Rome, Italy - Hard competitors Mauro Forte and Francesco Grandelli fought furiously for entire twelve rounds for Forte’s EBU European Union Featherweight title but couldn’t determine the winner, as the bout was scored a twelve-round split draw.
Both defending champion Forte and elusive contender Grandelli have been accomplishing their pre-chosen fight plans throughout the fight. Forte moved forward, trying to stalk Grandelli and to pin him to the ropes with fast accurate combinations. Grandelli modev laterally, avoiding a majority of Forte’s punches, trying to retaliate on occasion. Both combatants were successful in spurts. Neither was seriously rocked or dazed, and they kept up with the energetic pace up to the final bell. Forte was a bit better at the start and in the closing rounds, while Grandelli took the mid rounds.
Final scores in an all-Italian showdown were: 116-113 – for Forte, 113-115 – for Grandelli and 114-114. Mauro Forte suffers the second draw of his career. He is now 16-0-2, with 6 KOs. Grandelli moves to 15-1-2, with 3 KOs. Both Grandelli and Forte shared Grandelli’s girlfriend’s cake after the fight, when making a post-fight interview with the DAZN crew.
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Italian light middleweight Francesco Russo came out aggressively against Tony “The Welsh Terrier” Dixon and… paid an instant price. Russo cornered the Welshman after thirty seconds, but it was Dixon who was actually landing punches. He connected with a couple of one-twos, took Russo’s wild swings on his gloves, landed a nice little uppercut at a close range, then smothered a couple of furious assaults by the Italian, then took a right hand from Russo to land a right bomb of his own. That was it. Badly hurt by the shot to the temple, Russo went down fully disoriented prompting an immediate stoppage.
Time was 1:03 of the first. The win is especially satisfying for the Welsh fighter, who has missed two years off the ring following his last loss – also in Italy. He is now 13-3, 4 KOs. Power-punching but fragile Russo drops down to 10-2, 8 KOs.
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Italian super bantamweight champion “The Russian” Maria Cecchi moved to 6-0, 1 KO, with a one-sided drubbing of British veteran Bec Connolly (3-11), who was lucky not to be stopped despite some serious concerns in later rounds. Cecchi gradually improved her performance up to the point when Connolly was in full survival mode. Final scores were: 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73 – for the half-a-Russian, half-an-Italian fighter. Next for Cecchi can be a match-up versus European champion Mary Romero.
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Light welterweight prospect Armando “La Furia del Quadraro” Casamonica (4-0) was lucky to be awarded a majority decision over Mauro Loli (5-3, 2 KOs) in a scheduled six-rounder. Loli, by far Casamonica’s biggest opponent yet, was more successful in a majority of exchanges though Casamonica never stopped coming to his opponent. One judge had it even (57-57), while the other two ruled it out in favour of the younger fighter with identical scores (58-56).
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In a fight between two veterans, former amateur standout Hrvoje Sep overcame tough resistance of always durable Serhiy Demchenko to score a unanimous decision in a light heavyweight six-rounder.
2016 Croatian Olympian was shorter but also younger (by seven years) and more explosive than his 42-year old opponent. He used his explosiveness to score several times during the first round. The Italy-based Ukrainian responded with a right hand of his own to wobble Sep slightly at the end of the second minute but Sep finished it stronger with yet another huge right hand.
After the timid second round, Sep continued to deliver with his overhand right in the third. Demchenko fought hard, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge Sep’s superiority and he also pressed action, forcing the fight. The Ukrainian had his nose marked and hit repeatedly in the fourth, and he was almost put down – maybe for a count – at the end of the fifth. Demchenko summoned all of his spirits to produce a good final round but Sep stood his ground and landed more even during the last stanza.
All three judges saw it identically: 60-54 – for Hrvoje Sep, who moved up to 11-0, 8 KOs. Demchenko dropped down to 23-16-1, 15 KOs. He was stopped just once in his career. Sep saw his streak of four consecutive first-round TKOs halted.