Alessio Furlan (born 16 October 1976) is an Italian

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. He is a former

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

Mediterranean and Italian junior-middleweight champion.. Retrieved 27 January 2016.

Debut and Kaddour fight

Furlan boxed to national level as an amateur before turning professional in May 2001, winning his first fight at

Settimo Torinese Settimo Torinese ( pms, Ël Seto) is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, in Piedmont, Italy. The name ''settimo'' means "seventh", and it comes from the comune's distance from Turin, which is seven Roman miles. It is bordered by the oth ...

, Italy, in which Furlan knocked out

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n Robert Andrasik in the third of six rounds. Furlan's explosive knockout power eluded him in his following fights although Furlan remained undefeated in his first five fights. Furlan then fought US based Lebanese boxer Ahmed Kaddour, a former contestant on '' The Contender'', the

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series. The fight took place at

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

, Germany. The fight went the full distance with Kaddour winning narrowly on points to inflict Furlan with the first defeat of his professional career.

Cotena title fights

After sixteen fights, Furlan fought in his first title fight when he faced Neapolitan Elio Cotena in July 2004 for the Italian Light Middleweight Title at the Toscolano Maderno,

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. The first fight was stopped in the fourth round and called a technical draw. A rematch was then scheduled to take place in November 2004 in Turin. This time Furlan emerged the victor with a sixth round stoppage. In October 2005, Furlan faced Alexander Polizzi for the vacant

Mediterranean Light Middleweight Title in Rivarolo Canavese. Furlan added to title to his tally with a tenth-round knockout over Polizzi.

Sylvester WBA Inter-Continental title fight

Furlan's highest profile fight came in March 2007 against Germany's European Middleweight title holder

Sebastian Sylvester Sebastian Sylvester (born 9 July 1980) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2011 and held the International Boxing Federation, IBF middleweight title from 2009 to 2011. Professional career In March 2007 Sylvester ret ...

for the WBA Inter-Continental Middleweight Title at the Stadthalle,

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

, Germany. Sylvester was due to fight Amin Asikainen but Asikainen pulled out due to injury. The fight took place on the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

of a

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that included Alexander Povetkin,

Timo Hoffmann Timo Hoffmann (born 25 September 1974) is a German professional boxer and multiple-time European heavyweight title challenger. He is perhaps best known as being the only fighter for nearly a decade (from 2000 to 2009) to have gone the full dist ...

, Robert Stieglitz and Alejandro Berrio. Sylvester controlled much of the fight Furlan having spells of success. Furlan was down in the seventh round however he rallied and pushed Sylvester cutting him in the tenth round however the fight was stopped by the referee in the final round. Sylvester stated that Furlan "an iron head" and that there was little he could do that would stop Furlan and was surprised at the stamina of Furlan and the punches he could take. Furlan's follow up fight, in May 2007, was a victory over Hungarian Attila Kiss.

Duddy fight

Furlan was lined up to be the first opponent of what was being billed as ''"The Homecoming"'' of

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fighter

John Duddy John Francis Duddy (born 19 June 1979) is an Irish actor and former professional boxer who fought from 2003 to 2010. He challenged once for the vacant WBC Silver middleweight title, losing in his final fight to Julio César Chávez Jr.

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, Ireland. Furlan stated that he was going to spoil Duddy's homecoming and upset his perfect record because he had spotted a weakness in Duddy's style and was going to expoilt that. Furlan was quoted as saying ''"“I have great respect for John Duddy but I will come with my own tactical plan to beat him. He is tough and not afraid of anyone so he’s just like me in that respect. I will be out to spoil his homecoming but I’ll buy Duddy a pint of Guinness afterwards to apologise for beating him!"''. The fight was a keenly contested bout with both fighters suffering cuts. Duddy floored Furlan in the tenth round however Furlan rose to beat the count. Duddy sensed that Furlan was in trouble and piled forward and floored Furlan again at which point the referee stopped the fight with less than ten seconds to go in the fight.

References

External links

Official website of Alessio Furlan
in Italian * {{DEFAULTSORT:Furlan, Alessio 1976 births Living people People from Ivrea Italian male boxers Super-middleweight boxers Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Turin