Jerome Pampellone is on the verge of a light heavyweight world title shot. Photo / Photosport
Jerome Pampellone is on the verge of a light heavyweight world title shot. Photo / Photosport
Jerome Pampellone’s hung up his plumbing tools - with a belt of a different kind in the pipeline for the undefeated Kiwi boxer.
The 18-0 light heavyweight out of the Peach Boxing stable in west Auckland has been locked in for an IBF world title eliminator in Sydney on April 24.
Get past 21-0 Libyan fighter Malik Zinad and Pampellone becomes the mandatory challenger to the winner of the undisputed title bout between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev on June 1 in Saudi Arabia.
Handy then, given what’s at stake, that Pampellone’s transition into fulltime boxer has finally arrived.
After spending the first three years of his professional career juggling training with a job for the plumbing company run by head coach Isaac Peach, the 27-year-old now has just one focus.
“It was always coming. He stopped [working] two weeks ago and, yeah, absolutely it’s beneficial. Not so good for my plumbing company, but things are good man, it’s perfect.
“If you’re fighting at the top of the world, you need to be a fulltime athlete, simple as that.”
Perhaps less simple, though, is what form a title shot would take for Pampellone should he be successful in Sydney.
The undisputed clash between two of the biggest stars in the sport has taken some time to put together.
While it’s unclear if a rematch clause is in place between Bivol and Beterbiev, given the level of interest in the fight, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that is in fact the case.
Peach said there are a lot of variables at play when it comes to who may ultimately stand between Pampellone and world champion status.
“We’re happy to fight anybody. I really mean that, we don’t care who we fight.
“They may have a rematch, but if they have the rematch they’ll be stripped of the [IBF] title. Then we’d go to the next guy in line and fight for the vacant title.
Peach Boxing head trainer Isaac Peach. Photo / Dean Purcell, NZ Herald
“But we do want to fight the best guys. We want the winner of Bivol and Beterbiev.
“There’s a lot of politics that go into it. We’ll win this next fight, watch them fight and then see where it all lands.”
And don’t take that glancing ahead as any kind of dismissal of the challenge posed by Zinad.
Peach said the 30-year-old Libyan, who has won 16 of his 21 bouts by knockout, represents yet another “toughest test so far” fight in Pampellone’s path to the top.
“He’s long, he hits hard. He’s unbeaten, so he doesn’t know how to lose yet … he’s dangerous.
“But anyone at this level is really dangerous and Jerome’s at his best … the better the opponent, the better Jerome will be. No doubt.”
