[Rocco Del Sesto]

01/12/67 Thursday
Vienna, Austria
Emil Svaricek – HW (1-0-0) vs. Ermanno Festorazzi – HW (6-2-2)

Emil Svaricek - Austria Rating 1
Heavyweight 1966-70

3 wins / 9 losses / 0 draw / 2 KO

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Austrian heavyweight who fought for a brief period in his native Austria and Germany mostly. Fought once in Italy and in his next to last fight in March 1969 he lost by TKO to Francisco San Jose(14-12-3,10) in Spain.The only other fightsto note with anyone of any experience in the ring were a 2nd round KO loss to Ermanno Festorazzi(9-19-2,7) and Manfred Ackers(8-60-4,1). Both of those guys Emil fought fairly early in their careers.

Ermanno Festorazzi - Italy Rating 1
Heavyweight 1965-73

9 wins / 19 losses / 2 draws / 7 KO

Birthplace: Varenna, Italy

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Ermanno's career started out a respectable 9-6-2. The six losses included KO losses to Billy Gray(19-5-1) who had an intersting career out of England and a 7th round KO loss to Giuseppe Ros. He fought a 6 round draw with Albert Duscha. He also lost by 1st round KO to Hans Jorgen Jacobsen who sported a nice 22-6-1,16KO record. In March 1966 he fought in something called the PHillips Electric Heavyweight Competition fought in WSC, London, England. Festorazzi first defeated a Len Rocky James by 2nd round TKO then he lost that fight to Billy Gray. After defeating a Pietro Stracci for his 9th career win in Sept. 1968 he lost to Giancarlo Bacchini(12-21-6), whom someone has rated for the game. This was the start of an 0-13-0 skid over the last half of his career. He lost fights to Piermario Baruzzi(37-12-0,24KO), Giorgio Bambimi(10-0-0,4), and VAsco Faustino(17-47-6,12)twice in 1969-70. After a loss in November 1970 to a Romano Peviani(7-8-0), Festorazzi then did not fight again until Feb. 1973. He fought 7 times over the course of 1873, loosing all 7 bouts. They included losses to three guys we've seen in the game who were very early in their careers. They were Jean-Pierre Coopman, LHW-Harald Skog and Lorenzo Zanon who was fighting his first professional fight in July 1973 when he climbed into the ring and won a 6 round decision over Festorazzi.

The Fight....
A European HW fight here in Austria between native son Emil Svaricek who is coming off his first career fight back in September of 1966, a 5th round TKO win over a Gustav Adolph who was 1-0-0 at the time, squares off against Italian HW Ermanno Festorazzi who is trying to regroup after a 6 round decision loss to Vittorio Verrengia back in December. Festorazzi’s biggest fight to date in his young career would probably be a 2nd round KO suffered at the hands of Billy Gray in London, England back in early 1966.
The fight in 1967 between these two did not last too long with it ending in a 3rd round KO of Emil giving Festorazzi his 7th win. Our replay here did not last that long. The fight, a scheduled 6 rounder started out very slow, with both fighters dancing around each other for the first minute and a half and neither of them able to connect with any punches for any points scored. Then all of a sudden Ermanno, at the 1:30 mark lands a “violent shot under Svaricek’s ribcage and Emil instantly drops down on both knees!” Emil can’t get back up and is counted out, a KO win for Festorazzi at the 1:41 mark of round one!

Ok, now I want to ask from our viewing audiance something about the ending result of this fight. I've notice through the course of this 67 replay, my Gerhard Zech replay and other random fights I've done, I've seen what seems like an abnormally large number of KO results be from this "violent shot" or "uppercut shot" to the ribcage that drops the opponent on his knees and he doesn't make it up. I was wondering is others of you out there are see this result in your fights maybe more often then what you think should be seen.