Nathaniel Davies and Cristobal Lorente<\/a> \u2013 who enter their rematch on April 17 \u2013 Grandelli is certainly no stranger to a fight at this level.<\/p>\nDespite losing to both world-ranked contenders, the Italian succeeded in showcasing the effectiveness of his style, repeatedly raining in heavy hooks and uppercuts while displaying intelligent footwork to plug away on the inside.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, his fan-friendly approach has been well-received in his home nation, where Grandelli tells Boxing News he has become a reputable customer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy trick was to never miss a match and try to give a show in every match, without ever thinking about the verdict or preserving myself, but trying to entertain the audience and give them great emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old\u2019s willingness to seize every opportunity has brought him to this moment, taking on Davies in a fight his promoter, Christian Cherchi, negotiated with Queensberry Promotions.<\/p>\n
But while talented fighters, such as Grandelli, have managed to come this far, Cherchi insists that staging boxing events in Italy is no easy task.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult because boxing, in general, is difficult to get attention. We had a period from the end of 2018 to May 2022, where we did shows with Matchroom and DAZN.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that period finished, we did some shows with Top Rank on ESPN, and Francesco fought a couple of times for European titles.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we\u2019re struggling a little bit. We have DAZN Italy, but it\u2019s always difficult to put on something important. But we are trying every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also promote Cristobal Llorente. Llorente was the European champion and, when we finalised the deal for [Collins-Llorente 2], Llorente vacated the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked with Queensberry to make the vacant title fight with Francesco. We knew three weeks before the announcement [on February 23] but, in any case, Francesco is always training, working in the gym and keeping himself in shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding his upcoming assignment, Grandelli believes his two fights with Collins and Llorente, both of which he lost by unanimous decision, have prepared him for an opponent of Davies\u2019 quality.<\/p>\n
Equally, the Italian feels his advantages in speed and movement should allow him to pull off a sizable upset.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Davies is] definitely a high-level opponent but I\u2019ve fought other high-level opponents, so I\u2019m not afraid of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think my mobility and speed [will play a factor]. [Davies] seems to be very strong, with a high intensity, but I think I\u2019m faster and more agile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the matches that motivate me to give my best. I know that a win over him would take me to an even higher level.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy aspiration is to get the world title and face the best champions. I know I\u2019m missing a few steps, but we\u2019re working on that. The goal is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
A world title shot against any of the featherweight champions, including Bruce Carrington, Rafael Espinoza, Brandon Figueroa and Angelo Leo, would certainly be a remarkable achievement for Grandelli, who has the chance to take himself one step closer towards that level with a win over Davies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone familiar with Francesco Grandelli will know that Liam Davies, in all likelihood, is in for a long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-565454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}