Vincenzo Gualtieri wins as an underdog against the Brazilian Falcao and is world champion. He is the first German since 2016 with a major title.
A frenetic university hall in Wuppertal drove the local hero Vincenzo Gualtieri forward. And the underdog from Germany delivered a great fight against the Brazilian Falcao.
From the start, a fight developed at high speed. Falcao drove the man from Wuppertal in front of him with his right hand. But Gualtieri was also able to set good accents.
Falcao already counted for round two
In the second round, the Wuppertaler set the first exclamation mark of the fight. A left uppercut from the Wuppertaler first hit the Brazilian’s liver, another left uppercut immediately afterwards hit the head – Falcao went to his knees and was counted.
Gualtieri continued to rely on his footwork in the following rounds, boxing out of reverse. Falcao always managed to put Gualtieri in the corner of the ring. But the German also had good actions again and again and came through with combinations to the head or the left uppercut.
Excitement in round seven
But the fight remained close and exciting. But from the fifth round it became more and more apparent that the hard work in fitness in Wuppertal could pay off. Gualtieri remained agile on his feet and repeatedly scored well and variably. But when it seemed that Falcao’s intensity was waning, the Brazilian shifted up a gear.
In the seventh round, the fight experienced another excitement. When attempting to free himself from a pressure situation with another left uppercut, Gualtieri’s punch landed in Falcao’s low blow area. The Brazilian went down and rolled around screaming in pain. The referee counted Falcao out anyway. However, he then stopped the fight and allowed Falcao to rest. He didn’t see the action as intentional and allowed the fight to continue after a few minutes.
Fast pace to the end
In round 10 the favorite had to go down again. Falcao fell to his knees after Gualtieri was hit in the body and again complained that he had been hit too deeply. But the referee shook his head and counted out Falcao again – a controversial situation that ultimately benefited the German.
The high speed that both fighters went was amazing until the end. The fight never seemed decided in rounds 11 and 12 either. Both athletes had good actions and hits again and again. It was a fight clearly worthy of a world championship.
After 12 tight rounds, the judges’ votes had to decide. And given the course of the fight, they were surprisingly unanimous. The Wuppertaler won unanimously on points and thus for the first time since 2016 a German boxer wears a belt with one of the four big world associations.