Cammarelle and Valentino bring house down in Milan

Italian pair Roberto Cammarelle and Domenico Valentino lifted the roof at the Milan Forum here on Saturday as they ensured the hosts ended the World Championships with two titles.

Olympic champion Cammarelle repeated his success from 2007 in Chicago as he continued his domination of the super-heavyweight division.

The 29-year-old, a local to Milan, is the undisputed star of his category and overcame a nervous first round to defeat Ukraine's Roman Kapitonenko 10-5.

In the semi-final he had needed only one punch to stop Viktar Zuyeu of Belarus and although this time he was made to work harder, the result never looked in doubt once he forced two standing counts on the Ukrainian in the second round.

Cammarelle, in his home town, was also voted fighter of the tournament.

His victory came hot on the heels of Valentino's impressive 9-4 defeat of Puerto Rico's Jose Pedraza at lightweight.

This victory completed the perfect medal progression for Valentino who won bronze in 2005 and silver two years ago in Chicago, when Britain's Frankie Gavin beat him in the final.

It also made up for his Olympic disappointment when he was beaten early on by Cuba's Yordenis Ugas, although the 24-year-old admitted he would still prefer an Olympic crown.

"You can't compare the two because this is in Itay but I would always take an Olympic gold over a world title," he said.

Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko was the best of the rest as he added the world featherweight crown to his Olympic gold from last year.

Lomachenko outclassed Russian Sergey Vodopiyanov, who was the reigning bantamweight champion, 12-1.

Valentino claimed he had half expected the Ukrainian to step up to his category.

"I didn't know if he was going to fight at lightweight or not so I trained to beat Lomachenko," said the Italian of the man many consider the best amateur in the world.

The Ukrainian, who listed American legend Roy Jones Jr as his boxing idol, refused to speculate on whether he would now switch to the professional ranks.

"I've achieved all my goals. I don't know what to say, I have to go back to the Ukraine and speak with my father, my coaches and my trainers before making a decision," he said.

The most convincing winner in the finals was Puerto Rico's McWilliams Arroyo who recorded an 18-2 drubbing of Mongolian Nyambayar Tugstsogt at flyweight.

Arroyo's success continued a fine family tradition as his twin brother McJoe won a bronze medal at bantamweight in Chicago.

Uzbekistan's Abbos Atoev beat Armenia's Andranik Hakobyan 9-0 in another one-sided final to become a two-weight champion.

Unusually, though, the middleweight had come down a category having won light-heavyweight gold two years ago.

Olympic medallist Roniel Iglesias of Cuba won his formerly-dominant country's only gold medal as he beat American Frankie Gomez 8-2 in the light-welterweight final.

MILAN, AFP