At the beginning of the 20th century, a truly HUGE star could light up in the sky of American boxing. This giant, 8 feet tall (almost 2.5 meters), could not be defeated, and the leading world media vied with each other that the young celebrity had a great future. But fate decreed otherwise.
Goga Mitu (real name - Dumitru Gogu Stefanescu) was born in 1914 in the city of Marsani, near Craiova (Dolsk district) and was the tallest Romanian who ever lived on Earth. Because of this feature, contemporaries nicknamed him "Romanian Goliath" - in honor of the biblical giant killed by the shepherd David.
Usually people of tall stature suffer from some kind of disease, and the brother of the young giant, whose name was Tudorel, died at the age of seven, no exception to the rule. (At the time of his death, Tudorel's height was 180 cm.) But Gogya was as healthy as a bull. He was the eldest of 11 children; his mother gave birth to her first child at the age of 16. Gogya did not go to school, as he did not fit at the school desk. But the boy grew up smart beyond his years: at the age of three, he independently learned to read and write.
When the young man turned 17, he earned his living performing in the Prague circus of freaks. Then he moved to work at the Globus circus in Bucharest: he easily bent steel bars, delighting the crowd. There, the young giant was accidentally noticed by the famous Italian boxer Umberto Lancia, who in 1934 invited Gog to try himself in the ring. Lancia taught the guy to box and became his manager.
Under the guidance of Lancia, Gogya went to Paris to study professional boxing at a sports school. After graduation, the young man began a successful boxing career. No one could compete with his height and weight. The only worthy opponent was George Godfrey. The two-meter African American managed to knock Gog out.
Gogya was a real epic hero. The width of his back was 1.05 meters. To maintain the vital activity of such a huge organism, in one sitting he ate 1 kg of bread, 25 eggs, a kilogram of fried chicken and 1 kg of sweets, drank two liters of milk, a liter of fortified plum wine and half a liter of table wine. His costumes were made from 7.5 meters of fabric. He slept on a bed 3.5 meters long and 2 meters wide.
Americans have heard about Mitu's successes. Many boxing connoisseurs came to Europe specifically to see the living legend. The rest were eagerly awaiting his arrival in the United States.
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But their plans were not destined to come true: in 1936, at the age of 21, Gogya Mitu died suddenly. Returning by train from Istanbul to Bucharest, the boxer opened the window, caught a cold and fell ill with the flu.
The manager urgently sent him to the hospital. There, Gog's condition deteriorated sharply, and soon the young man died. An autopsy revealed the cause of death - complications due to pulmonary tuberculosis.
It would seem that there is nothing strange in this: many in those years were dying from this common disease. But the relatives seemed dubious about the transience of the disease. In addition, in the morgue they were not allowed to open the coffin.
Gog's niece, Constant Burad, believes that the boxer was killed. Someone injected a lethal injection into his abdomen (this was allegedly discovered during a more thorough examination of the body).
Why did they kill the giant? Some researchers believe it wasn't about the high stakes. The impressive growth of the athlete served as proof that he could be the heir to the race of giants that inhabited the Earth in the distant past.
At the beginning of the 20th century, someone systematically destroyed all traces of the existence of giants on planet Earth, exterminating, among other things, their possible descendants.
Elena Muravyova for the website www.neveroyatno.info
