Lenny Zappa an Australian Boxer

With more than just a little bit of visual similarity to Kostya Tszyu the 22 year old Australian Leonardo Zappavigna seems to be the toast of Australian boxing community. A likeable fighter with a unique back story and a reputation as a top level amateur fighter. Born in 1987 he would take up boxing in the 1990's under the trainer Tommy Mercuri an pile up several years of amateur experience which culminated in his outstanding Bronz Medal win at the 2006 Commonwealth games. After compiling a record of 72-9 and winning several national titles he would turn professional.

Debuting as an 18 year old in his native Australia he would win his debut with a 77 second KO over the rather poor Jason Schubert. He would win 5 more fights that year to finish the year 6-0 (3KO's) though they were all against incredibly poor opponents including Shane Kelly (who retired after the fight). He would pick up the Australian Lightweight title during those fights, which sadly said more about the state of Australian boxing than anything else.

The following year showed both good and bad, he fought 6 times winning all 6 (5 by KO) which was impressive even if he was fighting poor opponents he was still a young fighter who was showing to be exciting. Though he was shown to be vulnerable going down in the opening round in successive fights. Though for several weeks in the first half of the year he had a once in a life time opportunity, he was Manny Pacquiao's sparring partner leading upto Pacman's fight with Jorge Solis. How was developing a cult following amongst fans in his homeland for his exciting wild brawling style that was extremely fun to watch despite being technically flawed.

The following year he would develop both his style, his fans and his reputation as a hungry fighter who would give his all. 5 wins in 2008 saw him winning two international titles first the IBO International Boxing Organisation Asia Pacific lightweight title which was followed by the IBF Pan Pacific light welterweight title. This added to his rankings for both the IBF and IBO though international fans weren't really aware of him he had earned himself a following that saw Australian fans talking about him on forums. He would finally get a chance to fight internationally at the end of 2009 which was another successful year. Though he didn't face any heavy handed fighters his opponents did generally seem like a step up in quality. The included the teak tough Gairy St Clair (a former IBF Super Featherweight champion) in his most impressive victory to date. Though it needs to be said St Clair was a naturally smaller man who had just turned 34 and had seen much better days.

He would make his American debut on December 12^th 2009, his first fight outside of Australia, when he faced Sergio Macias a fighter with a 14-18-1 record. What makes that even worse is that Macias had won just once in over a decade. The fight was on the undercard of Timothy Bradley's fight with Lamont Peterson (and Vic Darchinyan's blow out of Tomas Rojas) with Gary Shaw as the promoter. Although he beat Macias his boxing didn't impress those in attendance that generally felt he was a wild slugger fighting a completely inept opponent there for a pay day.

In his only fight of 2010 so far, against on a Gary Shaw show which featured Vic Darchinyan (another Australian based fighter) live on ShoBox he fought the tough Colombian Fernando Angulo in a wonderful fight. This was one that really tested "Lenny Zappa" it saw him cut (half of his face was covered in blood at one point), Angulo was deducted the point and the two ended the 12^th toe to toe. After an exciting brawl Zappa would get a controversial unanimous decision that the ShoBox commentators and many others felt he was incredibly lucky to get.

Now 23-0 (15) it seems like Zappavinga needs to improve drastically in his defence to get much further or he's an accident waiting to happen.

For those interested the scores for the Angulo fight were:
116-111 (twice) 114-113