By Marco Bratusch
Former WBA super middleweight title holder Giovanni De Carolis (24-7-1, 12 KOs) will finally have his comeback fight tomorrow night in Rome, taking on Russian Viktor Polyakov (12-1-1, 6 KOs) for the vacant WBA International belt. The bout represents the first fight in De Carolis’ hometown after more than two years, a period that the boxer filled fighting abroad German boxers as Vincent Feigenbutz and Tyron Zeuge, twice respectively. In his last outing, De Carolis left the belt in the hands of Zeuge, current holder of the WBA “regular” title, who won by TKO in round 12.
“That loss is still hurting me. I was not in my best condition. I felt strong physically but my mind was somewhere else due to some personal issues I was experiencing during the last couple of weeks,” De Carolis told Fightnews.com®. “By the way, I do not want to take anything away from my opponent who fought a solid performance, but I could have done way better than that. Fighting in Rome again is a dream for me, and we are working hard to obtain another world title shot soon, this time possibly in my city, of course.”
How has your training camp gone for this bout?
“Everything was very smooth and I got positive answers from my body. It started early this year when I spent two weeks in Melbourne, Australia, to spar with Zac Dunn. It was a great professional experience there. Then here in Rome, I trained with Orial Kolaj and other local fighters, always under the watchful eye of my old-time trainer Italo Mattioli.”
What do you think about the WBSS tournament in your weight class and the fact that your old opponent Vincent Feigenbutz is a “reserve” for the eight fighters involved?
Well, of course, I would love to take part in this important tournament because my dream has always been to fight the best opponents possible in the greatest venues of the boxing world. However, not having a strong television partner at my side might pose some issues, and beside that several strong super middleweights – such as Gilberto Ramirez, for me the best 168lb fighter in the world right now, and the Dirrell brothers – are not taking part in it. Vincent Feigenbutz is a good hitter but I beat him twice, practically. I would refuse to play as a reserve in such tournament, so it fits well to me that role has been granted to another fighter. I’m now focused on trying to light the boxing passion up again in my city, where unfortunately it faded a bit during last decade.”
The boxing night in Rome, featuring other seven professional although no-title bouts, will be promoted by De Carolis’s new management, Giulio Spagnoli’s Roundzero, which joined communication agency MN Holding on this occasion to reach the considerable achievement of screening the card on both Sky Sport (Italian) premium channel and TV8 free network. Plus, they booked a big arena as the Central Tennis Stadium, the main tennis facility of the Foro Italico Olympic sport city, counting on barely 10,000 seats.
“We hope to have a decent return in ticket selling and over television viewers as well”, Giulio Spagnoli expressed. “That would be definitely the turning stone to legitimate our dreams of hosting a world title fight here in Rome again after a long time or not. Tickets are moving fast and presale appears good so far. Perhaps it will require another fight after this to get that new chance, but right now Giovanni must focus exclusively on Polyakov, a still fresh, dangerous fighter who is here in Rome to impress. We made a great effort to deliver a good level show of boxing here in Rome and we expect fans to give a loud answer at the box office.”
Polyakov, 35-years-old, held his training camp in Ukraine for this bout. He started his professional career in the United States, topping that first phase with a victory over tough veteran Derrick Findley at light-heavyweight before pausing for five years. He restarted his career only at the beginning of 2017, fighting already thrice this year and surprisingly beating Polish southpaw Dariusz Sex in is homeland last April. ]
Despite being Russian, he has actually never fought in Russia as a prizefighter. He is a short but portly, unorthodox fighter who likes to come forward and land his short left hook suddenly. The almost 33-year-old De Carolis, having a clear edge in boxing experience – Polyakov has never fought beyond 8 rounds – can choose either to box or to engage, although his natural approach as a fighter is to mix with his opponent.
Feature bouts official weights:
Giovanni De Carolis 166.5 vs. Viktor Polyakov 167
(Vacant WBA super middleweight title)
Valerio Ranaldi 168 vs. Ruslan Shelev 169.3, six rounds
Orial Kolaj 176 vs. Giorgi Beroshvili 174, six rounds