By Erik Schmidt: In a battle of former Olympians, Italian welterweight prospect Michele Di Rocco (21-1-1, 9 KOs) defeated Janos Petrovics (14-21, 7 KOs) by an six-round decision on Friday night at the Palasport di Via Austria, Grosseto, in Toscana, Italy. Di Rocco, 26, nicknamed “The King,” fought for Italy as a Light Welterweight at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, dominated the 37 year-old Petrovics, a 1992 Olympian for the Hungary team. The fight was for the most part one-sided, as Di Rocco used a high volume offense, which included a lot of short flurries, to defeat Petrovic over the six rounds.
Di Rocco came out at a high pace in the first round, throwing fast combinations and looking as if he wanted to end matters immediately. Petrovics, however, was too sound defensively and had too strong of a chin to be taken out quickly, and he easily weathered the early storm, firing back with his own shots and catching Di Rocco often.
Although Di Rocco’s offense was quite good, reminding me of a light version of Antonio Margarito, his defense was atrocious, as he lacked any real fundamentals such as blocking shots, using head movement or leaning away from punches. When he was attacked, he would often retreat straight back and would take punches as he went.
In the 2nd round, Di Rocco used a lot of jabs and power shots against Petrovic, winding up on his power shots and putting a lot of energy in his attacks. He looked really tight and seemed to be pressing too hard to try and get Petrovic out quickly. It wasn’t working, as Petrovic, who was fighting very relaxed, took whatever shots that Di Rocco landed and would fire back with jabs to the head.
Di Rocco began attacking much harder in the 3rd round, abandoning his jab completely and trying to overwhelm Petrovic with punches. At one point in the round, Di Rocco was warned for placing his outstretched glove on the head of Petrovic while trying to measure him with punches.
However, it was clear that if Di Rocco wanted to win the fight, he wasn’t going to be getting it by trying to knock Petrovic out, because he didn’t have the power to accomplish this, and Petrovic’s chin was too good to be taken by the weak shots that Di Rocco was throwing.
In rounds four through six, it was all Di Rocco, who did basically all the punching, throwing a massive amount of shots in each round, almost all of them power shots, and trying hard to stop Petrovic. In the end, Di Rocco got the win but showed in my estimation that he doesn’t have the power needed to be a top player in the welterweight division.
In other action on the card, another former Olympian from the Italian team (2000), Sven Paris (26-3, 18 KOs) stopped Romanian Leonid Smetanca (5-6) in the 2nd round of a scheduled six round bout. Paris, 28, only 5’7″, knocked the tall, slender Smetanca down four times in the bout, with the fight ending after Paris dropped Smetanca with a right to the body in the 2nd round. Referee Luciano Nigro then stopped it at 0:45 of the round, even though Smetanca looked as if he could still fight.
For a former Olympian, Paris looked pretty amateurish, showing few skills and looked more crude and unpolished as he repeatedly bum rushed Smetanca in the opening round, often ramming into him as he would charge forward, knocking the thin Smetanca into the ropes.
With a built similar to Ricky Hatton, but without his excellent inside fighting skills, Paris was totally focused on trying to run Smetanca over and didn’t seem to care in the least about using any real boxing skills. Smetanca, 28, attempted to create some distance and use his jab. However, Paris, using a low crouch, stalked him continuously around the ring, and then running at him to land hard shots.
In the opening minute of the round, Paris knocked Smetanca down with a left to the midsection, and then while he was down, Paris landed a nice right to the head for good measure. The referee didn’t say anything about the two late punches and merely started giving Smetanca the count. After Smetanca got up, he briefly tried to jab and move around the ring.
However, not long after, Paris landed powerful left-right combination to Smetanca’s midsection, sending him down again. And, once again, Paris landed some punches while Smetanca was down, this time a hard combination to the head as he sat kneeling. It seemed odd that the referee didn’t penalize or have a long discussion with Paris, because the punches were clearly late, as Smetanca was down and it seemed unfair.
In the 2nd round, Paris continued aggressively attacking Smetanca and focusing a lot on working his body. A short time into the round, Paris knocked Smetanca down with a right-left to the body. Smetanca got up off the canvas, breathing hard as if in pain and looking like he had the wind knocked out of him.
The action resumed and he was immediately knocked down again as Paris came running at him from across the ring, landing a right to the body that sent Smetanca down for the 4th and final time in the fight. The referee then stopped the fight at 0:45 of the round.