Rocco Vassallo, boxer and model. The interview with Sportweek

Rocco Vassallo is a bit like that dog of which De Gregori sang, the one who does not know where to go but still goes there. In a world of canned athletes, he is craftsmanship as the good focaccia. He is a professional boxer with a Mr. Record (13 wins, 11 of which for Ko and no defeat) and the WBC life belt of the Welter champion of the Caribbean countries, where he led without discounts. He got there alone. He does not have a manager, he does not have a coach, he does not have a trainer, he does not have a nutritionist, he does not even have a fixed gym. It changes one a day, wherever the instinct takes it. He beats like a fury but has the calm speech of a sailor who looks at the horizon. And the good focaccia can really do it.

Sestri Levante, Vassallo Bakery, since 1930.

“Dad’s bakery, I was the joker: I served customers, I made sweets, bread. I knew how to do everything, even pulling the package at the last moment. Luckily they covered me …”

Stefano Vassallo did not only make bread …

“But no, it was good boxing, better than me. He made a good career at national level but he had bad luck, I like to think that I took the good fortune that he did not go to him. But up to 60 years he trained, eh, I saw him throw down from old several young people …”

In short, a classic. Pagile dad, boxing son.

“Well, he threw me there in the gym, he showed me the blows, I looked at him training, but I could do what I wanted. And I tell you: if he had put me in the type ‘sti children I see on Instagram, all concentrated and clarified, now I would not have the desire I have now”

But then you still chose to make boxing.

“Eh, it is not known why I said to dad that I wanted to be a boxer but it was not true. Friends played football and I didn’t, I would have liked it. However I started with him, then in Genoa, then I came to Milan from Cherchi and Florence from Bundu and again in Liguria to Arenzano …”

And then you left Italy. What happened?

“I had to debut as a professional in Liguria, in 2021. I had a place at the bottom of a meeting, then he turns that turns you in the end they make me out and it is not known why I see the video and the announcer says: ‘Today we end soon, only 6 matches’. Understanding? It is bad? It hurts like this, a bad dog. A boy at the beginning of his career you have to help him, give him opportunities. But it is difficult, no more?

So Rocco goes to America, in Miami.

“The spring was my friend Gabriele, Surfista, Di Levanto. ‘Go, try it, at the beginning I give you a hand’. Boh, I go there. And suddenly I find myself doing gloves with very strong people, so I understand that I am worth much more than what they had made me believe in Italy”.

In a permanent place you are never there.

“I don’t know how to explain why, to always stay in the same place the waves of the brain I hear them lower, here. And if I am not stimulated I don’t go strong. Today for example I made a beautiful workout with three quite low, but the fact of being in a new situation motivates me. Then I like the different methods, I learn a little from everyone. I know that without a fixed teacher I lose a little linearity, eh.

“Sometimes they call me for sparring and they pay me, sometimes I move because I have time. I go there, I introduce myself and I ask to do the gloves with the best there are. I trained in PuertoRico, Mexico, Atlanta, Raleigh, Tampa, anywhere. If I think that in Sestri I trained with my friend Marco Righetti, centering in the Ligurian cell. blowers and we did round on the Botte Round … ”

The strong ones you train with?

“I remember that I arrived in Miami at 10 in the evening and the next morning I was doing Sparring with Mark De Luca. Then I trained with Curmel Moton, the Mayweather pupil, with Francis Hogan, Luis Palomino, Chris Colbert … they introduce me to their teachers, I create the hooks, and who gives me a hand then I also go back to the gym.

“But it goes, very Italian, wives and oxen of your countries. And then English I don’t still know so well. The Spaniard yes, I spent a few months in the Dominican Republic, I speak their slang just”

You don’t have a gym, you don’t have a coach, you don’t even have a trainer and a nutritionist …

“But I’m 1.87 tall and I do without problems 64 kilos alone. You see stupid are not. I inform myself, I study …”

And how do you do without manager? Have you ever thought that you had one would have exploded before or better?

“If Bob Arum asks me to go with him I go there. Or even Joe Deguardia, we ate a pizza together and he told me that I am strong and that if he has a hole in a good meeting he puts on me. One so yes, with another I do? I don’t need one who sends me a contract and bye. For me they speak the facts, I have 13 victories, zero defeats and money with the boxing I have not lost them. Do you only live boxing in Miami?

“No, I work in a fitness gym, the boss is an ex boxer, even when it happens it helps me. I tell him: do you 5 rounds? And he bum, 5 rounds. Understand?

Are you champion of the Caribe, as a foreigner how do they treat you?

“Well, they consider me one of them. Only once one has opened an eyebrow with a head and then I won on the points. If I had given it I would have disqualified me for life”.

“Once they called me for a match in Catania: 1,200 euros, I didn’t even pay for the plane. In Italy anyone never gave me a hand. What do I do, I come to make the points to others? It does not exist. Here they know me and respect me all, in my country nobody talks about me. On the social networks of the Federation I see the videos of all the boxers but I never want to go so much, what I want to go. to look for the slices of others “.

How is the Italian boxing level?

“There are good boxing boxes, even of my weight even better than me. But I consider myself intelligent, I always train hard, I am constant and I don’t give up a C …. So I have passed so many people who were further back than me. In the ring I just need to take a shock to get the anger out”.

On your social networks there are also glossy photos. Did you also do the model?

“Ah, yes, in Florence … I was having the waiter in a restaurant, a customer asked me from the boss who called me: he was one who recruited the models for Pitti. They made me take a round ride and gave me 300 euros, an experience. Not to boast, eh, but I was much more beautiful I of all the other models there. He had also taken me a fashion agency, a disappointment: even in the boxing if you want to have one thing. For boxing I can do it, I can slam, instead that desire there to do the model I don’t have it “