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 VIDEO; http://suljosblog.com/blog2/2009/03/31/govanni-parisi-tribute-video/

“I went to Don King’s office in Florida and spoke with Carl King,” Parisi said. “We had a discussion and I was so angry that I called my lawyer. Sometime later, Don King called me and said that my fight against Chavez was almost made.”

The Italian fighters who won the Olympic gold medal, won a legitimate professional world championship, attracted thousands of paying customers at the sports complex and drew big TV ratings can be counted on one hand. One of them is Giovanni Parisi. In 1988, he won the Olympic gold medal in the featherweight division. Professionally, he fought 45 times compiling a record of 40 wins (28 by KO), 4 losses and 1 draw. He became WBO lightweight and super lightweight champion, facing quality opponents like the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez. In Milan, probably the most difficult Italian city for a promoter, he packed the Palalido twice (back then it had a capacity of 4,000 people; since then it seats 3,000) and attracted over 5,000 fans at the Forum. His fights also drew big ratings on television. On February 11, 2003 his victory over Miguel Angel Pena scored 1,741,000 spectators (a share of 14.38%) on Italia 1 (one of the networks owned by Mediaset, the company of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi). It has to be noticed that Italia 1 broadcasted four major events promoted by Salvatore Cherchi in 2003. After that, boxing disappeared from Italia 1. It came back on March 12, 2005: when Giovanni Parisi defeated Louis Mimoune in Milan. When a popular champion fights, boxing gets on major channels even in a soccer-addicted country like Italy.