Chris Camozzi retained his cruiserweight title on April 26 when he faced Andrea Bicchi in the main event of BKFC 73. Battling it out at Palazzo Wanny in Florence, Italy, the southpaw from Alameda, CA defeated the representative of the host country by unanimous decision. In the fifth round, the champion scored a knockdown, landing a lead right hand that forced the challenger to take a knee.
With the victory, 38-year-old Chris Camozzi made the first successful defense of his 205-pound belt and improved to 4-1. 28-year-old Andrea Bicchi, who took the fight on short notice replacing Lorenzo Hunt, dropped to 4-2.
“I never underestimated my opponent because he’s Italian,” Camozzi said post-fight. “I knew he would be tough as hell. He gave me hell, and I know he has a bright future in this sport. He’ll be back.”
“I didn’t get the finish, but this is one of the best nights of my life. To come here, where my grandfather is from, is a dream come true.”
Rico Franco defeats Jimmy Sweeney in trilogy fight
In the BKFC 73 Italy co-main event, Rico Franco (10-3, 7 KOs) of England defeated Jimmy Sweeney (19-5, 13 KOs) of Ireland by unanimous decision in their trilogy fight that saw an extra round. All three judges scored it 10-9.
In addition to the victory, Franco, who landed a knockdown in the fourth round, claimed the BKFC European welterweight belt, bringing the overall count to 2:1 between the two.
Post-fight, Rico Franco called out the current BKFC 165-pound champion, Austin Trout of El Paso, Texas, saying, “If Austin wants it, we can go tomorrow.”
In other BKFC 73 Italy bouts
Among other BKFC 73 results, Haze Hepi (1-0) of New Zealand debuted in the BKFC with a first-round knockout against Steve Banks (4-3) of Hickory, North Carolina at heavyweight. Ernesto Papa (1-0) of Italy defeated Toni Estorer (1-2) of Germany by knockout in the first round at cruiserweight.
Navid Mansouri (1-0) of England earned a 44-second KO of Ruslan Tokhtarov at light heavyweight. Another quick KO featured Jindrich Byrtus (1-0) of the Czech Republic eliminating Arbi Chakaev (1-1) in 32 seconds at cruiserweight.
Tomas Melis (1-0) of Slovakia defeated Jesus De Nazaret (0-1) by knockout in the first round at light heavyweight. The time was 1:34 into the round. Nicole Schaefer (2-0, 1 KO) of Germany defeated Italy’s Sara Bitto (1-1) by split decision at bantamweight.
Kicking off the main card, Walter Pugliesi (2-0) of Italy secured a unanimous decision over Dominik Herold (1-2) of the Czech Republic at cruiserweight. On his way to victory, Pugliesi scored two knockdowns in the second round.
On BKFC 73 Italy prelims
Atop the BKFC 73 prelims, Marco Giustarini (1-1) of Italy defeated Zdravko Dimitrov (0-3) of Bulgaria by unanimous decision at cruiserweight.
Among other matchups, Josef Hala (1-0) of the Czech Republic defeated Giovanni Carpentieri (0-1) of Italy by TKO in the first round at lightweight. In the event opener, also at light heavyweight, Italian southpaw Enzo Tobbia (1-0) defeated Michael Igwegbe (0-1) of Nigeria by knockout in the second round.
BKFC 73 marked the debut of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship in Italy. Oleksandr Usyk and Joseph Parker were in attendance, among others.