Straight right, jab, jab, block, right hook, duck. Round house kick to the ribs and another hard jab to the face. Then, another complicated set of combination kicks and Anthony Rossi’s opponent goes down. The crowd cheers and Anthony is a hero. Or at least that’s how it should have happened had the kickboxing competition at the Sheraton in Dorval on Feb. 13 taken place. But canceled fights are a common phenomena in a sport that’s not very popular and therefore not very organized. Given Anthony’s 19-0 record, however, that’s probably what would have happened.
The 21-year-old admits it is frustrating to have trained intensively for two months before a fight and then have it postponed to a later date. “But you can look at it two ways,” says the World Champion 145-pound welterweight for the Professional Kickboxing Federation (PKF). “Either you trained for two months for nothing or you have more time to train and make yourself better.” He looks at the latter.
But why would anyone want to participate in a sport where competitions happen, at best, three or four times a year?
“It’s for the love of the sport,” explains the Montreal-born kickboxer.
He was first exposed to karate in the first grade when Gerald McShane Elementary offered classes after school. But Anthony didn’t like the style taught there. When he became interested in the style used by his younger brother Frankie at Angelo DiBella’s Karate Kickboxing School in St. Michel, Anthony decided to join there instead.
“It’s a mix between karate and kickboxing,” says Anthony about Angelo DiBella’s Shaindu-ryu style. It is a style that contributed to a 45-second knock out in the first round of one of Anthony’s fights when he was 16 years old. It was his shortest fight ever.
But he also uses his skills to help other people. He taught private and semi-private kickboxing and Tae Bo classes at Angelo DeBella’s Karate Kickboxing School, where he sharpens his skills twice a week. The rest of the time he can be found hanging out with friends, watching movies or working at the McGill Animal Research Centre.
At a young age karate kept Anthony disciplined. “It kept me out of trouble and it gave me goals to look forward to,” says the black belt.
Well, at least disciplined as in he never got into drugs or into fistfights outside the ring.
In elementary school Anthony did not look like the type of kid who could be a bully. He always sat in the front row for class pictures, he was smart but his classmates knew not to pick on him. However, he wasn’t the quiet student either.
Teachers knew before he would first set foot in their classroom that he was a little troublemaker. He constantly got sent to the principal’s office for fooling around. However, he never used his skills outside the Karate classroom, a rule taught by his sensei early on.
“Now I use karate to relieve stress and stay in shape,” says the computer engineering student presently attending Concordia. He finds his program challenging and Karate helps him relax when he’s had too much studying.
But his desire to fight in competitions preceded the accomplishment of attaining his black belt.
“I’ve always wanted to compete,” explains Anthony. “Angelo [his trainer] put on his first show in 1990.” Ever since then he wanted to be part of the excitement, but he would only enter the ring six years later at the age of 14.
His first fight was not a title match. It was part of an event organized by Karate International Counsel of Kickboxing. Before the competition, Anthony claims he wasn’t too nervous.
“His name was Carlito Colone. He was about my size, maybe smaller,” says Anthony about his first opponent.
His coach guided him to the ring and his father, Frank Rossi, walked right behind him. A tradition upheld to this day.
“He [Carlito] was a pretty good fighter. He was very technical but he didn’t hit too hard.” After two full rounds, the judges entered a unanimous decision. Anthony won his very first fight.
However his first fight was not the toughest. “My hardest fight was in New York. It was my first fight away from home,” explains Anthony. His opponent was quick, but it wasn’t the other fighter that made it difficult. The fact that he wasn’t on home turf didn’t feel right. However, he still won with a unanimous decision from the judges.
If you attend any of Anthony’s competitions you’ll hear his friends and family cheering him on.
“I try to put in as much action as possible,” says the fighter. “I go for a knock out and try to leave it as little as possible to the decision of the judges.” And this he has done several times. Out of 19 competitions, 15 were knockouts.
He currently holds the World title for the PKF, the North American title from the United States Kickboxing Association, regular titles from CanAm and several event titles. “Eventually I’d like to get world titles from every federation,” says Anthony.
However this may take awhile if competitions keep getting postponed. But Anthony looks at the silver lining.
“It makes every fight that I do compete in more exciting. If fighting would be too regular, my 100th fight wouldn’t be as exciting as my 100th fight would be now.”
The competition was pushed to February 20, then to March 20 and later cancelled completely. Anthony will train as intensively as his coach demands. He will train hard, forgetting common cancellations, for the love of the sport.
