By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing
Hall of Fame trainer Johnny Lewis is confident Australian super middleweight Bilal Akkawy (16-0-1, 14 KOs) has the skills and power to defeat Italy’s former WBA super middleweight champion Giovanni De Carolis (25-8-1, 13 KOs) when they clash on Saturday at the Club Punchbowl in Sydney.
“What I have seen in Bilal’s preparation this time in sparring sessions with Anthony Mundine, Kerry Foley and Jake Carr is that he has been impressive and against Giovanni De Carolis, who is a former world champion, I’m confident he will go up another level and be victorious,” Johnny Lewis told Fightnews.com®.
“Against Jake Carr in sparring Bilal was given the best sessions. It was very good of Jake and his trainer Dave Hedgecock, who made the 500 mile trip from Melbourne to Sydney, to give Bilal two weeks of quality sparring. Carr has been a chief sparring partner for world middleweight champions Sam Soliman and Daniel Geale. That will help Bilal be successful against Giovanni De Carolis on Saturday.
Promoter Paul Nasari said “Giovanni De Carolis has been in Australia for two weeks with his team and he has looked world class in training. De Carolis has come to win and Bilal Akkawy will have to be at his best on Saturday to win. I’m expecting a great fight.”