World champ boxer Michael Katsidis reveals childhood horror

In an exclusive interview, Queensland world champion boxer Michael Katsidis has detailed harrowing details of abuse from his childhood.

Former world champion boxer Michael Katsidis says his life was destroyed by a pedophile who abused him as a child.

“It was something that happened regularly,” he told the I Catch Killers podcast.

“To that person who molested me - you f**ked my life. I want him to know that.”

Speaking publicly for the first time, Katsidis, 44, who grew up in Toowoomba, said the sexual abuse happened frequently to him and his late brother, Stathi.

“The abuse took away my innocence,” he said.

“It’s wrong what happened. It messed up my idea about sex and about life.

“It really messed me up. It’s not just me … my brother, my family, they’ve all suffered as a result of this.”

Boxer Michael Katsidis. Picture: Liam Kidston

Suppressing the trauma, Katsidis began boxing when he was 11 years old. The three-time world champion reached dizzying heights of international success, with stars including Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting front row at his fights.

While the Olympian’s life seemed idyllic, underneath the boxing gloves was a world of pain.

Desperate not to feel pain, Katsidis turned to drugs.

“If you have trauma in your life or things you can’t really comprehend, you don’t even realise what’s happening to you,” he said. “But then you find a really good drink or a drug and all of a sudden, it just masks the pain and it’s taken away. No one really understands that.”

The addiction spiralled after his brother’s death, he said, leading to bad decision after bad decision.

Stathi, who was one of Australia’s most prominent jockeys, died in 2010 from a drug overdose.

“I love drinking, but I can’t do it anymore because it’s not the way for me to deal with things,” Katsidis said.

“That feeling, the whole weight of everything, the pain you suffered, the experience of going through sexual molestation and the trauma ... it’s like a whole massive weight is taken off your shoulders [when you drink]. That feeling is unreal.”

Speaking to the host of I Catch Killers, Gary Jubelin, Katsidis said the day he learned there was a warrant out for his arrest was the day he quit drugs. That was in April 2022.

Michael Katsidis drops Graham Earl with a right during their bout in London in 2007. Photo: Carl De Souza/ AFP

Katsidis was convicted of drug trafficking and was released from prison earlier this year.

The father of four learned his biggest life lesson behind bars, and if it weren’t for jail, he “wouldn’t be here today”.

“I related to other people in prison that had similar experiences,” he said.

“There are some really great people in there, and because I’ve been through what I’ve been through, I can relate to a lot of them.

“It’s not until you actually suffer a conviction that you can see things a bit differently.

“A lot of people [in jail] have no direction. There’s a lot of pain, there’s a lot of hurt. The biggest thing I learned is that jail and death is all that awaits those in addiction.”

Katsidis has now teamed up with retired veteran Marty Cornish to launch the Bulletproof Mindset Academy, which helps set young people on the right path.

“Everything is interlinked - youth crime, mental health, domestic violence,” Cornish said.

“When you don’t have a purpose, you fill yourself with distractions. We get caught up in that cycle of drinking on the weekend, addiction and bad habits.”

By using Katsidis’ life learnings, they aim to crack the stigma surrounding men’s mental health to “empower men to speak up”.

“We see this horrendous stuff that men do, we need to hold men accountable,” Cornish said.

“We need to be better men because then we’re better men for our partners and for the community.”

Listen to the full interview on I Catch Killers, wherever you get your podcasts.