The heavyweight tournament of the Boxing Grand Prix starts well for Italy. Our representative, Davide Brito, comfortably passed the Round of 32 with a clear points win over France’s Clément Gillet. The Italian’s dominance was confirmed by the judges’ identical scorecards of 60–54, awarding all six rounds to Brito unanimously.
The Tuscan boxer began the bout cautiously, moving quickly along the ropes and studying the moves of his shorter opponent, who meanwhile sought to close the distance. Once Brito deciphered Gillet’s style—his best shot being a stepping left cross—he started letting his hands go, and from then on, there was no contest.
Brito’s punches found their way through the guard with disarming ease, overwhelming the unfortunate Gillet, who was too stiff in his approach to avoid the sharp counters that stood between him and his target.
After absorbing a considerable number of shots, the Frenchman went all-in in the third round, producing two minutes of high-intensity action during which he managed to score some partial success. However, the effort left him breathless, and Brito capitalized brilliantly by closing the round in dominant fashion, nullifying Gillet’s brief surge.
In the fourth round, both boxers slowed down to recover from the previous wild exchanges: their punches lost some snap, and clinches became more frequent. Nonetheless, the cleaner and more effective work continued to come from the Italian.
At the start of the fifth, the open scoring revealed Brito’s unassailable lead, which gave him even more confidence. He boxed the final two rounds with complete control of the ring, even pulling off some stylish duck-and-roll maneuvers to evade Gillet’s desperate looping hooks.
Only the icing on the cake was missing—a knockout. In the last round, Brito did manage to stagger his opponent briefly with a right hook, but couldn’t find the opening for a finishing blow. No matter: the points win was clear and unquestionable, just what he needed to build confidence for the next stages of the tournament.
In the Round of 16, Davide will face the American puncher Devon Young, who stopped his opponent today in the second round. It will undoubtedly be a more demanding and dangerous challenge for our fighter, as Young is extremely powerful and highly aggressive. However, the American often loses his shape during his wild attacks, and Brito’s team will need to come up with a solid strategy to punish the South Carolinian’s recklessness.