Interview with Ermano Fegatilli, who on February 26th surprised the United Kingdom (UK) by winning the EBU super featherweight crown from Stephen Foster jr., in a grueling match where Foster went 5 times to the canvas.
• Ermano, after a relative short career you already are the EBU super featherweight champion. Tell me how you feel ?
Ermano: (smiling) I feel great. This title is THE significant European title and offers a lot of opportunities. Further it was an enormous boost for boxing in my country. Everybody in my country understands now that if you train well and if you highly motivated, the EBU title is within range. But most of all, it gives me the opportunity and pleasure to publicly thank everybody who supported my career, especially my mother and father who never stop believing in me, my Dutch girlfriend Marieke who just never stopped pushing me to train, my managing company GMG promotions (Mirco Giuliani), all my sparring partners, the Amsterdam based Mousid Gym and my new trainer Martin Jansen with his assistant Remy Decesari.
• Your fight against Stephen Foster jr. was remarkable and shocking. It seemed that Foster just could never find his rhythm against you and he went down 5 times. What can you say about this?
Ermano: yeah maybe it was shocking for Fosters camp or his fans, but our team knew exactly his weak spots. We just focused on that in training and during the fight I never doubted the strategy. That brought us the expected knock downs that we aimed for. We knew we had to put him down, we were fighting abroad and it’s not easy to win. But in the end we made it clear to everybody.
• After the fight Foster jr. cited the loss to a virus. What do you think of that?
Ermano: Look, everybody in the UK seemed very nice at first. Promotor Ricky Hatton was a gentleman, people of the Amir Khan gym opened up especially for us to train in the gym the last days before the fight at fight time, the officials were friendly and also Foster with his camp was decent. Fosters camp just looked and talked with a lot of confidence about this fight. Also the English journalists were only interested in which round Foster jr. will end the fight.
When it turned completely the other way, Foster suddenly brought up a virus. That takes away the honor of my success against him. It stays his decision and his responsibility. I would never say such a thing. But if Foster jr. Team thinks they can do better against me, I do not understand why Foster jr., his trainer and his promoter Ricky Hatton did not ask for an immediate rematch. That is the only way Foster jr. can maybe save his career when you just went down 5 times against another boxer and mentioning a virus as the cause. But if that promotional offer doesn’t come, I would appreciate it if they just have been silent…
• What’s next for your career, Ermano?
Ermano: we have a voluntary title defence against the 6 times French title champion and EBU-EU holder Karim Chakim, scheduled in September in France. I need to win that fight, maybe another title defence or silencing another Englishman, like Ricky Burns, the WBO champ. I hope for a shot at the WBC title.