On Sunday 24 November, from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm, at the yoga and wellness center The Garden in Viale Monte Nero 80 in Milan, the “Kick & Fight: I am not afraid” event will be held in which the kickboxing world champion Angelo Valente and the Italian karate champion Vanessa Villa make their experience available to women who want to learn to defend themselves. “I thought of this initiative because of the numerous attacks women are victims of – explains Angelo Valente – and which the media talk about every day. Kickboxing is a combat sport whose techniques can also be used to defend oneself. If I had a daughter I would tell her to practice kickboxing. I have two sons and I have never told them. To sign up for the course, just follow my social networks and those of Vanessa Villa where you will find all the necessary information. The course is free. In the event on Sunday 24 November the teachers will be just me and Vanessa, but in subsequent events we hope to have champions of national importance as guest teachers”.
Born 32 years ago in Riccione, Vanessa Villa was Italian karate champion several times in the specialty of kata, a competition in which kicks and punches are performed individually or in a team imagining that the opponent is in front of her. It is therefore not a question of throwing empty kicks and punches, but of simulating a fight. Victory is achieved by performing the athletic gesture in the correct way and showing confidence in the movements. “To triumph in kata – comments Vanessa Villa – it is essential to know the techniques performed perfectly and in the case of team competition it is also necessary to synchronize the movements with those of the other athletes. I was Italian team champion five times (as captain) and once individually. With a team from Emilia Romagna I participated in the European championship and we came second. In karate, I am a third dan (degree) black belt. I want to make my experience in karate available to women by teaching them some basic self-defense techniques. It is obvious that complicated techniques cannot be taught in two hours, especially considering that the women who will enroll in the course have never practiced karate or another combat sport. But the techniques we will teach will be effective in a dangerous situation. I will also teach breathing techniques since I am also a yoga instructor. I met Angelo Valente in recent months and I became his student because I got along well with him and I was curious about kickboxing. In my opinion, we will do a good job and many others will follow the first event.”
Angelo Valente is a symbol of Milanese and Italian kickboxing: athlete, coach, manager and organizer of major events such as The Night of Kick and Punch. Teaches at the gym Kick and Punch Downtown Milan in Via Vivaio 1 inside the historic Palazzo Isimbardi (headquarters of the metropolitan city). As an athlete he won the super welterweight, middleweight and super middleweight world titles. He often fought in events called Kickboxing Superstars, achieving his greatest success with the public when he beat Melvin Murray for the world middleweight title in May 2000: the PalaLido in Milan, which had 5,000 seats at the time, was sold out. Numerous students of Angelo Valente have won titles in Italy and abroad. We remember the kickboxing world champions Luca Grusovin and Luca Cecchetti and the muay thai world champion Joseph Lasiri who triumphed in the Asian One Championship circuit which in combat sports is the equivalent of the football Champions League.
