By Marco Bratusch
Boxing Club Hyerois, from France, won the purse bid last Tuesday at EBU headquarters, to earn the rights to stage the European junior featherweight bout between Abigail “Bebé” Medina (19-3-2, 10 KOs), the current champion, anche Jeremy Parodi (42-4-1, 10 KOs), the challenger, in a awaited rematch of their first clash dated two years ago. The French club put in the envelope 21,000 Euros as the only bidder to participate and aims to promote the bout on October 24 in his operating area of Hyerois, France. This will be the third defense for Medina, a slender, fast-handed boxer who was born in the Dominican Republic but then grew up in Barcelona, Spain. On the other hand, this bout will represent for Parodi the fourth effort to win the European belt, as he fell short in the previous three occasions, although every time against solid opponents.
Rimer Box, the Spanish firm that quite unexpectedly won the purse bid to stage the rematch between Kiko Martinez (38-8-2, 28 KOs) and Europan featherweight champion Marc Vidal (11-1-5, 5 KOs), has finally released the official date for such bout in September 28 in Madrid, Spain. As European boxing fans remember, their first meeting ended in a technical draw because of an accidental clash of heads which occurred after two rounds of an intensive battle produced by both men.
The all-Italian rematch for the vacant European Union (EU) lightweight belt between former multiple-time national champion Pasquale Di Silvio (21-9-3, 6 KOs) and Gianluca Ceglia (14-3-1, 2 KOs) has been agreed for October 13 in Rome, according to an official announcement made by Roundzero promotions. Their first battled encounter, which occurred last April, ended in a split-draw decision which was all in all accepted by both teams. Di Silvio, 39, has had an intensive career and according to ringside reporters, he looked to fade a bit during that last fight. Arguably the freshness of Ceglia can be a factor in their rematch, but he will also have to fight in Di Silvio’s backyard this time.
Former WBA “regular” title holder Giovanni DeCarolis (26-9-1, 13 KOs) won the Italian 168-pound belt for the first time in his career last Saturday in Rome as he outscored daring veteran Roberto Cocco (20-18-1, 8 KOs) at Giulio Onesti baseball stadium. DeCarolis’ physicality and powerful hooks which landed up and down were the key of his victory, even though Cocco proved to be a tough cookie once again, landing some crisp uppercuts from the inside and recovering from a knockdown that occurred at the end of round eight. Talking about boxing technique and pace, the fight appeared pretty even but again, the Roman’s punches were just a step up in leverage. The previous two DeCarolis’ attempts for the national belt happened in 2009 and 2010, in the lower weight class of middleweights though. This time he completely earned it, as the scorecards in his favor were 100-90, 100-91 and 99-90.