With just over a week to go before the World Series of Boxing (WSB) second season gets under way, the Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder present their team to the world. After the successes in the individual finals of Clemente Russo in the Heavyweights and Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the Middleweights, the team has worked extremely hard to fine tune and strengthen a squad that last year already proved extremely competitive. The aim for the upcoming season is to dethrone Paris United and take the coveted team trophy.
The team has significantly added to its already strong technical staff. Joining the technical director Francesco Damiani, the first coach Sergiy Korchinskiy are new Assistant Coach Gianfranco Rosi as well as the experienced Valerio Nati.
Building for the 2011-2012 team began with the confirmation of eight boxers, including four Italians, Vittorio Parrinello, Vincenzo Picardi, Clemente Russo and Domenico Valentino, provided with the support of the Italian Boxing Federation, having already all qualified for the London 2012 Olympics. Plus the reigning Middleweight individual champion Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and three other foreign boxers from the first season Vitaliy Volvov, Nikolajs Grisunins and Benjey Zimmerman.
The roster was then completed with eleven new recruits, the young Raphael Munno, Italian youth champion in 2008, and ten foreign boxers. The Milano Thunder confirmed with these new additions that it has become a real Intercontinental Championship team, providing a showcase for the talents of the boxing world. Twelve countries are represented within the Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder squad which includes South Americans, an Argentine and two Brazilians as well as a representation of boxers coming from Eastern Europe and Africa.
Their Bantamweight fighter is an established champion, Veaceslav Gojan from Moldova, bronze medallist at the last Olympics. The Lightweights will be led by Miklos Varga of Hungary, and the young and talented Argentine Juan Carrasco Herrera.
The three new entries are Brazilian Pedro Alvaro Santos de Lima, gold medallist at the 2010 Military Games, Irishman William Mc Loughlin, and the promising Italian Raffaele Munno.
Having determined that the weak point was the Light Heavyweight category, adding to Nikolajs Grisunins, they have recruited Rafael Lima, five times Brazilian champion, Imre Szello, European bronze medallist, and most significantly Ludovic Groguhé, the revelation of the first season who led Paris United to victory. The transfer of the Frenchman is a real coup and marks a huge step forward in the Milano Thunder’s quest for WSB glory.
Clemente Russo and Benjey Zimmerman will be joined in the Heavyweights by Poland’s Michal Olas and Ngoula Tangoum Romarick from Cameroon. The new format to this season’s competition will make for a more exciting and spectacular boxing showpiece.
The Dolce & Gabbana Milano Thunder season begins 11 November in Mumbai, who make their debut in the World Series of Boxing. The first home match will then be the week after, Friday 18 November, against the Los Angeles Matadors at the Mediolanum Forum, south of Milan.
All the Dolce & Gabbana Milan Thunder home ties will be transmitted live by Sportitalia. For all non-Italian viewers, follow every minute of the action on the WSB official YouTube channel.
