Fernando Menoncello
Name: Fernando Menoncello
Alias: Bolacha
Birth Name: Fernando Menoncello
Hometown: Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Birthplace: Pirituba, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 171cm
Reach: 182cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Fighters Trained
- Rose Volante (2022 Active)
- Luciano Sergio Tancredi (2015 - 2018)
- Alekssander Ricardo Tancredi (2015 - 2018)
Notes
Fernando Menoncello, known as “Bolacha”, born on the 27th of July 1981 in Pirituba, a peripheral region in the north of São Paulo, had contact with the sport very early on.
As a young man, he skated and played ball, but boxing was always present in his life, thanks to his grandfather, who was a boxer in the 1940s.
His father was a locksmith; the mother, secretary. When the couple separated, the family ended up splitting between Rio de Janeiro and the capital of São Paulo.
Just like in boxing, Bolacha made a name for himself on the street. In childhood, he says, Biscuit's rounded face reminded him of the character Kevin Arnold, from the TV series Incredibles, and the then-recently-released stuffed biscuit (or biscuit, in São Paulo) Trakinas. The nickname stayed. In the streets where he grew up, he saw typical urban violence: the boys earned a good reputation by beating. And Cookie was fearless.
In 2013, Bolacha missed the course and found the legendary boxing gym Projeto Garrido, installed under an overpass in the Ipiranga neighborhood. There, he returned to training.
In the first fights arranged by Nilson Garrido, he was beaten to the point that the crowd called him Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone's character known for standing with a wide disadvantage. The black eye, on the other hand, served to at least impress her colleagues at the shelter.
"He came out of the ring angrier than ever (that night)," Garrido said in an interview. Bolacha recovered: he won the next fights and attracted small sponsors. At that time, he bled his opponent's nose in the gym where there were few to witness him.
Following in Garrido's footsteps. Today, Bolacha is a teacher and creator of the social project Das Ruas para os Ringues, in which he gives free boxing lessons to children, teenagers and adults. It also selects and prepares athletes. There are two units in the north of São Paulo, in Pirituba and in Freguesia do Ó, created and maintained with money from Bolacha's own pocket.
Social Project From the Streets to the Rings
