It’s two out of two for Italy at the Boxing Grand Prix tournament organized by the WBC in collaboration with Riyadh Season! After the impressive performance by Muhamet Qamili that we reported yesterday, Fiorenzo Priolo also secured a clear victory, advancing past the round of 32 in the super lightweight division with an authoritative points win over the dangerous Kazakh Nurzhan Serikbayev.
From the opening exchanges, it was clear that Priolo was able to consistently pierce his opponent’s guard with straight punches—like knives through butter, they slipped swiftly between Serikbayev’s gloves.
Realizing he couldn’t compete in terms of skill, the Kazakh quickly turned to brute force, resulting in a high-paced first round. Our fighter showed off a solid chin, absorbing several heavy hooks from his opponent without flinching and responding immediately with sharp combinations.
From the second round on, Priolo—wisely guided in the corner by his coach Cristian De Martinis—tightened up his defense and began to dominate every phase of the contest. The Italian read his opponent’s loaded hooks a second in advance, made him miss, and countered with surgical precision.
Outclassed in terms of technique, timing, and accuracy, Serikbayev kept advancing bravely. In the fourth round, he launched wild attacks, but they had no effect. Like a seasoned veteran, the 22-year-old Italian handled the situation calmly and coolly, blocking and dodging most of his opponent’s shots.
Serikbayev was so out of ideas that at the end of the fifth round—another one clearly won by Priolo—he resorted to a desperate counterpunching strategy, hoping to lure the Italian into a trap and land a lucky shot, but it was all in vain.
Only in the final round did Priolo briefly lose focus, perhaps aware that he was comfortably ahead, and was caught off guard by a few dangerous combinations. However, he quickly regained full concentration and fought hard until the final bell.
There was no doubt about who deserved to move on: while the first and last rounds were relatively balanced, Priolo dominated from the second to the fifth and was deservedly declared the unanimous winner. Official scores from the three judges: 58–56, 59–55, 58–56.
A very positive performance by our fighter, who can now look ahead with confidence. In the round of 16, he will face Turkish boxer Efe Derin Konuk, who today defeated the tall southpaw Olmo De Paz of Spain by unanimous decision.
Konuk is a calculated fighter who waits at the center of the ring, studying his opponent carefully before launching sudden attacks. Despite being just 22 years old, he already has a good amount of professional experience, having faced several unbeaten opponents in Thailand.
His relatively low work rate and tendency to fade in intense moments may highlight Priolo’s excellent consistency, which, in my opinion, makes him the slight favorite. But we’ll get to that later—for now, let’s celebrate our young prospect, who passed his first real test in top-level boxing with flying colors.