get too dizzy. These are not conditions for a European championship fight. These are not conditions for any kind of preparation. You sit and wait.

Did you feel humiliated? One day you are the idol of the whole of Poland, the next you are riding roughshod over a prison in Praga.

I never felt humiliated about it. Everyone was doing it, there was no exception or shame. 

The day before, you are a star on TV....

I am not a star. I am an athlete.

You are the face of ...

To appreciate something in life, you have to lose it first. To get some kind of kick. I got the unimaginable. I know how much it weighs, I know what it tastes like, I know what I don't want. A lesson for life.

And now you are in your 40s. For an athlete, that's an aged stage. Do you plan to continue your career?

I have a plan in my head, I have desire and energy. If Andrzej Wasilewski ["Diablo" Wlodarczyk's promoter - ed.] didn't see the sporting potential in me yet, in the boxing sense - that I can go and make a nice surprise - then probably we would say goodbye and I would be somewhere else. But because of - I think - the friendship, the love, the affection for each other, we are together and we have joint plans for the end of my career.

You are talking about boxing. Today, a fighter is a person who works from morning to night, keeps a diet, is non-stop in training, and earns much less than an Instagram star who will go to freak fights. Don't you think your industry has gone the wrong way?

In a very bad way. It used to be that in order to be 'known and loved', you had to represent something. To know something. To be a specialist in something. To be successful with significant results.

In 1997 I went to Krakow for the Golden Glove tournament. A boy comes up to me and asks which one is Wlodarczyk. Because he had heard that I hit hard, that I knockout, that you have to be afraid. Without the internet, TV and social media - the usual word-of-mouth way - they knew more about you than they do today. And now? People are known for being known. If I put my bottom out in the center of Warsaw, I'd have a mass of, as they say, followers.

Is digitalisation changing this world?

Mobile phones, smartphones, life in a virtual world. Please see how children play today. Do you remember our youth? Do you see anyone running around on clapboards, in trees, in garages now? Do you even see children in the sandpit? Bouncing a ball against the block wall? Playing caps, squares?

I haven't seen that for 20 years. People have reduced themselves to the simplest - phone, apps, convenience. I understand that it's a different time, different technology, the world has moved on. But this is not, in my opinion, a healthy direction for our, if only, mental health.

Is this a time when people who can't do anything are promoted at the expense of those who work hard?

You are absolutely right.

Do you find it annoying that you train all your life to achieve something and for one "fight" the same amount is taken by a celebrity, Jaś Kapela or Marta Linkiewicz?

What kind of example can such celebrities set for young people? What does this have in common with sport? Would you want these people to create our society? Would you want them to be the idols of the youth? That young people would choose to function like this? So that they know that lack of skill pays off and hard work is not appreciated? Do we want such a nation?

When I see such, excuse me, clowns, a knife opens in my pocket and, colloquially speaking, I feel pain in the ass. Szymon Kołecki is a flesh and blood sportsman, not some clown pretending to be a professional athlete and selling diets online. I find this hard to understand. I am a firm opponent of such trends.

I was recently at the Polish athletics championships. The elite were competing. The athletes winning medals at the Tokyo Olympics. And in the stands or even the VIP boxes no one knew them. Footballers from the second division are more recognisable.

I know that throwing a ball, hammer, sand, sack, cement is not popular in our country and requires the athlete to dedicate his or her whole life. And on the other hand, there is Robert Lewandowski, who has a skyrocketing income.

Young people can see this gap. Everyone knows very well that being an excellent athlete is a much greater sacrifice than being even an average footballer. That's why fewer and fewer people are choosing the ambitious route, because it simply doesn't pay to get tired.

Do you think there is too much money in football compared to other sports?

Where do you get 50,000 people at the National Stadium even though there are no results? Football is about big sponsors, big emotions and masses of fans. People are seduced by this atmosphere. And there is no my envy here, because it is enough, look at volleyball. There, if we don't fight for the world championship, Poles think there is no point in watching it.

And in football, you watch every game, regardless of the sporting level. Tickets for the match against Andorra at 300 zloty each? I, when I fight a sparring match, donate this money to sick children, and the cheapest ticket for my fight is 30 zloty.

And you don't say that because it's difficult to get a whole hall together for a boxing match today?

I think if we make a good fight card, we are able to fill the National Stadium.

The last time I pulled an all-nighter for a boxing fight was when Andrzej Gołota fought.

Andrew is a phenomenon in his own right, we like and admire each other a lot. But in truth, Golota doesn't have many so-called 'title' achievements. 

This is an interesting observation.

Andrzej Golota has, by his very nature, one might say the specifics of how he operates, gained enormous popularity and fan affection. But does he have a world champion belt to his credit? European championships?

Bronze at the Olympics.

Indeed.

Those were different times, of course. Today, would a man who was a "bouncer" and a "knockaround guy" [member of a criminal subculture - ed.] be able to enter professional sport at such a level?

You would have to talk to the people who introduced him and who worked with him. Because it's a longer story. You'd have to cross them, you'd have to listen to those stories, because it's a subject for a phenomenal book in my opinion. Do you know who he owes his whole life to? Mariola! If it was not for Mariola [Gołota's wife - ed.], Andrzej would not be where he is today. That is my opinion.

As long as we're talking about private matters: you have a great relationship with both your former partner and your current one. Together - the three of you - you go out, meet up, spend time together. This is not normal in all relationships.

The four of us, because there is also Sebastian, Goska's partner, with whom we also like each other. Do you remember when we left court with her? We hugged each other and thanked each other for our phase of life? The media wrote: "a set-up". But that is not true. My ex-wife and I have a very good relationship, we care about our son's welfare, we want him to grow up to be a good person. We get along great.

My current partner Karolina and my ex-wife Gośka get together, we visit each other and go out together. I think this is normal. You have to mature for such a relationship. We have all matured. I make no secret of the fact that I hurt her. An emotional one. But believe me, it is possible to separate normally and still live on a friendly basis. 

When did the fizz go to your head?

"Fizz" is perhaps too much to say, but I would like to warn everyone against being a "superhero". Because you think the world is yours and you do a lot of stupid things that you think will have no consequences. Many unpleasant things have happened to my ex-wife from my side. In 2014, I had a daughter born out of wedlock, and that's when I hammered the nail in the coffin, and we had to split up.

Back then you were on the boxing top.

Through my behaviour, and what I did, I lost the fight. The fight of a lifetime. For the world champion's belt. I didn't take the opportunity, I lost. You don't even realise how much I regret it today.

It is the same pattern with most athletes: at the age of 17-19 they are considered a great talent. They are given a contract that is sky-high by the standards of a kid from the blocks. Until recently it was pocket money, now it's money at the level of a bank CEO.

You are addressing a very important topic. Today with my experience I can say one thing: listen to the older and wiser. My dad advised me many times in a completely different way than I wanted to behave. I thought his advice would be bad for me, when in fact he wanted my good. At the time, I didn't recognise this. Perhaps he conveyed it to me in an inappropriate way, but today I agree with him completely and listen to him 100 per cent.

Maybe such athletes need a professional to manage their career on the one hand and their finances on the other? Do you remember Radosław Kałużny, a legend of Polish football, who ended up packing parcels at DHL because he had nothing to live on? Or Igor Sypniewski, who scored goals in the Champions League and ended up in a Scandinavian prison?

I once asked a person very close to me if she could help me invest my funds. She turned me down, it made me very sad. Honestly, if I had today's life experience, things would have turned out very differently.

Have you " screwed over" a lot of money on silly things in your life?

Yes. I remember taking PLN 300,000 for some fight - many years ago - and splurge it within 4-5 months.

For what?

Good question: for what. I didn't even notice for what. When you have a card and you pay with it, the money disappears. I laugh about that time because it taught me to be prudent, to be sensible, to function in a new way, to look at family life, at children, at a woman. Today I am a completely different person and I am in a different stage of life. 

This lack of economic awareness - let's put it that way - where does it come from?

From immaturity. From a lack of experience of how to handle big money. That's what it seems to me.

Have you tried to invest?

Yes, and I went bankrupt. I worked with Konspol in Nowy Sącz [until recently it belonged to the Pazgan family, one of the richest in Poland, then it was bought by a global giant: the Cargill concern - ed.] I supplied components for the production of cold meats. It seemed like it would be a great business.

I took on a friend as a partner to look after the delivery details. It later turned out that we were losing a lot of money, we had massive costs. If you don't hold the reins yourself, the business ends up a massive failure. I had no experience, and I went into business at the deep end. Today, I would run things completely differently.

What do you do for a living now?

Today I try to invest my money sensibly. I'm still popular, so that helps me a lot. I'm developing a new business project, but I'll talk about that once I've put everything in place and have a guarantee that it won't end up like Konspol. Now I know that money likes silence.

Tomasz Adamek - your professional colleague - has recently " flashed" with his statements regarding Ukraine, saying that it is a civil war. What is your opinion on the war?

It started when I was in prison. I did not believe until the last moments that Russia would invade Ukraine.

I knew people both from Russia and Ukraine, we boxed together. And I will tell you frankly: the mentality of Russians has never changed and will not change. There everything is controlled, monitored. I will never forget how we came to the state TV station. The area was surrounded by barbed wire. A high, deterrent fence. It was impossible for an ordinary person to enter the area. What it was like during the communist times is nothing compared to today's Russia.

If you were now offered a fight with some boxer from Russia for big money, say half a million, would you fight?

I have my ambitions. Not everything I do in life is for money. It is known that cash allows you to live better. You can at least send your children to a better school. But there are limits.

And if a Polish footballer just signs a contract with Spartak Moscow, is he doing the right thing?

I wouldn't judge other people's choices. Maybe he got the kind of money that you don't refuse because it will provide you with a livelihood for the rest of your life? Maybe he plans to tie his life to Russia? That's his affair and his choices. I am not judging.

What will Krzysztof "Diablo" Wlodarczyk's career look like in the near future?

If he doesn't chicken out - and there was talk of that a couple of years ago - then I cordially invite Mr Artur Szpilka to a boxing fight. Let him contact my promoter. We will come to an agreement and make a good fight. I offer good finances. If he has the guts, I cordially invite him. There is so much talk in the media about our potential clash, so now is a good time. We are both fighters and let's keep it that way. 

Why exactly Szpilka?

I want to clarify some issues from the past that came between us somewhere. Let us see then who can do what.


–Interview by Karol Wasilewski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

–Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski


Krzysztof "Diablo" Wlodarczyk (born 1981) is a Polish professional boxer, a former world champion of the WBC and IBF organisations in the junior heavyweight category. His statistics in professional boxing are 59 wins (39 by KO, 19 on points), four defeats (1 KO, 3 on points), one draw. He last fought on 6 November 2021 in Nowy Sacz defeating Argentinian Maximilian Jorg Gomez. He has appeared in several television series and variety shows. From 2007-18 he was married to Malgorzata (after an argument with her in 2011 he attempted suicide), with whom he has a son Cezary. From his extramarital relationship with Magdalena he has a daughter, Zuzanna. After his divorce, he became involved with Karolina, with whom he has a daughter Maria.