Former WBA World super middleweight champion Giovanni De Carolis (30-10-1, 14 KOs) talks about his May 13 showdown with Daniele Scardina (20-0, 16 KOs) at Allianz Cloud in Milan, Italy. The bout can be seen on DAZN.
Last week Scardina said that he feels confident to win because he had a great training camp, he even sparred with Gennady Golovkin.
Giovanni, what do you answer to Daniele Scardina?
“That I am in top shape and confident to win too. It’s normal that every fighter is confident to twin. I also had a great training camp. Besides training at my gym in Monterosi and at coach Italo Mattioli’s gym in Rome, I also trained in England. I went to Portsmouth at Michael Bellinghall’s gym where I sparred with two undefeated pros: welterweight Michael McKinson (22-0) and middleweight Aaron Sutton (13-0). Then I trained at Matchroom Gym in Essex. Both experiences were useful to me. Now I am back in the Lazio region. Next week I will go to Milan for the press conference.”
You have 41 fights, while Scardina has 20. Will this be a major factor on May 13?
“Every fight is different, but there’s no question that experience counts. I want to point out that about half of my fights had a title on the line.”
This fight is having a lot of media exposure. Being involved in the Italian fight of the year gives you an extra motivation?
“Of course it does. I am proud to be one of the stars of the fight of the year. Like Daniele said, I would be happy if this fight brought back to the arena people who stopped watching boxing long ago and also new people who never bought a ticket for a boxing show.”
You still talk about boxing with passion. Usually after many years in the boxing business, fighters start to lose interest for boxing.
“I never lost interest for the fight game. That’s why I opened a gym in Monterosi. After I retire, I want to keep being involved in boxing. After 41 pro fights, I still want to get in the ring and go far. That’s why this fight is so important to me. If I become WBO Intercontinental champion new doors could open for me in the super middleweight division.”
You and Daniele Scardina couldn’t be more different. He is a show-biz professional too having worked at many Italian tv shows like Dancing with the Stars, while you never wanted to become one. Recently, you worked at the boxing movie Ghiaccio which starred Vinicio Marchioni (star of many Italian tv series) and Giacomo Ferrara (one of the main characters of tv series Suburra, a worldwide hit on Netflix). What about that experience?
“It was a wonderful experience also for the people that I had the privilege to work with. Vinicio Marchioni and Giacomo Ferrara are great actors and beautiful people who put their soul in what they do. As a matter of fact, they gave it all while I trained them for the movie. More than that: we became friends. I want to thank Vinicio for mentioning me so many times when he talked about the movie.”