Results from “The Night of Three Crowns” in Italy

About 4,000 spectators were in attendance at the famed Velodromo Vigorelli for The Night of Three Crowns. This was a huge success by Italian standards. In recent years, the boxing shows held in Milan never drew more than 1,500 people.

In the fight for the interim WBA light heavyweight title, Silvio Branco outclassed Manny Siaca. The Puerto Rican looked like an amateur and wasn’t able to score any significant punches. He never showed any aggressivity at all. Most journalists wondered how could he be rated number one by the WBA. The fight wasn’t spectacular and there were many boos by the crowd. A guy seated in the V.I.P. section even launched a crash helmet into the ring. There were also some heavy words between a spectator and one of Siaca’s seconds. After 12 one-sided rounds, the three judges scored it 119-109 for Branco.

European light middleweight champion Michele Piccirillo easily disposed of Luca Messi. The so-called Bergamo Bomber had talked a lot about being more aggressive than Piccirillo, but his words weren’t followed by any action. Piccirillo showed far superior skills, conditioning and accuracy forcing Messi to quit during the 11th round.

In the best fight of the night, Andrea Sarritzu came from behind to win the European flyweight belt from Ivan Pozo. Sarritzu went down in the opening stanza, but got up immediately and slowly took control of the action. By the 10th round, the Italian was the ruler. In the 12th round, Sarritzu hit with a beautiful combination Pozo, who was stopped by the referee. Pozo didn’t complain, but his cornermen did. A few seconds later, Pozo collapsed and stayed on the ring floor for several minutes. The doctors jumped into the ring, put Pozo on a stretcher and brought him to the hospital. A few hours later, Pozo recovered.

In six rounds fights, former WBC super middleweight champion Cristian Sanavia outpointed Sylvain Gomis and Giuseppe Lauri dominated Waldimir Borov.

The Night of Three Crowns was part of the celebration of Primo Carnera’s 100th birthday. Carnera’s daughter Giovanna Maria was special guest and gave an award to Andrea Sarritzu as best fighter of the show.