Haskins’ European adventure heads for Italy
Bristol’s Lee Haskins will travel to Italy to challenge Andrea Sarritzu for the European flyweight championship in Calgari on 17 September after Italian promotional outfit OPI 2000 won the purse bids. Haskins hasn’t fought since ending the unbeaten record of Don Broadhurst in an untidy spectacle for the British and Commonwealth super-flyweight titles last December.
Given that Italy is notoriously difficult for visiting fighters to emerge from with a victory, the odds on Haskins becoming Britain’s tenth current European champion appear to be stacked against the Bristol switch-hitter. Haskins’ manager, Chris Sanigar, remains quietly confident however that his charge can spring an upset against the vastly experienced champion.
“Lee’s been waiting patiently for this opportunity and now that it is finally happening everyone in the Bristol Boys team is looking forward to it. We’ve enjoyed some excellent results on the road before in Canada and Germany with Glen Catley (a decade ago which saw Catley capture the WBC super-middleweight title with a dramatic final round stoppage over Marcus Beyer) so we hope Lee can emulate Glen’s success in Italy,” commented Sanigar to BoxRec News.
The 34-year-old Sarritzu, 31-4-4, is currently in his second European tile reign having regained the vacant 8 st crown with a seventh round retirement stoppage over Christophe Rodrigues last November. The Italian has since made one defence, flooring Alain Bonnel in the 12th round en route to recording a wide unanimous points triumph in May.
“Sarritzu has decent pedigree, he’s a two-time European champion and has also fought for a world title (conceding a split decision and drawing with Omar Narvaez in two separate attempts to claim the WBO crown in 2002 and 2003). However, I’ve seen some initial clips of him on You Tube and he appears a little pedestrian and predictable so we anticipate that Haskins’ style will cause Sarritzu some problems,” said Sanigar.
“Haskins is coming off a very good win against Don Broadhurst who was highly rated but Lee clearly outpointed him. He’s also beaten the reigning European bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell (who Haskins narrowly outpointed over eight rounds in March 2008) so we’re full of confidence.”
After bursting onto the scene as an exciting Naseem Hamed clone following his second round stoppage over Anthony Mathias when seizing the Commonwealth flyweight title four years ago, Haskins, 20-2 (10), has only stopped one of his last eight opponents. This statistic must be addressed if the Bristolian is to prevail against Sarritzu.
“We know that we’re going to have win almost every round or score a knockout to get the win in Italy so we’re under no illusions. We know we can’t complain if the fights ends up being close and we don’t get the decision,” reasoned Sanigar.
“We’ve been working on developing Haskins’ technique in the gym, trying to get him to land cleaner punches instead of hitting and grabbing which is what he’s been guilty of doing of late. Lee can definitely hurt you if he connects. In his earlier career he developed a reputation for being a puncher and we’re looking for him to recapture this explosiveness."
"It’s a big fight for Lee. Sarritzu is currently ranked at 5 by the WBC so a win for Lee would push him closer towards a world title shot,” added Sanigar.
