Giovanni De Carolis: “I have more experience than Daniele Scardina and I feel great”
WBO Intercontinental super middleweight champion Daniele Scardina will defend against former WBA World champion Giovanni De Carolis on May 13 at Allianz Cloud
On May 13, at Allianz Cloud in Milan, Italy, Opi Since 82-Matchroom-DAZN will promote a major card with the main event featuring WBO Intercontinental super middleweight champion Daniele Scardina (20-0, 16KOs) who will defend against former WBA World super middleweight champion Giovanni De Carolis (30-10-1, 14KOs).
Two other championship fights will see European super bantamweight champion Mary Romero (7-2, 2KOs) defend against former Italian champion Maria Cecchi (7-0, 2KO); and Vincenzo La Femina (10-0, 5KOs) and Matteo Lecca (9-2, 4KOs) will fight for the vacant Italian super bantamweight title.
The tickets are selling fast, mostly because of Scardina-De Carolis which is considered a super-fight in Italy. Giovanni De Carolis has had 41 fights with many victories against top opponents in Italy. In the super middleweight division, Giovanni De Carolis won the Italian, WBC Mediterranean, WBC International and IBF Intercontinental titles. He was WBA World super middleweight champion from June 9 to November 5, 2016. He won the WBA belt defeating Vincent Feigenbutz (TKO 11), defended it against Tyrone Zeuge (draw) and lost it against Tyrone Zeugue (TKO 12 less than 20 seconds before the bell).
Last week, Daniele Scardina said that he feels confident to win because he had a great training camp, he even sparred with undisputed middleweight king Gennady Golovkin and he wants a world title shot.
Giovanni, what do you think of Daniele Scardina?
“That I am in top shape and confident to win too. It’s normal that every fighter is confident to win. 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 Ballingall’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 Lazio region. Next week I will go to Milan for the press conference.”
You have had 41 fights, while Scardina only 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, is the hunger still there?
“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.”
Daniele Scardina is a show-biz professional having worked at many Italian TV shows like Dancing with the Stars, while you never wanted to do the same, but recently you worked on the boxing movie Ghiaccio which starred Vinicio Marchioni and Giacomo Ferrara – can you tell us 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.”
De Carolis vs Scardina will be broadcast live on DAZN
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