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Last November, Giorgio Visioli walked to the ring at a sparsely populated 3Arena in Dublin, just another young hopeful making a low-profile debut deep on the undercard of the rematch between undisputed super lightweight champion Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor.
Eighty-one seconds and one perfectly timed left hand later, Lee Sibley was on the canvas and Visioli’s name was on everybody’s lips.
Two months on, the Mark Tibbs-trained lightweight repeated the trick. An identical left hand stopped Samuel Pikire in two. In May, Visioli broke down Sergio Obadai and finished him with a brutal left to the body. Visioli will be back in action on Saturday when he takes on Tampala Maharusi at London’s Copperbox Arena.
Three fights, three highlight-reel knockouts. Where does the ability to end a fight in the blink of an eye come from?
“It’s hard to say. In the amateurs I didn’t really knock anybody out, and now I’m doing it,” Visioli (3-0, 3 KOs) told BoxingScene. “I don’t know if it’s power – I think it’s more speed. These guys are rushing forward, and I’m catching them flush on the chin. It’s hard to explain.
“My man strength is coming, but it’s just sharpness, I think. The knockouts I’ve had, you can see the footwork. I’ve drawn them in and they’ve come in open, with their chin up high, and walked onto the shot. The last one was a body shot. That was just a good shot, right on the button.”
Visioli spent his early teens traveling the world competing in point kickboxing and spent years luring his rivals into traps.
Success in point fighting requires quick reflexes, and Visioli’s ability to make opponents pay a heavy price for falling short with their attacks translated to boxing. Those talents have been on full display during his short professional career, but Visioli, 21, of Guildford, believes that although his days on the mats helped hone his physical tools, they also sharpened his mind to the point where his reactions have become almost automatic.
“You’re constantly on your toes, and it’s the first one to score,” he said. “You cannot get hit, so you’re constantly thinking. It’s a thinking game. It’s constantly in your brain, ‘Do not get hit, George. Do not get hit.’ Kickboxing and boxing are both thinking games. If you can do it, I think it’s a big attribute to have.
“I think my brain is one of my best attributes. I’m smart at what I do. Also, I’m doing it without even knowing it sometimes. I tell that to Mark and Jimmy Tibbs sometimes, and they say it’s because I’m a natural. I can let things flow and it just happens. I’m surprised I even threw that shot in my last fight and I landed it. I didn’t even know I could do that.
“In the later rounds, I’m smart in how I go about things. If I’m tired, I think, ‘Lets just box. Get back my fitness.’ I think my brain is one of the best of the prospects in the U.K. at the moment.”
Visioli’s mind doesn’t stop working when he leaves the gym.
“I watch all the boxing at weekends,” he said. “I watch highlight reels of peak fighters. Even stuff like watching Devin Haney against Ryan Garcia, I pick holes in it. I’m not saying I could beat them, but as a fighter, I think it’s natural that you pick holes in fighters and think, ‘I could do better than that.’”
Rather than feeling his way into life as a professional by relying on what came naturally and then having to make adjustments to his style as he went along, Visioli was smart and confident enough to realize that he would be better served by starting to work on the changes he wanted to make from day one, and set out with the intention of making an immediate impact.
The approach worked. These days, prospects are touted as future world champions after showboating their way through four rounds against an imported journeyman, but Visioli’s blistering start has already helped him to acquire the kind of reputation that makes fans slide a little closer to the edge of their seats when he enters the ring.
“I wanted to show quite quickly that I can not just hit hard but get my name out there, which I think I’ve done quite well,” he said. “I’ve transitioned quite quickly to the pros, I think, and quite nicely. I think people thought I’d take longer to transition, but I’ve done it quickly, which I’m happy with.
“It normally takes people six or seven fights, but I’ve set my feet quite nicely. I haven’t lost my footwork, but I’ve slowed it down a little bit.
“Everything just happens. I do think, but a lot of times I just let it flow. That last fight [a fourth-round stoppage of Odabai] was a good experience for me to do those four rounds. There were things I was doing that I didn’t think I could ever do. I’ve watched it back about 100 times and think, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I could do that.’ A lot of things just come naturally.”