A bittersweet balance sheet for Italian boxing in the quarterfinals of the Boxing Grand Prix, the tournament organized by the WBC in collaboration with Riyadh Season. In the super lightweight division, 22-year-old Fiorenzo Priolo, despite delivering a very generous performance, was eliminated by South Africa’s Ntethelelo Nkosi, who skillfully exploited his power advantage. Immense joy instead for Muhamet Qamili, who overturned the pre-fight predictions by defeating American rising star Troy Nash despite terrible refereeing that heavily penalized him.
Fiorenzo Priolo vs Ntethelelo Nkosi – Super Lightweight Quarterfinals
In our preview, we had anticipated a high-intensity match, and the facts proved us right. The two fighters wasted no time on the usual feeling-out phase and courageously met in the center of the ring, with Nkosi standing out for the explosiveness of his combinations and Priolo finishing the evenly balanced opening round on a high note with his trademark flurries.
The second round was an excellent one for our fighter, who gave his opponent no breathing room and often beat him to the punch with fast, relentless shots. However, from the very first partial score announcement at the end of round two, it became clear that the judges weren’t too fond of Priolo’s style. Two had the fight even, while the third had Nkosi ahead by two points.
From the third round onward, the Italian’s accuracy dipped slightly, and in the fourth he made a mistake very similar to the one that had cost him a knockdown in the round of 16. Coming out of an exchange, Priolo dropped his left hand, leaving the left side of his face completely unprotected. Nkosi seized the moment to land a vicious right hook, scoring the only knockdown of the bout.
Priolo thus entered the last two rounds trailing by three points on all scorecards — a gap he could have closed only by knocking down his tough opponent. The Italian tried with all his might, landing a huge number of left uppercuts to the liver and even managing to momentarily shake Nkosi with a fully loaded right hand.
The South African, however, proved extremely durable, weathered the storm, and in the closing stages capitalized on his young opponent’s fatigue to secure the win. Nkosi’s victory was therefore fair, even though in the opinion of this writer, the five-point margin on the cards was overly harsh.
Although forced to leave the tournament earlier than he had hoped, Fiorenzo Priolo can feel proud of his run. These three bouts have certainly added valuable experience to his resume and will be crucial in his growth as a fighter.
Muhamet Qamili vs Troy Nash – Featherweight Quarterfinals
Barely enough time to fasten the seat belts and Qamili had already pulled off a surprise move to immediately unsettle the highly favored opponent: the Italo-Albanian actually began the match in a southpaw stance. Nash, however, didn’t seem the least bit fazed and countered his rival’s flurries with lightning-fast counterpunches.
For two rounds, the American looked truly untouchable: his arms snapped out at just the right moment with explosiveness and sharp timing. His boxing was also more varied than what he had shown in recent outings, with his trademark long-range straight punches interspersed with excellent uppercuts to the body.
Qamili, however, never lost confidence for a single second. Even after dropping the first two rounds and taking a brutal right hand — which caught him off guard while in a square stance and forced him to take a few steps back — our flag-bearer kept attacking fearlessly, knowing his moment would come.
And indeed, during an electrifying third round, it became clear that the momentum was shifting. The two fighters traded blows several times in a crescendo of spectacular exchanges, but although Nash still managed to land with decent accuracy, he seemed to be losing some of the explosiveness that had characterized his early dominance.
From the fourth round on, what had been only a feeling became a certainty. Nash’s punches grew slower, less effective, and less frequent: the clever body work Qamili had been applying since the opening bell was paying off!
Unfortunately, the Italian’s exponential rise was hindered by an unexpected protagonist: Japanese referee Nobuto Ikehara, who proved completely inadequate. The man in charge allowed Troy Nash to turn the second half of the fight into a wrestling match, without ever penalizing him or even issuing a strong warning.
Tired and demoralized, the American kept lowering his head and clinching shamelessly, no longer even trying to mount an offensive. Qamili thus won the last three rounds clearly, though he struggled to land truly damaging shots due to his opponent’s extreme spoiling tactics.
Moments loaded with suspense followed as the verdict was read. One judge gave the win to Qamili, another — incredibly — saw Nash as the victor, and the third scored it a draw. It was therefore necessary to resort to the supplementary scoring system, which considers how decisively each fighter won the rounds they took. In the end, the arm raised to the sky belonged to our flag-bearer!
Qamili thus fully deserved his spot in the semifinals — an extraordinary achievement for him and for all of Italian boxing. In the next round, he will face Frenchman Yoni Valverde Jr, who came from behind to beat Nigerian Yusuf Adisa Adeniji in his own quarterfinal.