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Downers Grove Boxer Making A Name For Himself In The Ring

CHICAGO (CBS) -- 2013 Golden Gloves Champ Gio Cabrera Mioletti is small in stature but packs quite a punch, and the rising boxing star is trying to make his mark in the fight game.

Cabrera Mioletti walked into John Nocita's gym three years ago and wanted to spar.

"Johnny is a hard guy. He doesn't like new guys coming in. He tried throwing me out [and] I was like, 'No,'" said Cabrera Mioletti.

"My guy hits him, and I said, 'Get him out of here.'I was surprised Gio kept coming back," said Nocita.

Since then 24-year-old Cabrera Mioletti, from Downers Grove, Johnny and Sammy, his manager, have been hitting the ring together.  The fast-rising featherweight at 130 pounds starts out his day with an eight mile run and trains twice a day. His big weapon? He's a lefty.

"The advantage to being a lefty is most orthodox fighters are not used to the angles that lefties can use," adds Cabrera Mioletti.

He turned professional in 2016 and is 15-0 with six knockouts, and four of those fighters were undefeated.

"I am finally getting the grasp of the game and understanding boxing, five out of the last six opponents have been knocked out," he said.

"He is learning to analyze other fighters and what is best to counter these fighters. He does that well. He makes these fights look amazingly easy," said Nocita.

Next up for Gio is a fight March 23 in Washington. He hopes to fight for a featherweight title within a year.

"There's a lot of  posters in here of great Mexican and Italian fighters and I want to be one of them. That's my goal to be champion of the world, featherweight, then lightweight then welterweight, so I have big aspirations," Cabrera Mioletti said.

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