Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
French amateur heavyweight champion in 1956, the disenchanted Gil Voiney turned professional when France decided hot to send a heavyweight wrestler to the Melbourne Olympic Games, even though he was the Mediterranean champion. He claimed the World heavyweight title in December 1961 by virtue of a win over Lucky Simunovich. Travelled throughout Europe, Africa, the Far East, and the USA, where he was known as Max Mortier, and wrestled top men including Bruno Sammartino, Pat Connor and Eduard Carpentier.
With a moustache that came and went, this top-notch French heavyweight visited Britain on numerous occasions between 1959 and 1967. His television bouts were against Wild Ian Campbell and Billy Robinson in the mid-sixties.
In the USA one of his frequent opponents was Mal Kirk. Returning to France in 1966 he retained his world title against the giant Hercules Cortez at Paris’s Cirque D’Hiver, in a bout which made the mainstream sports pages of the French press. Fame brought him the glamorous role as Brigitte Bardot’s bodyguard.
Two years later he left France and settled in Germany, opening a night club and wrestling regularly in the Austrian and German tournaments. A badly broken leg curtailed his career ten years later and he returned to a distinguished retirement on the Côte d’Azur where he opened a restaurant and was a prominent figure in local sports, particularly weightlifting.
Gil Voiney also had a number of masked guises, the most famous of which takes a key Mention in our rundown of the Top 20 Masked Wrestlers of the Heritage Years. He also wrestled as the more pronounceable Masked Gladiator. Not having wrestled in a hood in the UK, neither creation is eligible for the main listing.
He died on 15th December, 2003.
Page added 18/06/2024
12237
Wrestling Heritage 