#WSBV Day 12 – Italia Thunder continue home dominance with victory over Rafako Hussars Poland
12 April 2015
WSB Day 12 Ita vs Pol
An excellent performance in Andria saw Italia Thunder defeat Rafako Hussars Poland 4-1 in the World Series of Boxing (WSB).
This was an important result for the Italian Franchise heading into the last two matches of the Regular Season as they aim to reach the knockout stages of Season V.
In addition to team success for the Italians, their Light heavyweight (81 kg) Valentino Manfredonia made a giant step towards qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games through WSB, as he defeated Poland’s 1-3 Mateusz Jerzy Tryc on points.
Manfredonia is 6-0 this season, and now leads the Light heavyweight rankings outright after his main rival Julio Cesar La Cruz lost on Friday night.
It was a routine victory for the Italian who dropped just one round on a single scorecard, and he will head into his last Regular Season match in two weeks time full of confidence.
Although Ireland’s Steven Donnelly won his fifth match of the campaign for his Polish team against Italy’s Dario Morello, the third ranked Welterweight (69 kg) is likely to miss out on reaching Rio 2016 via this competition.
After the top two ranked Welterweights Radzhab Butaev and Mohammed Rabii both won earlier on in week 12, Donnelly’s split decision victory left him six points behind with just one match to go.
Donnelly was awarded the fight 48-47 on two scorecards, while Morello was given the same score by the third judge.
The night began with a victory for the Thunder at Flyweight (52 kg) when India’s Gaurav Bidhuri won every round against Poland’s Grzegorz Kozlowski.
Italian Lightweight (60 kg) Fabio Introvaia then edged a split decision over Poland’s Mateusz Polski in a tight contest.
Introvaia controlled the first three rounds of the fight, but Polski rallied in the latter stages leading to one judge awarding him the victory by a single point.
Both of the remaining judges preferred the work of the Italian by scores of 49-46 and 48-47.
The 4-1 win for Italy was confirmed at Super heavyweight (91+ kg) when reigning Italian Champion Alessio Spahiu outpointed Roger Hryniuk.
Italia Thunder travel to Caciques Venezuela next week, while Rafako Hussars Poland host USA Knockouts.
