‘John’ Wayne Parr will look to cap off a successful year of fights when he meets Italian fighter Piergiulu Paolucci at Bellator Kickboxing 8 on December 9th in Florence, Italy.
With only 30 fights to his name, Paolucci is a three-time Italian champion and also won the International Sports Kickboxing Association (ISKA) European title back in 2014. Paolucci will be an unknown to many Australian fight fans but will have the support of the Italian crowd firmly behind him as he looks to shock the kickboxing world and stop Parr’s charging run towards 100 career wins.
9th of December travelling to Florence, Italy to represent Australia in Bellator.
happy to still be living this lifestyle 😊.#bellatorkb pic.twitter.com/bs8YxeP09U— John Wayne Parr (@johnwayneparr) October 21, 2017
Parr returns to the ring after fighting back in August on his own Caged Muaythai promotion where he retained his Super Middleweight title with a decision victory over late call-up, James Heelan of Ireland. Despite taking the unanimous decision, Heelan left Parr with a souvenir of his visit, giving him five stitches to add to his famous tally following a pinpoint elbow during the fight.
The December bout will be the second time Parr has featured on a Bellator kickboxing card, having beat Italian Nando Calzetta with a highlight reel knockout just before the bell at Bellator 5 in April. The result showed that despite his age, Parr could still mix it with some of the best fighters in the world and he will return to Italy confident of getting a result against his much more inexperienced opponent.
The three round bout will take place on the co-promoted Oktagon & Bellator Kickboxing show, a partnership which has produced numerous events in the Italian market since it’s inception. The show itself is split into three separate portions, with a kickboxing card first up from Victory World Series, followed by Bellator Kickboxing and then ending with a Bellator MMA event to round out the night. The main event of the Bellator Kickboxing portion features a 70kg World Title bout between Italy’s favourite stand-up fighter in Giorgio Petrosyan, against the formidable Yodwicha from Thailand.
Fight Card:
- Giorgio Petrosyan vs Yodwicha (Bellator Kickboxing 70kg Title)
- Gaston Bolanos vs Hamza Imane
- ‘John’ Wayne Parr vs Piergiulo Paolucci
