The manager, wife of “Lonewolf” Magnesi and daughter of “Barbaro”: “I grew up and live with boxing which is still a male world. I invite Sheikh Alalshikh to look to Italy. The future? The WBC Gold super featherweight crown for Alessandro and more TV for our sport”
President of Magnesi boxing teamorganizer, promoter for her husband Michael “Lonewolf” Magnesi, daughter of Silvio Branco… in Alessandra Branco’s life boxing arrived before weaning and, from her words, we understand that nothing different could have happened.
She was surrounded by boxing and its world at a very young age…
“We can certainly say this: when I was born, on January 3, 1992, I breathed the air of this environment, I grew up in this atmosphere; the rest came by itself, naturally”.
When did you realize you wanted to be part of it?
“I was a teenager. I would say that between the ages of fifteen and sixteen I began to be interested in everything that revolves around the organization of boxing events and consequently to dream of taking an active part in them. This is not the case for all the children of boxers, obviously. In my case, even before undertaking the course of studies to graduate in Economics and Business, I had already understood that I would also put my degree at the service of this vocation.”
At the time, then, it was an exclusively male world, today?
“Even today: to use a euphemism, I would say that it is not full of organizers. In other words: only once did I have to deal with an organizer and she was neither Italian nor European; she was Argentinian. Therefore, I interface with a world that is still totally male today.”
What memories do you have of the period in which father Silvio fought?
“I was a child, but I lived the daily life of her preparation, the rhythms that marked it, the stages leading up to the matches, what she ate and what she couldn’t eat, the sounds and smells of life in the gym”.
Were your classmates curious?
“Yes, even the teachers sometimes. Dad is known nationally for what he achieved, but in Civitavecchia he was and is a real local glory. They asked me many things, they always had many questions and were quite intrigued by the stories of a little girl who lived in certain atmospheres”.
On the other hand, with your husband Michael Magnesi, can you separate the role of manager from that of wife? Is it possible to close boxing outside the door every now and then to just experience the family dimension?
“It’s very difficult. I would say almost impossible. The difficulties, the commitment of preparation, the tension that rises when the match approaches, the daily routine marked by the fine-tuning of his physique in view of the match, the meticulous attention to nutrition, given that after a match he accumulates weight, not being like a natural super feather in size. To give an example, in the two weeks preceding the match, he is so careful about every detail of his diet that he drinks water from a cup of coffee, to keep fluid intake is also under control. Therefore, I would say that boxing on the part of our ménage never ‘leaves’ our home, we manage to switch off no more than fifteen days a year, more or less, when we go on holiday in the summer, since he had the opportunity to dedicate himself exclusively to being a boxer”.
What historical moment are we experiencing regarding the relationship between women and combat sports?
“I don’t like women’s boxing, especially given what the Italian panorama offers. There isn’t a champion, in my opinion, nor even one who has the status of a character, as happens in the United States and also in other countries; this is why I don’t have women in my team.”
Despite her age, she is now a veteran of this environment, as an organizer and manager. In Italy there is no shortage of practitioners. What is needed, then, to relaunch boxing among the public? What could television do?
“We are far away, there is a lack of important national free-to-air TVs that offer boxing with decent spaces and times. If Mediaset 20 offers a delayed match, at a late hour, while the results of the matches on the internet are known in real time, who waits longer than midnight to watch a match of which they already know the result?”
We are a little distant from the hype and the profusion of means that someone like Sheikh Turki Alalshikh can mobilise, even in the television sector…
“Turki stages what he wants and where he wants, obviously. It’s good for boxing at the highest levels that there is a character with his means capable of staging events such as the great confrontations we are witnessing. We must hope first of all that he doesn’t get tired of the ‘toy’ and then that sooner or later he gets the idea to look out and ‘cast an eye’ on Italy too… I would like to point out that television stations do not pay rights for the matches: in 99.9% of the cases In some cases the ‘payment’ consists in the transmission of events. In some rare cases they give out very paltry sums, which do not even cover the costs. This is why we are far from the earnings of the past.”
A wish for 2026.
“The answer is easy, one above all: that we can complete the path that should lead Michael to conquer the WBC Gold Super Featherweight belt.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED