Former world champion boxer Markus Beyer dies

German regional public broadcaster MDR reported on Tuesday that Markus Beyer had passed away at the age of 47 in a Berlin hospital on Monday. It said he had died after a short battle with a serious illness, without providing further details.

"We were given the news by a member of his family," MDR's program director, Wolf Dieter Jacobi told the DPA news agency. "We know about his illness and had hoped that he would beat it."

Before turning professional, Beyer, who represented Germany at both the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics, competed in the light middleweight division, winning a bronze mdeal at the 1996 World Amateur Boxing Championships and silver at the 1996 European Amateur Boxing Championships.

As a professional, Beyer moved up to the super middleweight division, winning his first World Boxing Council (WBC) title by beating Britain's Richie Woodhall in an October 1999 bout in Telford on points. His reign as champion, though, would be short-lived, as he lost his title to another Briton, Glenn Catley seven months later. Beyer would go on to hold the WBC super middleweight title two more times. 

Beyer, who retired from the sport in 2008, had worked as a boxing commentator for MDR television since 2015.

Beyer's death comes just weeks after another German former world boxing champion, Graciano  Rocchigiani, died after being hit by a car.

pfd/em (dpa, SID)