European batamweight champion Alessio Lorusso: “I studied  Thomas Essomba and I will beat him”

Lorusso vs Essomba

On Saturday May 20th at the Arena (4,000 seats) in Monza (Italy) in the main event of The Art of Fighting 3, European bantamweight champion Alessio Lorusso (21 wins, 9 within the distance, 4 losses and 2 draws) will defend the EBU belt against Thomas Essomba (United Kingdom, 11-8-1).

Lorusso’s confidence

Lorusso is confident that he will beat his opponent: “I know everything about Thomas Essomba. I know where he trains, who his sparring partners are and the quality of the fighters who defeated him. I have seen his fights. I say that Thoams Essomba is better than his record shows. He lost on points against Sunny Edwards who went on to win the IBF World Flyweight Title and is still undefeated (19-0). Essomba lost by split decision against Marcel Braithwaite, another high level opponent. All in all, Thomas Essomba deserves respect.”

Alessio Lorusso is used to studying the other fighters and getting all the info about them. “Before being a fighter, I am a boxing fan and I like to watch the fights. In my weight division I know everything about everybody. The top bantamweights in the world don’t have any secrets for me,” he comments.

A new division

Before competing as bantamweight, Alessio Lorusso was the Italian super bantamweight champion. Then he changed division and won the European Union belt (a secondary title in the old continent). He also conquered the extremely prestigious EBU European championship. 

He has 4 losses in his record, but he says reality is different. “I can agree I lost to Davide Tassi, but the other 3 losses don’t make any sense. I told this to my opponents in their face! The point is that I wanted to fight often, so I accepted all the fights offered to me even if I had to go to my opponent’s backyard. Against Jacopo Lusci, I got a draw. But I defeated him when it counted for the Italian super bantamweight title.”   

Other fights at the Art of Fighting 3

The other fighters in action at The Art of Fighting 3 will be Momo El Maghraby (6-0), Francesco Paparo (2-0-1), Alessio Spahiu (3-0) and Morgan Moricca (1-0). Their opponents will be announced shortly.

A fight that promises fireworks is between cruiserweights Jonathan Kogasso (Congo, 7-0 with 5 KOs) and Sergiu Sinigur (Moldova, 6-0 with 5 KOs). Jonathan Kogasso lives in Voghera and trains with famed coach Vincenzo Gigliotti, pro from 1995 to 2014 who won the Italian super bantamweight title and fought for the European and the World titles.