Giovanni Parisi

Giovanni Parisi

Medal record
Men's Boxing
Representing Italy
Olympic Games
	1988 Seoul	Featherweight

Giovanni Parisi (December 2, 1967 – March 25, 2009) was an Italian boxer, who won the gold medal in the Men's Featherweight (– 57 kg) category at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Biography

A native of Vibo Valentia, Calabria, Parisi began his professional career in 1989 and won the Vacant WBO Lightweight Title by defeating Javier Altamirano in 1992. He later defeated former champion Freddie Pendleton and in 1995 challenged Mexican legend Julio César Chávez for the WBC Light Welterweight Title, losing a unanimous decision. Parisi went on to capture the WBO Light Welterweight Title and defend it successfully six times. He lost the WBO light-welterweight belt to Carlos Gonzalez in May 1998, and failed in a challenge for the welterweight title against Daniel Santos in July 2000.

He last fought in September 2006, when he lost a majority decision against Frederic Klose in Milan for the European welterweight crown.

On 25 March 2009, Parisi was driving a car at Voghera, near Pavia, when it crashed head-on with a truck. Parisi died at the scene; he was 41.

External links

• Professional boxing record for Giovanni Parisi from BoxRec
• Olympic profile

Preceded by Dingaan Thobela Vacated	WBO Lightweight Champion 25 September 1992 – 1994 vacated	Succeeded by Oscar De La Hoya
Preceded by Sammy Fuentes	WBO Light Welterweight Champion 9 Mar 1996 – 29 May 1998	Succeeded by Carlos González