Laureano Staropoli became champion in France with a very strong knockout and reminded the public of the title in Qatar

With a resounding ko on the local Mickael Lebout, Argentine Laureano Staropoli became interim welterweight champion of the French mixed martial arts league ARES Fighting Championship in a bout on Friday at the Dôme in Paris. After his victory, Pepi he took the opportunity to remind the public, which had constantly harassed him, of the victory of the Argentine national team against France in the World Cup final which was played in Qatar.

For Staropoli, two unanimous decision wins at the ARES Fighting Championship were enough to put him in the running for an interim title (the division’s regular champion is Russian Abdoul Abdouraguimov, who has already announced his membership in the Ultimate Fighting Championship). And he didn’t miss it.

After a balanced first round and with an intense exchange of blows, the 30-year-old from La Plata resolved the match in the second: a powerful right hook to the jaw sent Lebout to the canvas when only 40 seconds had elapsed. With the opponent lying down, Staropoli continued the attack with three blows to the face until the referee, with great skill, stopped the beating.

After receiving the belt that accredits him as interim 170-pound champion, Staropoli was interviewed inside the Octagon and not only celebrated his victory, but also reminded the hostile Paris crowd of the consecration of the team led by Lionel Scaloni in the last World Cup World football. “Hold on Argentina, your mother’s shell. Come on, fuck. Dad three times world champion”, he shouted, with his gaze fixed on one of the stands and with a fairly simple and understandable language, capable of overcoming even linguistic barriers. He later apologised.

The reference to football was not new, given that in the days leading up to the match Lebout had tried to provoke his future opponent. To do this, he had resorted to posting memes on his Instagram account in which he alluded to that sport. “The rivalry we have is only through social networks. He is quite hurt because we won the World Cup against him and he uses memes to get my attention or to confuse me”I told him Pepi in Clarin.

Although this triumph, in what he called the biggest fight of his career, earned him a title, Staropoli is aiming to join the Professional Fighters League (PFL), the fastest growing circuit in recent years, or to rejoin the UFC, in which he already had an experience between 2017 and 2021.

In the main mixed martial arts league on the planet, he had a very auspicious debut in November 2018, with a victory against the Mexican Hector Aldana in Buenos Aires, which was chosen as the best fight of that evening at the Mary Terán de Weiss de Villa stadium Soldiers. Then he added another victory, in May 2019, against the Brazilian Thiago Alves in Rio de Janeiro.

However, those two joys were followed by four defeats in a row: against the Russian Muslim Salikhov, the Georgian Roman Dolidze and the Americans Tim Means and Jamie Pickett (October 2021), all defeats by unanimous decision of the judges.