The Night of the Kick and Punch 14
On Saturday June 24, at the amazing Reggia di Venaria (Royal Palace of Venaria), in the small town of Venaria Reale (North Western Italy), The Night of Kick and Punch 14 – Black Tie Edition will take place. Promoted by Angelo and Marianna Valente, Michele Briamonte’s Sap Fighting Style and the Reggia di Venaria, this kickboxing gala will offer most fights under K-1 rules: punches, kicks and knees.
Luca Cecchetti vs Franck Giovanni Gross
In the main event, Wako-Pro World bantamweight champion Luca Cecchetti (Italy, 58-5) will defend the title for the first time against outstanding veteran Franck Giovanni Gross (France, 79-10 and 1 draw) on the 5 rounds distance of 3 minutes each with K-1 rules.
This is one the best fights that can be done in the kickboxing business. Both fighters have already won world titles.
Franck Giovanni Gross is a former Wako-Pro, Iska and Enfusion world bantamweight champion (Enfusion is a Dutch event of global fame). He also won the Iska featherweight belt and competed in muay thai winning the WBC International flyweight title.
Cecchetti’s title defense
Luca Cecchetti won the Wako-Pro world featherweight title before winning the bantamweight belt. Luca Cecchetti won the bantamweight title on June 18, 2022 defeating Maksim Kazacu in the first kickboxing event ever promoted inside the Royal Palace.
It was a dramatic fight with Kazacu cutting Cecchetti under the eye and later knocking him down with a straight punch to the jaw in the second round. Cecchetti got up and attacked Kazacu with a series of punches and kicks damaging one of his arms and forcing Kazacu to quit during the fourth round.
Luca Cecchetti VS Maxim Cazacu – YouTube
“This fight should have been promoted in France – Angelo Valente said – but I wanted badly to promote it here in Italy and I did it. Franck Gross is a veteran and is difficult to hit because he fights in a dirty way, but Luca Cecchetti is an outstanding fighter and a smart man who always finds a way to come out on top.”
Cecchetti: I am well prepared for Gross
Luca Cecchetti agrees with the promoter who is also his trainer: “Frank Gross fights in a way that is difficult for everybody and has a lot of experience, but I am well prepared and confident to win. Knowing that I have to fight such a veteran didn’t change anything in my training because I always train like I have to fight for the world title.”
Luca Cecchetti is one of the few Italian kickboxing fighters of international fame. When he defeated Alex Avogadro at the Italian edition of Bellator, on 12 October 2019 at historic PalaLido (5,300 seats, sold-out) the online edition of the British newspaper The Sun wrote a story about Luca Cecchetti showing the video of the spectacular knee to Avogadro’s face that forced the referee to stop the fight.
Luca Cecchetti also fought in Latvia, Spain and Russia.
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