Nino Benvenuti's place among boxing's greatest?

P4P? No, I wouldn’t have him anywhere near that high, to be honest.

Italy’s (no Italian Americans included) greatest ever fighter? Yeah, probably.

 

Best, Greatest, Italian fighter ever, I don´t see any dispute on that.... but top 25 p4p ? No way.

 

-119-1 as amateur.
-82/7/1 as professional
-Olympic champion
-Judged best boxer at the Olympics of 1960, beating Cassius Clay-Mohammad Ali
-World super welterweight champion
-World middleweight champion

The defeat against Kim was a real robbery, scandalous for the way it happened.
The defeats to Monzon and Chirino came when he was old and in decline.

He can be in the top twenty.

 

Young Corbett III is Italy's greatest imo

 

At middleweight and light middle I would say he's top 20 in both divisions, in fact hes probably a top 10 at 154... as for being one of the overall greatest fighters of all time he's top 50 IMO.

 

P4P is kinda complicated for a fair assessment.

But at MW a serious case can be made that Nino is a legit Top10 ATG.

 

Nino was a good fighter , but all time pound for pound? No where near top 50. and that's not a knock on him but there's just soooo many fighters across the divisions that are much better

 

Great fighter, but not ATG. Reminds me a bit of Alexis Arguello in a way. Sort of a guy who seems too nice of a guy to be a fighter. Befriending Monzon when Monzon went to prison and staying in regular contact with him. Arguello comforting Mancini after their fight and telling him that he still will be a champion despite Ray's painful loss. Class acts.

 

I remember that someone said Benvenuti means welcome in Italian,his smile,act and name tells him how good of a person he is,not for his hands though.

 

Other than Basilio,Corbett and LaMotta,I can't think of any greater Italian fighter than him P4P,though he might not crack top 50 himself, he's Italian's finest.

 

I have named the defeats that do not affect the judgment on Benvenuti, because they occurred either with referee scandals or due to age. The defeat with Bethea was not among these and I took it for granted, so I did not name it.

 

I agree with you.

Benvenuti was a boxer of great, great intelligence and with excellent technique. His weak point was that he took hits badly and was easily hurt. He was a little badly managed. The defeat with Griffith happened because he was out of condition. The three defeats in the final phase of his career happened because he was on the twilight of his career, aged.

 

Nino was an excellent fighter who beat many great fighters - He had the party side and was popular with the ladies so not always in the best form and he was past his best when he fought Monzon.