South Philly’s Johnny ‘Cannoli’ Garbarino left the Michelin-star kitchen, but he still cooks in the ring

In the middle of a crowded Wells Fargo Center, Johnny Garbarino stalked his opponent — applying pressure, cutting off the ring, and dipping every shot thrown at him. The South Philly native waited for the right opportunity to present itself. With 16 seconds left in the first round, he saw his shot: His opponent, Apostle Spencer, left himself open and Garbarino fired a vicious overhand right that connected with Spencer’s jaw. Lights out.

“Whenever you see hyenas go after their prey, they’re always attacking and retreating and then coming back, getting the bigger animal more tired,” Garbarino, who was born in Philly but raised in South Jersey, said. “That’s how I try to think about it with my opponent. I’m always in and out taking a little bite, waiting for an opportunity to jump on my prey.”

The discipline and patience that Garbarino shows in the ring, he learned from his days as a sous-chef at Del Frisco’s. Every moment leading up to his debut fight earlier this year — from his fighting roots to his time in culinary school — have prepared him for his Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship career.

“That was the biggest fight of my career so far,” Garbarino said of fighting in front of nearly 18,000 fans in his hometown at January’s KnuckleMania V. “I feel like I blew the roof off of that building that night. I was super, super prepared. Being from South Philadelphia, being in my backyard, that was like the biggest opportunity I ever had in my life. So I just told myself, you’re not gonna quit, you’re gonna do everything in your power to get this win. And I did it.”

Leading up to the fight, Garbarino was already making headlines. During the weigh-ins at Xfinity Live!, the Italian fighter smashed a cannoli in his opponent Spencer’s face.

“I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t expect for any of that to happen,” Garbarino said. “I called a couple of my friends to grab a box of Termini’s cannoli. I handed the cannoli out on the stage and as I was handing them out to the opponent, I was just trying to be nice and I swear he was giving me a crazy look. So, I just slapped it out of his hand. And then organically he charged me, and I actually forgot that the cannoli was in my hand and I went to hook him. It was a left hook cannoli.”

Garbarino’s connection to food, however, is much deeper than cannoli.

Before fighting professionally, Garbarino, who is a public adjuster and owns a claims company based in Philadelphia, was training to become a chef at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology. There, he studied culinary arts, learned to bake pastry, and dabbled in molecular gastronomy — also known as food science. Prior to enrolling, Garbarino said he was kicked out of a dozen schools, mostly for fighting. But with food, he found a new outlet — and a calling.

Garbarino stayed at GCIT for four years before earning a partial scholarship to attend the Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated from its Hyde Park campus in 2015.

“I always had my heart set on the Culinary Institute of America,” Garbarino said. “It was like the best experience possible. It was like Hogwarts for a chef.”

Garbarino eventually worked his way up from a receiver — shucking oysters, picking up packages, and making prep — to sous-chef at Del Frisco’s at 19 years old. After working there off and on for five years between 2014-2019, he moved to Chicago to work at the three-star Michelin restaurant Alinea for one year. It was a dream job for Garbarino. Until it wasn’t.

“At the time, all I cared about was being a culinary master chef,” Garbarino said. “I wanted to have Michelin stars. I wanted to chase that dream as a chef. So going out there to the number one restaurant in the world was an amazing opportunity for me.

“And getting there, I actually realized that it wasn’t for me. You’re losing your life, it’s a very unhealthy lifestyle. It’s like you’re always gonna be — I’m not knocking people — but you’re always gonna be serving somebody else’s life. And I just didn’t think it was cut out for me. I’d rather go out to eat at Alinea or eat at Del Frisco’s and pay somebody to do it for me rather than lose my Friday nights, lose my Valentine’s Day, lose my Mother’s Day.”

In 2018, Garbarino decided to pursue a different passion: fighting. He’s always been a fighter, training in martial arts as a kid for self-defense and discipline. At 22 years old, Garbarino started his amateur career, and he remembers the nerves leading up to his very first mixed martial arts fight on the amateur scene in August 2018 at the 2300 Arena.

“That was the most nervous day of my life,” Garbarino said. ”As you go out, you just completely black out and you’re not present. But again, it was like a me vs. me moment. I had to zone everybody out and use the energy from the crowd to fuel me and to bring that monster out. And that’s what I did. I crushed it.”

Garbarino defeated his opponent, Nick Bord, by a split decision. He would go on to win the amateur belt with the Art of War promotion in 2020 against Justin Harrell. One person who happened to be in the building that day was Philly’s own Eddie Alvarez, a former UFC and Bellator champion.

“[Alvarez] started to attend a couple of my fights for Art of War,” Garbarino said. “He was at my championship fight when I won the amateur belt. And then when I went pro, he was there.”

Little did Garbarino know that five years after winning his first Art of War title with Alvarez watching, he would be fighting on the same card as Alvarez in his BKFC debut — at home in Philly.

BKFC made its way to Philadelphia for its first hometown show on Jan. 25 at the Wells Fargo Center, headlined by Alvarez. The 40-year-old shared the card with seven other Philly fighters, including Garbarino, now 29, who beat out 200 other fighters to claim a spot in the event.

“That was crazy,” Garbarino said. “Growing up watching guys like him at his caliber is what drove me to be who I was and to try and fight. I probably wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for people like him from the city of Philadelphia doing it.

“Just to share a card with him was an honor. Any fighter could probably say the same thing about him. I feel like with me coming into the bare knuckle sport, it was like a passing of the torch because I feel like that was his last fight. And for me to come behind him and represent the city makes me really proud.”

But Garbarino’s spectacular night didn’t end with his first-round knockout of Spencer. After the win, he got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend of five years, Gianna Scavetti.

“I always thought I was going to do it in the UFC, like when I finally got picked up, but I never went to the UFC and David Feldman gave me an opportunity here,” Garbarino said. “Once I found out that it was in the Wells Fargo [Center], that’s when it clicked. I said I’m gonna do it right now.”

Getting to that point was a bit of a challenge. Fight night came and the ring still wasn’t ready for pickup. Instead of accepting defeat, Garbarino, ever the fighter, had a plan. His partner went to Swarovski and bought a cheaper ring to use during the proposal. Despite the challenges, Scavetti said yes. A week after the fight, Garbarino proposed again, this time with the custom ring he originally ordered.

After a debut that certainly lived up to the hype, Garbarino is making his highly anticipated return to the 2300 Arena on Friday in his second fight under the BKFC promotion.

“For me, Wells Fargo was like my Madison Square Garden,” Garbarino said. “It was an amazing opportunity, an amazing day. But that’s gone, that’s done. Now we’re at the 2300 Arena. The 2300 Arena to me is almost even more special because I had my first fight ever there. My first amateur fight. And that is my home. It’s always been my home.”

Garbarino said fans can expect another amazing show. When asked if we’ll see more cannoli ahead of the fight, Garbarino — wearing a red “Johnny ‘Cannoli’ Garbarino South Philly” shirt — responded, “I don’t know. Maybe some Pignoli cookies.”

Johnny “Pignoli” Garbarino. That has a nice ring to it.