By Per Ake persson

37-year old Italian super middleweight Cristian Sanavia, 45-6-1, has announced his retirement. Sanavia was last seen a few weeks ago in Denmark getting stopped by champion James DeGale in an EBU title fight.

 

Sanavia turned pro in 1997 and became national middleweight champ in 99 and won the EBU title in 2001. In 2004 Cristian won the WBC super middleweight title with a split decision win over Markus Beyer in what was regarded as a huge upset and he lost the rematch.

 

Sanavia remained in the top in Europe and figured in a number of close, controversial fights against the likes of Danilo Haussler (twice), Devi Gogiya and Karo Murat (twice).