Italian boxer Michele 'The Gentleman' Piccirillo announced on Thursday that he will hang up his gloves after his March 6 bout for the European Super welterweight crown.
''I'm going back into the ring now not because I have anything else to prove, but because I want to win another crown,'' the 39-year-old Puglia native said on the sidelines of training here.
But after 55 fights - 50 wins, one no contest and four defeats - 'The Gentleman' has decided to call it quits.
''Boxing in Italy is dead, nobody cares about it anymore. So this is going to be my last fight. I no longer wake up in the morning with that desire to train I used to have. The time has come for me to hang up my gloves,'' Piccirillo mused.
The March 6 bout will be in Manchester, England, against 30-year-old Briton Jamie Moore, who has a record of 30 wins out of 33 fights.
The Italian is a former IBF and WBU world welterweight champion and has defeated some of the biggest names in Europe and the United States, including Cory Spinks, Rafael Pineda, Frankie Randall, Juan Martin Coggi, Felix Victor Vasconcel and Geoff McCreesh.
Piccirillo won the EBU's junior middleweight crown in March of 2006, at the age of 36, and successfully defended it in January of 2007, to then lose it in December of the same year.
