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Giacobbe Fragomeni vs. Silvio Branco 1 (2012-03-17)

I remember there being a buzz about this fight in the hardcore boxing community when it popped up online. I made a mental note to track it down and watch it at some point. Here we finally are.

Both guys have been around forever, though I have only seen them fight once each. Fragomeni had what I thought was a great battle against Zolt Erdei. It turned out to be Erdei's final big bout in Germany before being put out to pasture and falling into obscurity. Fragomeni pushed Zolt to the limit and then some. As a result it was probably the most interesting fight Erdei ever had.

Silvio Branco is a weird looking dude. He has the look and build of a Pro Wrestler. He looks like some dude Vince McMahon would sign if he was trying to break into the Italian market and needed a homegrown guy to bust the door down. My only memory of him is being Jean Pascal's mandatory before the rematch with Adrian Diacanu. It was an ugly and awkward fight. Like most Pascal fights where he does his Pseudo Roy Jones act. Cept Branco's length and style made it even worse. Pascal got a late round TKO stoppage. Being Canadian the most depressing part of this fight was that it was only available on PPV! Fuck you InterBox.

Usually two aging cruiser weights with some pop and defensive liabilities make for an entertaining fight.

The basis of this are pretty simple in theory. Branco uses his height and reach to batter Fragomeni at a distance. Fragomeni's only way to win is to get inside and rough Branco up and slowly break him down and hope to stop him late. Seems simple enough, right?


The first round is a pretty pedestrian feeling out round. Round 2 things start to pick up a bit. Branco is heavily relying on his jab and Frago is constantly trying to pick off shots with his gloves and work his way inside and batter Brancos body for a pay off later in the fight. Both are fairly good at accomplishing there goals. Anytime Branco is trapped on the ropes Frago unleashes a flurry of body punches. For being such a tall muscular dude Branco seems like a light ass puncher. Round 4 has some great exchanges along the ropes. Though Frago is obviously the heavier puncher Branco holds his own and even turns the tables and puts Frago on the ropes at one point.  Round 5 is pretty quiet until 1 min or so left. Another big exchange on the ropes that Frago gets the better of. Round 6 and 7 are really a turning point for Branco. He is able to dig down and win exchanges with Frago and successfully back him up and make you feel like maybe he can turn the tide of the fight around. Frago turns it around in the next 3. Round 10, 11 have some very exquisite exchanges between the two. but I favor Frago based on his punches having more pop on them still. Round 12 could have been really great but the over anxious Euro ref fucks up the flow of combat by continually injecting himself. He should have just let the action play out. Either way this was a great fight. I didn't really properly score it but I felt like Frago won the majority of rounds. That being said Branco was in it the whole way and gave a very good account of himself even when the fight was inside. Looks like we have to do this one again. Can't say I'm mad at that.

Judges score cards: 114-114, 115-115, 113-115. Majority Draw