Kovács's spectacular boxing style and nice personality soon made him a crowd and media favourite, and he was widely considered one of Hungary's top gold medal chances at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Choi, who defeated other future professional world champions Paul Ingle and Robbie Peden in his two previous bouts, went on to win the gold medal and Kovács had to settle for the bronze which was considered by many to be a disappointment at that time.

After the Olympics he was signed by the Hamburg-based professional stable Universum Box-Promotion together with the now-famous Klitschko brothers Vitali and Wladimir, to join world champions Dariusz Michalczewski, Artur Grigorian and Regina Halmich, but he opted to stay among the amateurs for one more year because Budapest was to host the 1997 World Championships, where in front of several thousand home supporters, he managed to conclude his amateur career by winning his second gold medal, this time in featherweight.

Kovács began his professional career coached by former top class amateur East German trainer Fritz Sdunek in late 1997, amidst great media hype in Hungary, with one of the newly founded nationwide TV channels buying the exclusive rights to broadcast his bouts.

Due to his technical skills, fast foot- and handspeed and spectacular fighting style he was often compared to fellow 1996 Olympian Floyd Mayweather Jr. who started his long-lasting reign in the super-featherweight division at that time, and he was considered the future challenger of the unbeaten WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed.

Kovács was to make his debut in the United States in late 1999 in Las Vegas, but in the last days before the bout his nose was broken while sparring with Bones Adams who grabbed the WBA super-bantamweight title a few months later.

Chacón also participated on the 1996 Olympics, and won a bronze medal in the featherweight division, coincidentally defeating another member of the Hungarian team János Nagy in the quarter-finals before losing to the eventual gold medalist Somluck Kamsing in the semis.

Still shaken by punch (which was the first knockdown since his amateur career) and urged by the fans, instead of trying to survive the round he went after his opponent and only seconds before the bell he was caught again, this time by a huge left hook and was floored.

His former coach Imre Szántó, acting as a TV commentator kept telling in the break that he should not continue the fight, yet Kovács came out for the sixth round, only to be knocked down by Chacón again in a few seconds, and the referee calling the bout to a halt immediately.

Later in 2003 Félix Rácz, a Hungarian boxing manager came up with the idea of bringing Chacón to Hungary again to fight against his former Olympian opponent János Nagy, who since then also turned professional, had an unbeaten record and held the WBO super-featherweight intercontinental title.

He fought twice more against limited opposition with his former confidence visibly shaken, and after unsuccessful managerial attempts to set up another title fight for him, he retired for good in 2002.