Italian cruiserweights Giacobbe Fragomeni (29-3-1, 12 KOs) and Silvio Branco (62-10-2, 37 KOs), both of whom boast the experience that comes with being in their forties, will compete for a minor title on Saturday, March 17th. The headlining bout will take place at the PalaRavizza in Pavia, Lombardia, Italy.
Fragomeni is ranked 16th in the world among cruiserweights and is a former WBC cruiserweight titlist. He picked up the belt, which had been vacated by David Haye, in 2008 when he scored a technical decision win over Rudolf Kraj after suffering a cut above his right eye in round seven. Fragomeni followed that with a draw against Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, who is now ranked 3rd among cruiserweights, and then lost the belt to Zsolt Erdei by majority decision in what was reported to be a very exciting bout.
Since losing the title, Fragomeni went on to lose by an eighth round TKO to Woldarczyk in a rematch. He has followed that loss with three consecutive wins, two of those coming against fighters with losing records.
Branco is a former WBA light heavyweight champion but has fought his last three fights at cruiserweight. Of his ten losses, eight of them come prior to 2005 and none of them at cruiserweight.
His most recent loss comes against Jean Pascal, who is ranked second among light heavyweights behind Bernard Hopkins. Branco took a knee in round four to complain about being hit behind the head, was down at the end of round seven, and hit the canvas twice in round ten. He beat the count both times, but his corner threw in the towel after the second knockdown.
After that loss, Branco moved up to cruiserweight and picked up a fourth round TKO win over Laszlo Hubert (now 31-11), who was also defeated by Fragomeni by TKO 7. He then faced Vincenzo Rossitto, who is now 41-7-2, and won by unanimous decision. His most recent win was against an opponent who was 6-38 at the time by UD 6.
On the undercard will be Luca Giacon vs. Krzysztof Szot in the lightweight division and welterweights Gianluca Frezza vs. Konstantins Sakara.
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