By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated Italian featherweight prospect Giampiero Contestabile (10-0, 5 KOs) defeated David Chianella (15-5-2, 4 KOs) to win the Italian featherweight title after the bout was stopped in the 2nd round with Chianella suffering a badly broken nose on Friday night in a scheduled 10-round title bout at the Palasport, Avezzano, L’Aquila, in Abruzzo, Italy. Contestabile, 5’10”, using his considerable height and reach advantage over the shorter 5’6″ Chianella, pounded him with long jabs and fast combinations for two rounds.
In the 2nd round, however, Contestabile appeared to break Chianella nose with a fast left-right combination at close range, sending him immediately backwards where he turned his back and went to the side of the ring to have his nose, now bleeding like a faucet, examined. The referee then had the ring doctor examine three separate times, allowing the fight to continue briefly in between examinations. It was clear, however, that his nose was too badly broken because the blood was pouring out all over the chest of Chianella. By then, his nose had swelled up considerbly to the point where the doctor could no longer ignore the injury and then called off the fight at that point. The bout then went to the scorecards, with Contestabile winning the fight due to his domination of both rounds.
In the 1st round, Contestabile used his long jab to tag the shorter Chianella repeatedly, hitting him with fast pumping shots to the face again and again. Not knowing what to do in order to close the distance, Chianella charged forward at one point and blindly crashed into Contestabile, ricocheting of of him like a rubber ball. Chianella then began throwing wild, disparate-looking shots which Contestabile expertly leaned away from making the shots miss harmlessly in the air right in front of him.
Contestabile, in turn, didn’t miss with his own as he continued blasting him with fast jabs and short combinations whenever Chianella would come forward. Near the end of the round, Chianella tagged Contestabile with a right hand which knocked him to the canvas. The referee, though, ruled that it was a slip rather than a legitimate knockdown. However, from what I saw of it I felt that it was a clear knockdown. It was too bad that the referee missed the knockdown, because it seemed pretty clear at the time. Contestabile came back immediately after and resumed jabbing Chianella with hard jabs and keeping him at a distance.
In the 2nd round, the action was slow at the start with both fighters missing frequently with shots, while clinching often. Contestabile, however, began to work his double jab to the face of Chianella. After getting hit with a couple of these hard double jabs, Chianella came inside and walked into a short left-right combination, thrown very hard by Contestabile which broke Chianella’s nose on impact. He immediately turned away in pain and had his badly bleeding nose looked at by the referee.
The ringside doctor was then brought in to take a look, and after trying to stop the bleeding, and not succeeding, he allowed the fight to continue briefly. Contestabile then shot a series of jabs to the face of Chianella, who looked in considerable pain with each punch to the face. The doctor then stopped the fight to take another look at Chianella’s badly bleeding nose, which was now pouring gushing blood all down the chest of Chianella onto the canvas, drenching his trunks and shoes.
Incredibly, the doctor allowed the fight to continue, and once again Contestabile resumed pasting Chianella with hard jabs to the face, specifically to his nose. After being forced to eat a half dozen more jabs from Contestabile, the fight was stopped for the final time as the doctor checked Chianella’s nose for the third time. After a quick examination, the doctor finally had the referee wave off the fight, allowing it to go to the cards.