Demetrius Havanas (born 1950, Dallas, Texas died July 1981, Cookeville, Tennessee), known as 'The Golden Greek',[1] was a third degree karate black belt and kickboxer.
[2] A somewhat short but muscular five foot five inch welterweight and middleweight full contact fighter, Havanas won 125 consecutive tournament bouts as a brown belt.
He amassed a record of 39-4 with 24 knockouts, and the Star System ranked him number-one world welterweight contender in 1980-81.
Havanas was en route to Atlantic City, New Jersey to work the corner of Cliff Thomas, who was defending his World Title, but Havanas was killed on July 23, 1981 in an airplane accident.
Pallbearers included martial arts grandmasters Skipper Mullins, Jack Hwang and Chuck Norris.