Two masked men broke into a fashionable club in Melbourne at night. They did not come for money and did not intend to rob anyone. After a couple of minutes, the criminals found their victim. They shot the man several times in the head and immediately disappeared.
A few days later, the attackers were detained. The criminals were confident in their impunity and did not even hide. The bandits were handcuffed right in the mall where they went shopping. One of them was a boxer and kickboxing champion Evangelos Gussis, who was born in the USSR.
Father fought on the side of the USSR
Gussis was born in Tashkent to Greek immigrant parents. His father fought against the Nazis in Greece during World War II, and a few years after it ended, he moved to Uzbekistan. There he settled and began to serve in the Soviet army. Evangelos was the youngest child in the family. When he was eight years old, his parents moved to Australia. There they had distant relatives who were ready to take in a family.
"We lived in poverty, like everyone else in the post-war period. It’s hard, but we were happy", Gussis recalled childhood.
Evangelos began to go to different sports clubs to make friends in an unfamiliar place. He played football and boxing, but soon settled on the latter. The elder brother helped to hone the technique in the evenings. He himself devoted several years to boxing. Evangelos was very talented, he had his own unique style. He could definitely become the second or third number in his weight category. And also a champion. There were too many muddy personalities around him. The environment ruined him & # 34;, — recalled the brother.
Goussis even participated in the selection for the 1988 Olympic Games, but he failed to qualify. Then he decided to try something new and settled on kickboxing, where he excelled. Evangelos became the champion of Australia, and then he won the title of winner of the World Kickboxing Organization.
The ring was not the only passion of the boxer. After high school, he went to technical college, dropping out in his sophomore year. In the evenings, Evangelos worked part-time as a bouncer in a nightclub, because he could not provide himself with boxing. Yes, and a large family needs help.
In this direction, Gussis managed to cost his career incredibly quickly. The powerful guy was spotted by one of the local drug lords who was selling goods at the Evangelos club. So the athlete became the personal bodyguard of a criminal authority. He did not hesitate to travel to various «business meetings».
One day, the boss sent Evangelos and several other thugs to shake a debt out of a drug addict. The guys tied the victim and began to torture, but overdid it. He died. After a while they were arrested and tried. The investigation concluded that Gussis only helped to capture the poor guy. The prison was avoided. Boxer was also suspected of selling drugs, but the lawyer worked perfectly. Of course, he helped his boss sell the goods, but he never got caught red-handed.
Tried to commit suicide
Gussis did not give up sports, even when crime became his main occupation. Evangelos turned professional and, after failing to qualify for the Olympics, had three more official fights. He won two of them and drew another one. He managed to remain undefeated.
The ring became a hobby for Evangelos, which he did in his free time from banditry. Every year Gussis became more and more authoritative in the criminal world of Melbourne, in charge of local drug trafficking. At the same time, the former athlete did not hesitate to use the «product» on his own.Once, in a fit of drug intoxication, he decided to commit suicide, but the doctors managed to save him. Friends said that because of the drugs, the guy became paranoid and all the time thought that he was being followed. The real persecution did not begin until 2004, when he killed two people.
A few months before the incident at the Melbourne club, Gussis decided that drug trafficking was making too little money for him. Then the boxer wanted to eliminate one of the competitors. Evangelos made an appointment for him in a quiet suburb, where he shot his opponent.
A few months later, he and a friend broke into the same club, killing another Australian crime boss. Such a daring crime made the Melbourne police react with lightning speed. Evangelos was soon arrested.
At the trial, it turned out that the second murder was contract. Gussis and his accomplice were paid 150 thousand dollars to eliminate the desired target. The boxer tried to justify the first murder by ordinary self-defense. Allegedly, the victim herself wanted to shoot him, and Evangelos managed to react and pulled the trigger faster.
" wasted. Mike Tyson was his idol. Gussis was reminiscent of an American boxer in his style. He could reach the international level and shine in the ring, but he chose a different path, which led to terrible victims", said the first coach of the athlete.
Gussis was sentenced to life in prison with the right to apply for parole after 30 years. A career in boxing and kickboxing turned out to be only a flash against the backdrop of the tragic deeds of Evangelos.