René Weller

German boxer. Born 21 November 1953 in Pforzheim, Germany. Died 22 August 2023, ibid. Weller competed for West Germany in the men’s featherweight event at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He was a trained heating engineer and goldsmith and began boxing as a teenager. As an amateur, he won the German championship nine times and came second in the European championship. As a professional, he won the WAA World Super Featherweight title in 1983 and the European Lightweight title in 1984. Weller was known for his love of luxury and developed his own luxury brand for clothing, watches, and jewelry. He was nicknamed “Schöner René” (Beautiful René) because of his appearance. After his career, Weller had several run-ins with the law and served four and a half years in prison for cocaine trafficking, incitement to forgery of documents, and illegal possession of weapons. In 2014, he was diagnosed with mixed dementia and passed away at the age of 69 due to complications from the disease.