Manuel's family particulars bear no discussion: Fabrizio, his father and trainer right from his first gong, was a professional the Piuma class Italian champion, while his fiancée, the Bronze world and European medallist Alessia Mesiano, is part of the women's boxing team. Yet this 23-year-old from Quartu Sant'Elena in Sardinia defends himself well. At Rio he is repeating his London Olympics experience, taking part in the Flyweight class, and also entering into the history books as a champion the calibre of Franco Udella. It is strange to think that as a child he hated boxing (a "fault" attributed to his father who always made him watch the matches on TV), and at the gym he preferred the football pitch. From childhood he had been nicknamed after a little mouse, "Squitti" (Italian for "squeaks"). Then, through a mispronunciation of this name, Clemente Russo renamed him as "Squikky". Manuel is a lover of Latin American music and feels all set to dance in the boxing ring.