By Per Ake Persson
Belgian middleweight Alexander Polizzi isn´t the best out there but he´s a useful have gloves will travel type of fighter who´s been in with a lot of good fighters on the European circuit with most of his big fights on the road. Polizzi is of Belgian-Italian origin and picked up boxing at the age of 17 and went 40-6 in the amateurs. "I was a three time national champ and fought in the 97 World championships" says Polizzi, who turned pro in 1998 with a points win over Martin Frankretter and took on tough and experienced fighters like Freddy Demeulenaere and Jean Paul D´Alessandro in his second year as a pro.
Early in 2000 Polizzi challenged for the national title for the first time losing a split decision to Patrick Vungo. Later in 2000 he fought Mike Algoet for the first time and again lost a split decision. He´s since fought Algoet twice more and each time there´s been split decisions. Algoet is ahead 2-1 in their series.
"I won all three times clearly" says Polizzi, "and I had the crowd on my side as well."
Well, there are others who says that the three fights were even, difficult to score fights with Polizzi´s neat technical boxing against Algoet´s strength and stamina
As well as fighting for the national title Polizzi have fought for a number of minor titles. In Germany he challenged NBA champ Dirk Dzemski and lost a decision but did well late in the fight after overcoming a very bad beginning of the fight that saw him floored a few times. In Poland and at home in Belgium he won and lost against Mariusz Cendrowski for the TWBA belt and in Italy he lost to Alessio Furlan for the IBF Mediterranean title at jr middle. "That was my best fight to date but I was stopped due to a cut eye" says Alexander, who then won the WBF I/C middleweight title in May with a wide points win over Frenchman Sylvain Gomis. "That was good fight, Gomis is a good boxer."
It´s fair to say that boxing takes up a large part of Polizzi´s life: "I enjoy training and when I´m not doing boxing exercise I workout with triathlon as well" says the fighter, who also doubles as a trainer in the club where trains. "I have been a trainer for two years and have five undefeated kids." On top of that he works as a security guard in the sports complex where the gym is. Polizzi trains himself: "I haven´t had a trainer for the last three years."
The 33-year old now have a record of 23-10-2 and is 3-0 in 2006 with the latest coming yesterday (June 17) in Gilly when he outscored Jean LouiseBryla. Check out alexpolizzi.com (in French and Italian) for more info or to stay updated on his career.
