By Peter Lerner: This week we talk to respected referee Adrio Zannoni about which fighters impressed on last week’s Galassi undercard, we have a preview of the bill in Florence this Friday, and we have a quick look forward to some of next week’s action.
Zannoni talks about the Simona Galassi undercard
Last Friday international referee Adrio Zannoni worked as a judge for Simona Galassi’s successful defence of her WBC flyweight title against Esmeralda Moreno. Secondsout caught up with him to ask him what he thought about some of the fighters featured on the undercard.
Michele Di Rocco. In Di Rocco’s first fight since leaving the stable of Rosanna Conti Cavini he stopped Arnold Turos in the second round. “Di Rocco put on a good performance. It seemed like he was hitting with more power than usual. I don’t know if he’s changed something in his training, but it looks like his power has improved somewhat,” said Zannoni.
Luca Giacon. Half-Italian, half-Rwandan, this was Giacon’s first fight in Italy. His record now stands at, 9-0-0 (9), after stopping Bela Sandor. Zannoni was impressed: “He’s a good little boxer. He’s got a great physique and technically he looks talented. He did take more punches than he needed – punches that he really should have been avoiding. Maybe he was trying too hard to impress. He’s definitely a talent, though.”
Carel Sandon and Antonio Moscatiello. These two fighters are illustrious nephews. Sandon’s uncle is Sumbu Kalambay, while Antonio’s is Giacobbe Fragomeni. Sandon won on points over six rounds against the always spirited Zsolt Nagy. Moscatiello got rid of Laszlo Szekeres in ninety one seconds. “I was a little disappointed with Sandon. I expected him to be stronger. Moscatiello looked very good and he hits hard, though we have to take into account the level of opposition.”
This Saturday Zannoni will have his pen and notebook out to judge the Jerome Arnould-Jamie McDonnell European bantam title fight in Le Cannet. On 23rd April he will be in Coventry to judge the Rendall Munroe-Victor Terrazas super bantam fight.
Bundu v Jerez
This weekend sees some action in Florence. The headliner sees undefeated welterweight Leonard Bundu facing Argentine Carlos Adan Jerez. The bill also features an Italian bantamweight title fight between Rodrigo Bracco and Pio Antonio Nettuno.
Interestingly, Bundu and Bracco are two foreign fighters who came to Italy as youngsters and managed to establish themselves as local attractions. Bundu is from Sierra Leone, Bracco from Chile.
The feeling is that Bundu will be in for a long night: despite being aggressive he isn’t a particularly big hitter, while Jerez hasn’t been stopped in five years and has gone ten rounds with the likes of Lucas Martin Matthysse and Saul Alvarez – big, hard-punching fighters.
Jerez – who somewhat resembles Juan Domingo Malvarez (who of course almost stopped Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez in the first round before being stopped himself in the second) both physically and in style of movement – is a careful fighter who doesn’t commit too much. He seems to be most effective against fighters who either over-commit themselves or are overmatched. From what I’ve seen he appears to stay in his defensive, evasive mode if his opponent keeps him under educated pressure, and when he’s defensive he becomes a difficult fighter to get to – he mixes use of the ring with a tight guard and good upper body movement. Still, he will be dangerous. He has a fast, snappy right hand which he always chances at some point through the contest. It was this punch which accounted for his destruction of Javier Mamani – a full middleweight – in his last fight. Mamani was even knocked out of the ring at one point. Mamani was in the act of attacking when felled by the right hand, a fact Bundu should take heed of as he can sometimes be reckless when attacking.
A points win for Bundu seems most likely. His high workrate, and ability to adapt when necessary, should keep Jerez on the defensive. We must also remember that Jerez has always lost to the best fighters he’s faced. Bundu, must, however, remain wary of that stinging right hand.
Next week’s action
Next week on Friday Gianluca Branco will once again be fighting for a European title. The two-time European champion at light welter goes up against Matthew Hatton in Dagenham for the vacant welterweight belt. So far this has been a bad year for travelling Italians: Giovanni De Carolis, Paolo Vidoz, Antonio Brancalion and Ivan Fiorletta are amongst the fighters who’ve gone abroad in 2010 and lost. Can the veteran Branco buck the trend? Next week we will have a preview.
The same day will see the second instalment of ‘I Gladiatori della Boxe’ in Rome. Headlining will be Gianluca Tamburrini against Tony Averlant from France in a match up between two limited but crowd-pleasing light heavyweights.
March 18, 2010
|
Subscribe to feed
