Giovanni Lorenzo ready to break out
Saturday night
NEW YORK CITY (June 17, 2008) – Unbeaten Dominican middleweight sensation
Giovanni “Chico Malo” Lorenzo has planned a breakout party Saturday night
when he fights former world champion Raul “El Diamente” Marquez in the
12-round co-feature on Showtime Championship Boxing, live from Seminole Hard
Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
The show is headlined by a super middleweight bout between IBF middleweight
champion Arthur Abraham and Edison Miranda, while Lorenzo-Marquez is an IBF
eliminator. “Giovanni’s fight with Marquez is a voluntary IBF eliminator
that we took because ‘Gio’ has been criticized for having fought light
opposition,” Lorenzo’s co-manager Rich Ryan explained, “so we thought it was
a good move to take the Marquez fight and have Giovanni showcased on
Showtime. ‘Gio’ is Abraham’s mandatory and if they both win, they’ll build
excitement together Saturday night in separate fights, on the same card, for
their proposed title bout.”
Lorenzo (26-0, 18 KOs), who represented his native Dominican Republic in the
2000 Olympics, after posting a 247-16 amateur record with 15 gold medals in
International competition, now lives in the Washington Heights section of
New York City. He is rated No. 1 by the WBC, No. 4 by the IBF (1 and 2 are
unrated), No. 8 and No. 9 by the WBO and WBA, respectively, and No. 10 by
The Ring.
“I've trained very hard for this fight and I'm looking forward to fighting
such a worthy opponent like Marquez,” Lorenzo said. “He is a former world
champion who will bring out the best in me. People will see that I am a
future champion. I’m not thinking ahead to Abraham at all. My sole focus is
Marquez; once I knock off Marquez then we can talk about Abraham. I know it
will be a tough fight but I grew up as a kid dreaming that one day I would
get a chance to fight Marquez. Now that dream is going to become reality and
for a kid from Jerringa Dominican Republic it doesn't get better than that.'
Unquestionably a step-up in competition for the 27-year-old Lorenzo, the
still dangerous southpaw Marquez (40-3-1, 29 KOs), 1992 U.S. Olympian, hopes
to derail his Dominican opponent’s plans. Marquez captured the IBF light
middleweight title in 1997 and he twice successfully defended his belt. His
only career losses have been to world champions Jermain Taylor, Fernando
Vargas, and “Yori Boy” Campas. Marquez retired in 2004 for two years, when
he became a commentator for HBO Latino, but he returned to the ring and has
won five of six bouts with a draw.
Lorenzo, whose most notable win to date was a seventh-round TKO of Archak
TerMeliksetian (15-2) in 2006, is arguably one of the underrated fighters in
the world today. Saturday night the world will learn about this
prize-fighting secret from the Dominican Republic.
