By Per Ake Persson

Former WBA "regular" super middleweight champion Giovanni De Carolis (24-8-1) had his first fight in his hometown of Rome in over two years last night and made his debut for new promoter Round Zero.

But, he lost an a unanimous decision to German-based Russian Viktor Polyakov (13-1-1) with the vacant WBA International title at stake.

Polyakov had previously been based in the United States and made some good results there and since returning to Europe he´s beaten Dariusz Sek (26-2-2) and drawn with Toni Kraft (10-0).  On paper it was an upset but in reality probably not. It was De Carolis' first bout since getting stopped in his rematch with Tyron Zeuge in November 2016.

In the chief supports, light heavyweight Orial Kulaj (18-5) knocked out Georgian Giorgi Beroshvili in the second and super middleweight Valerio Ranaldi (13-1-1) drew with Ruslan Schelev (13-7-0).

IN OTHER NEWS: German super lightweight Tunahan Keser (8-2-1), who disappeared on June 23, was this past weekend found dead by a highway in Quickborn, reports German media. Keser had been shot to death.

As previously reported, Keser´s trainer - former EBU champ and world title challenger Khoren Gevor - was shot in the knee the day before Keser disappeared. According to mopo.de, Keser had also been shot in the knee before being killed.

Gevor has told police that there was an ongoing feud with people in the boxing business but if that is also the reason for the shootings is not known who the feud has to do with or the background behind it and there are no arrests made at the moment.