Andre Golota Faces Deportation For Illegal Guns, Impersonating Cop

Homeland Disappointment

Andrew Golota was best known as a heavyweight boxer who might have been a champion if he did not have such a penchant for hitting below the belt.

Now he might become best known as the ex-boxer who was deported for impersonating a police officer and having illegal guns.

Golota, 44, faces deportation to his native Poland for his run-ins with the law. His case is currently in court, his wife, Mariola, told the Chicago Tribune, with a decision expected in September.

Golota, who won a bronze medal for Poland in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, was disqualified in two title fights against Riddick Bowe in 1996 for throwing low blows. He was ahead on the scorecards in both fights at the time of his DQs.

Golota, whose last fight was a fifth-round TKO loss to fellow Pole Tomasz Adamek in 2009, was knocked out in the second round by Mike Tyson in 2000, but the result was changed to a no contest after Tyson tested positive for marijuana. He finished his career at 44-8-1 with 33 KOs.

The former fighter’s criminal background check was triggered when he filed paperwork to become an American citizen. Golota, a Northbrook, Ill., resident, is currently a legal permanent resident of the U.S.

“I’m just hopeful that it’s going to turn out OK. It’s kind of out of your hands,” Mariola Golota said. “Andrew paid dearly for whatever he did. You pay once when you plead guilty and then you pay again, and that’s much harsher.”

Golota had two brushes with the law. He pleaded guilty in a 2006 Cook County case involving a dozen firearms found in his home while his firearm owner’s ID card was temporarily revoked. He also pleaded guilty in 2003 to impersonating a police officer, accused of flashing an honorary New Jersey police badge when he was pulled over in the Chicago suburbs.

Mariola Golota called the deportation case “this big, black cloud that’s hanging over our family.” The attorney, a U.S. citizen, said her husband is treated more harshly because of his celebrity.