HISTORY
OF THE BOXING IN FOLIGNO (ITALY)
Tradition, stories of boxers and organizational passion for the combat with
the purpose of keeping on the reflectors on the "noble art". Foligno
and the boxing keep opened the doors of that gymnasium of recognized life in
sixty years: a deep-rooted understanding that keeps gounging "legendary"
personages during years, training technicians and managers and preparing new
challenge grounds.
It was 1947 when Francesco Castellani decided to found the Foligno Boxing Academy
and some athletes of the ring as Antonini, Tozzi, Mela, Pizzoni, Cardinali and
many other more, started to fire local audiences and to punch also during important
recurrences: as the "little" Diaz Cardinali who won the Italian absolute
title during a brief amateur career and he was the maker of an exciting performance
with Mario Dagata, the future world champion …
They were times in which the visit of a famous personage in the city as the
World Champion, the "good giant" Primo Carnera did as "spot"
for a discipline which was able of filling stadiums and squares.
But the "prohibitionist" pushes and the first cracks of a sport, which
was considered as violent, blew also on the Foligno Boxing Academy that entered
its decline period from 1982 to 1987. Other "pioneers" as Franco Alessi
and Nazzareno Mela decised to go on by founding the "Boxing Club DLF"
that three years later run into the Boxing Academy of Francesco Castellani,
the society team leaded by their teacher for years. The new organizational force
found the perfect agreement with a boxer who wanted to emerge: a boxing novice
boy, with great potentialities, Luigi Rustici who leaved the sign in the Italian
Novice Championship and becoming Italian champion second series.
But the years of the true re-launching were around the corner. In 1994 the Boxing
Club DLF made another transformation, changing its name in Foligno Combat Sport
Association, with the entry in the technical staff of Emanuele Renzini. A technician
moved by the mission of conjugating tradition and innovation. There were instant
results both in the combative field, and as an answer to the strategy of reinstating
the boxing movement to the glorious season of the "dawn" of the citizen
boxing. From 1994 the boxing in Foligno awakens from the sleep in great style:
the first clearly visible signals were the results reached by the youth entered
in the first years under the technical and organizational leadership of Mela
e Renzini.
But more other "genetic" changes leaved their mark. With the wish
of remainind on the crest of the boxing wave, in 2001 the Combat Sport Associatione
reached another primacy, the membership drive of the first female amateur boxers
beforing your time (Galassi, Bellandi, Grande and Cerpi) who took part in november
of the same year to the first Female World Championship in Scranton (USA) coming
back with a gold medal (Galassi) and a bronze medal (Cerpi). All these events,
other than laying the foundation for an almost "invincible" female
boxing movement (with the azure T-shirt and with the tunic of the Foligno association),
have allowed to the maker technician of the glorious American adventure, Emanuele
Renzini, to work for a new image and to give the
athletes a new combative boost who have decided more and more to put themselves
to the test on the ring. A series of results that have launched the Foligno
association in the second position of the national ranking. And Emanuele Renzini
shooted forth on the pedestal as emerging technician of the Female National
Team, recleaning the "made in Foligno" assignments in the azure sky
of the National team that saw Nazzareno Mela as technical manager of the azure
teams. The Foligno combat sport association has seen other technicians from
2001: Franco Alessi, Ernesto Galli and the present Claudio Appolloni, che ha
raccolto il testimone dell’entusiasmo tra i giovani tornati nella palestra
folignate: regalando nuovi sogni ai giovani emergenti. At present the Foligno
combat sport association stands out at the twentieth position of the national
ranking.
Simone De Donno
MANAGERS
from 1994 to 1997 Walter Bianchi
from 1998 to 2006 Lanfranco Renzini
TEACHERS
1994 Marco Stoppini
1995 Franco Alessi
1996 Nazzareno Mela – Emanuele Renzini
1997 Nazzareno Mela – Emanuele Renzini
1998 Nazzareno Mela – Emanuele Renzini
1999 Emanuele Renzini
2000 Emanuele Renzini
2001 Emanuele Renzini
2002 Franco Alessi
2003 Franco Alessi
2004 Ernesto Galli
2005 Ernesto Galli
2006 Claudio Appolloni