MONTREAL (June 7, 2023) — At today’s press conference in Montreal, Groupe Yvon Michel (GYM) confirmed it has signed ONE Championship kickboxing champion Jonathan Giovanni Di Bella (2-0, 1 KO), of Montreal, to a long-term promotional contract.
GYM President Yvon Michel, is extremely proud of this new acquisition, saying: “We have wanted this association for a very long time. Jonathan Giovanni Di Bella is Canada’s best kept secret in professional sports. His arrival in the organization will be a perfect complement to our main star, Kim Clavel, and will allow all Team GYM boxers to shine even more. This is the beginning of a new era for GYM and for the entire boxing industry in Quebec. We have unlimited confidence in the talent of this young champion. His personality, his charisma, his entourage, and his influence on the Quebec community will soon make him very popular while his skills in the ring will quickly propel him to the top of his division. We would like to thank Jonathan’s parents, Annie and Angelo, for their trust.”
Di Bella will evolve into a bantamweight (118 pounds), which is a very popular division on the international scene, which was dominated by the great Japanese boxer, Naoya “Monster” Inoue (24-0, 21 KOs), the 2022 unified world champion who will fight as a super bantamweight in his next fight. Current bantamweight stars include legendary Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire (42-7, 28 KOs), Australia’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion Jason Maloney (26-2, 19 KOs) and World Boxing Association (WBA) title-holder Takuma Inoue (18-1, 4 KOs), the brother of Naoya.
Tremendous fighters is what makes the bantamweight division a very popular, talent-laden division where Di Bella’s name will be grafted there very soon.
The kickboxing world champion is not lacking in ambition: “I have always had the goal of becoming a kickboxing and professional boxing world champion,” Di Bella commented. “I did the first one and now I’m tackling the second one.”
Di Bella, 26, has had a flawless career in combat sports, whether in amateur boxing (6-0), professional kickboxing (11-0) or professional boxing. His coronation and the conquest of his kickboxing world championship of the ONE Championship series that took place this past October 22nd in Kalua Lumpur, Malaysia. Largely neglected, the Quebecer defeated the one billed as the Chinese prodigy, also undefeated “Fighting Rooster” Zhang Peimian, to everyone’s surprise in the Axiata Arena.
Jonathan began training very early at the age of two under the guidance of his father, two-time world kickboxing champion Angelo Di Bella, in the family gym he founded. He fought his first kickboxing fight at age 10, first professional fight the following year. He fought all over North America including in the iconic Madison Square Garden. Everyone knows Di Bella in Quebec gyms as well as in the United States, where he served as a training partner for many boxers including several world champions. He received many offers from professional boxing promoters, but it was GYM that he chose.
“During my kickboxing career,” Angelo Di Bella remarked, “I had an opportunity to sign a boxing contract with Yvon Michel, but I didn’t. I am very happy that 31 years later my son does not miss his chance.”
During his professional career, Jonathan’s father Angelo will act as his main trainer. He will also be assisted by the renowned Howard Grant and former WBO middleweight world champion, Otis Grant.
According to coach Grant, Di Bella has everything to succeed: “Jonathan Di Bella has been the best hope and the most talented fighter in Quebec for a very long time,” Grant noted. “I’ve wanted to see him in a boxing ring for a long time and I’ve been talking about it with Yvon Michel. I’m happy and excited about this new venture and he couldn’t find a better promotion organization to lead his career.”
Di Bella has already fought two professional boxing fights at GYM events, both during the summer of 2022, in which the objective was to keep active while waiting for his kickboxing world championship fight. His next fight, his first under this new agreement, will take place on July 27 at Montreal Casino. He is already the headliner in the main event on the six-fight card. The co-feature will involve Marie-Pier Houle (8-1-1, 2 KOs), ranked No. 2 in the WBO, who will fight her first fight since her superb performance for the world title fight against Sandy Ryan last April in Wales. The talented Caroline Veyre (4-0) will participate in her fifth fight in less than a year. She was very impressive in her last two outings against Anaelle Angerville (5-2-1), and Emma Gongora (6-3). She has earned the No. 5 position in the featherweight division. The top featherweight contender is Amanda Serrano (44-2-1, 30 KOs). ‘
Also scheduled to fight on the July 27th card are middleweight Derek Pomerleau (5-0, 3 KOs) and light heavyweight Mohamed Zawadi (6-1, 5 KOs), a protege of Lee Baxter.
Tickets for the July 27th event go on sale tomorrow (June 8) starting at 10 a.m. ET online on ticketmaster.ca or directly from GYM at [email protected].
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ABOUT YVON MICHEL GROUP (GYM):
Groupe Yvon Michel is a professional boxing promotion organization, founded in 2004 by Yvon Michel, Alexandra Croft and Bernard Barré, who are still active in the company, the most prolific in the history of professional boxing in Canada. Since its foundation, GYM has promoted 166 events in Quebec, all televised in Quebec on RDS, TVA Sports or Radio-Canada, as well as participated in 38 international events outside Quebec. Eight GYM boxers have become world champions: Joachim Alcine, Jean Pascal, Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev, Eleider Alvarez, Marie-Eve Dicaire (twice), Oscar Rivas and Kim Clavel. Nineteen boxers from the organization have delivered 54 world championship fights, maintaining an excellent record of 30 wins, 22 losses and 2 draws. During this period, major American television networks were more active than ever in coming to Quebec to broadcast the most important events of the organization.
