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Dutch-Dominican Cristian “La Cobra’ Frias moves straight into his first major championship opportunity when he takes on Italian Fedele Bellusci on March 14 in Latina, Italy for the vacant IBF Intercontinental lightwelterweight crown.
This chance has been a long time coming for the unbeaten 20-0-2 (16 KO’s) Frias, whose only professional title of sorts thus far in a career that began in 1999 came in 2003 in the shape of the Netherlands Antilles lightweight belt, prior to moving his base from Curacao to The Netherlands. In his only outing in Europe, after signing with Fight Production of Germany, Frias easily outscored trialhorst Jozsef Kubovsky last year. After that fight, Frias (30) clearly stated his intentions to finally move up to championship level and demanded “No more tune-ups, let me show what I can do in bigger fights.”
The man whom “La Cobra’ wants to take his frustrations out on, 31-year-old Fedele Bellusci, sports a respectable rather than fear-inventing record of 14-3-3 (5 KO’s). Bellusci was outpointed for the Italian title by Massimo Bertozzi in 2005 and lost a technical eight-round decision to Frenchman Stephane Benito last year for the same IBF Intercontinental title that will be at stake against Frias. However, most of his reverses came early when Bellusci started his career rather unimpressively, going 1-1-2 in his first four professional outings. The local fighter has certainly developed over the last few years. In fact, he is the only boxer to defeat compatriot Emanuele De Prophetis, on points in 2005. Thought Frias, on the face of it, looks the heavier puncher of the two, Bellusci actually stopped the aforementioned and normally extremly durable Kubovsky in just three rounds in ’03, while Frias had to go the distance against the Slovak journeyman three years on.
Whatever the statistics say, Frias is fired up like never before: “I told (manager) Olaf (Schroeder) from the start to not be afraid to put me in with whomever he thinks is good. I train very hard every day and I want to go far with boxing because I love it.” The “Cobra’s’ trainer Josephat De Palm has added former long-time European lightheavyweight champion and Dutch all-time great Rudy Koopmans to the team in preparation for this fight, who has bags of experience when it comes to title fights, of course. Promoter of the championship battle is Sergio Cavallari.
