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Everyone is now aware that Daniel Geale will fight at Madison Square Garden this Sunday afternoon.
Less seem to know that 27-year-old Victorian Blake “Il Capo” Caparello will be fighting for the WBO Light Heavyweight title in 10 days’ time.
His opponent will be the undefeated Russian knock-out specialist, Sergey Kovalev.
Whereas most in the division have gone out of their way to avoid the man who has stopped 22 of his 25 opponents, Caparello has been campaigning to fight Kovalev.
“[I] chased that fight. My team Sam Labruna, Brendan Bourke and promoter Lou Dibella have been working hard and the fight has been finalised,” he said.
Kovalev, as well as boasting an unblemished professional record, was an established amateur boxer, capturing multiple medals cross national championships, as well as military competition.
Caparello meanwhile, had just the nine amateur fights before entering the ring as a pro.
“Sam Labruna [trainer] and myself sat down early in my career and made a decision of what I wanted from my career,” he said.
“I got the experience of fighting in front of crowds in the ams but I always spared pros so I was always going to be prepared when we decided to turn pro.”
Although born in Russia, Kovalev will enjoy home ground advantage in the New Jersey title fight, having been based in the States for his entire professional career.
Il Capo himself has been training in the states, even before the title fight was announced.
“I have taken in all the training camps and watched how different teams prepare differently,” he said.
“It is something I would recommend to all fighters as there is no shortage of sparring over there. I’ve created plenty of good contacts just from training overseas.”
Caparello, who has established himself as the top light-heavyweight in the country, cleaning out the division, knows full well that he had to make the trip overseas to chase the big fights.
“Fighting in Australia is awesome but all the big fights are overseas,” he said.
“I’m signed to Lou Dibella and he wants to keep me fighting overseas. I’d love to bring a big fight back to Australia.”
Not only is the WBO Title on the line, but both fighters are putting up their undefeated streaks. Simply put, someone’s “O” must go.
Like his compatriot Daniel Geale, Caparello (19-0-1) will go in as a big underdog against the far more fancied champion Kovalev (24-0-1).
In Blake’s last fight, which served as his overseas debut, he recorded a dominant unanimous decision over the far more experienced Elvir Muriqi.
“The atmosphere was different as he was the home fighter and the crowd was very hostile, plenty of booing but I wanted to silence them early by dominating and not giving him any chance,” Caparello said.
The champion’s last fight was a dominant hammering, then stoppage, of the previously undefeated Cedric Agnew.
Kovalev lives up to his nickname of the ‘Krusher’. His last four opponents, three of which were in world title fights, carried a combined two losses between them. Kovalev stopped them all inside eight rounds.
The Australian’s unbeaten record is impressive, and contains an IBO World Championship win over Allan Green, but Kovalev is a whole different type of beast.
Il Capo is currently in the States sparing with Australia’s top cruiserweight in David Aloua. Having spoken with both, they seem relaxed and confident that the title will be in the Australian’s possession come August 3.
Caparello, one of the hardest working boxers in the country, is confident, without being cocky:.
“You haven’t seen the best of me yet,” he said.
“I’ve only been boxing for seven and a half years and I’m still learning and improving. Keep following me and you will see big things from myself and my team. We train to be the best.”
Will the nation’s best light heavyweight be able to achieve something that no other has been able to, in defeating the Krusher?
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