Matchroom Italy promoted at Allianz Cloud in Milan, and at the top of the bill, Fabio Turchi took the vacant EU Cruiserweight title with a tougher than expected unanimous decision win against France’s Dylan Bregeon.
Turchi, ranked inside the top ten with the IBF, and was taking part in his second fight since his sole career loss thus far, an October 2019 points defeat to Northern Ireland’s Tommy McCarthy. It’s a loss that still hurts Turchi, and his aim is to secure a rematch with the now European champion.
Bregeon began brightly here, controlling the action early on by keeping Florence based Turchi on the outside, and using his jab to good effect.
Turchi though, plugged away and rode out the storm in the first half of the contest, relying on his durability to hopefully see him through.
That’s exactly how it played out, as the second half of the contest belonged to the Italian, who inched closer to Nantes native Bregeon, and, even though he had to take plenty of punches, he was now able to get his own effective shots off to win rounds.
The championship rounds were were Turchi truly came into his own, and he enjoyed his best round in the tenth, connecting with rapid combinations that found the target on several occasions.
Turchi was really coming on strongly towards the conclusion, and the eleventh saw more effective combinations that backed Bregeon up.
A clash of heads in the round left the visitor with a cur over his left eye. The pair put it all on the line in the final frame as the contest went to the scorecards.
Three identical scores of 115-113 ensured a close run victory for Turchi.
Francesco Patera was due to face Devis Boschiero on the bill, but after a positive COVID test, Vladislav Melnyk was drafted in, but he too tested positive on fight week, leaving the Belgian without an opponent.
The former European Lightweight champion was forced to settle for an eight rounder, but was given a tough night’s work by Italy’s Nicola Henchiri, who gave him all he could handle before Patera took an unanimous decision.
The contest was a lot closer than the scores of 79-74 and 78-74 (twice) suggested.
The only early finish on the card came at Super Middleweight, where Ivan Zucco claimed the vacant Italian title by forcing Luca Capuano to retire after six rounds.
Both men came into the fight undefeated, but Zucco broke Capuano down, and the action was one sided enough to convince Capuano to withdraw from battle.
At Super Welterweight, Samuel Nmomah moved to 15-0 with a comfortable enough points win over Kassimou Mouhamadou over eight.
Two scores of 79-73, and a third at 78-75 were good enough for the Piemonte-based Nigerian to get the win.
Featherweight, Mauro Forte, also remained unbeaten, as he took a six round decision over tough journeyman, Cristian Narvaez. At Super Lightweight, Armando Casamonica won all six rounds against Matija Petrinic.
