Oscar Delahoya vs Nino Benvenuti 154

****, you kinda called it the way i see it.

benvenuti was a slick mother****er, especially at 154. he's underrated a lot cause of his middleweight career and losses to larger fighters. at both 154 and 160 he could move, jab, take a punch, slip a punch and was typically in good shape despite his training habits.

i think over 15 rounds, he takes oscar deep and wins a UD decision. over 12, oscar's left hook and aggression wins him the close rounds and he wins an SD

 

haven't seen the kim fight unfortunately. good point about his toughness, it can't be questioned. in the championship rounds i think benvenuti pulls clearly ahead. my question would be: in a 12 round fight, would nino have enough time to make up the points? oscar had a tremendous jab of his own and serious power. i see him taking the first six. imo, in a 15 round fight benvenuti pulls ahead and takes the decision through workrate and consistent inside work.

 

good call:good

 

I think Nino takes it on both occasions. Closer over 12 though. Benvenuti is very underated. A Top10 if not Top5 at jmw, a Top20 if not Top15 at mw. I think I rank him higher all-time than DLH although. Oscar is better defensivly, Nino better offensivly. Oscar has better handspeed but Nino has the jab to control Oscar and take away the speed advantage. It will be a good match-up but I think in the end Nino´s jab And he has slightly better footspeed. DLH was often plodding and I think Benvenuti would use a jab and move tactic to beat DLH. Some thing like 7-5 over 12 and 10-5 over 15.

 

I totally disagree with you. In which division is DLH ranked as high as Benvenuti?
Is Oscar´s resume better? He has more names on it but Benvenuti has the bigger once and actually beat some of them, where Oscar lost.
Achievement-wise Oscar had success at higher and more weights but then Nino fought in the era of same day weigh-in. Oscar could drain him far more. And Nino was the champ at two weights. Oscar was a (unified) beltholder at multiple weights. That evens it out.
Longevity is pretty much even also, perhaps an edge for Oscar.
Dominance, well, Oscar was dominant at the lower weights but he was unnaturally big there. Benvenuti never had that advantage over hsi opponents. Benvenuti´s best weight was jmw and he was very, very dominant there. Oscar´s best weight was welterweight and he had three close fights there and probably should be 1-2 against the best opponents he had there. I call it even.

So, by my standards, they aren´t far apart if at all.

 

I knew you would come in and rant, partly that´s why I posted how I posted: to wind you up

I was talking about all-time, friend. In which division DLH fought he is as highly ranked as Benvenuti?

Yes, I do rate today´s fighters down for having it easier in terms of weigh-in and winning a title. A belt holder to me is a contender and nothing more. I stated this more than once. Even a unified belfholder can only be a contender, Roy Jones Jr. for example. I stated this opinion more than once and till know I haven´t heard anything that would make me change it.
I do think that the 24 hours weigh-in is a big advantage and one reason why successful weight-jumping became much more common.

Yes, I do.

It doesn´t matter to me who hits harder - I disagree with you DLH hitting harder than Benvenuti at jmw - when ranking a fighter. I stated more than once by what I go. So, if you critizise my rankings than by my standards, not by yours.
Rodriguez was better than Chavez when they fought. DLH also was naturally bigger than Chavez. Rodriguez also was often fighting and proving himself at mw. I wouldn´t necessarily call him smaller.
DLH was the bigger man against Whitaker, the win is very, very disputed - I often stated my opinion that Whitaker won even so it was a close fight - and Whitaker was past it by quite a bit.
Vargas wasn´t better than Mazzinghi and DLH looked as big as him.
Griffith was not smaller than Benvenuti. Griffith like Benvenuti was a natural jmw. And Benvenuti was the one moving up there.
Yep, Benvenuti lost to some lesser fighters but his loss against Chirino was against the end of his career. He avenged the loss against Bethea and the loss to Kim was very close and disputed.
Which near greats did DLH beat?

The only one you can think of is Sturm? Quartey? Whitaker? I had him losing both. And no the Sturm fight was not close it was an 8-4 type fight for Sturm who was clearly robbed.
DLH also drained himself to make sfw and lw. Benvenuti didn´t do the same. No, DLH´s success at 154 is not comparable to Benvenuti´s imagined at cw. DLH is/was a natural ww, perhaps even jmw, so his success at jmw is more like Benvenuti´s at mw.
And no, his weight-jumping is not more impressive than Nino´s considering his possibility to drain himself to the lighter weights, him having it far easier winning a belt and considering Nino beeing the champ at two weightclasses and having wins over greater fighters DLH and even himself can even dream of beeing. At least to me.

The main difference between them is that Benvenuti was able to beat fighters greater than him. DLH couldn´t beat most fighters which were as great as him.

 

Nino's career is only remembered by fans today based on his losing battles to Carlos Monzon unfortunately, while Oscar is recalled more readily of course because of his more recent career and having been the recipient of far more publicity even to this day, with his ownership of Ring magazine and their emblazoning his name and face in just about any given edition. What's forgotten about Nino is that he lent a bit of glamor and color to the sport of boxing after Ali's exile and the relative slump that occured after that. What also has been forgotten is that Nino was a damned good fighter, and despite being somewhat built more like a swimmer than a boxer and having that handsome, cultivated Italian actor look, he could both move and box, and hit as well. I think he would have beaten Oscar, decking him, and maybe even getting decked himself enroute to basically outgutting and outboxing ODLH to a 15 round decision. Nino could, especially in his last 4 years as a pro, be a little erratic, but in rematches with the title on the line he usually redeemed himself quite well, and could put his foes away. Oscar would see the 15th round, but Nino would have won on points in an entertaining bout.

 

What if the fight is in Italy?

 

De La Hoya would lose.

 

Oscar would lose..that is Nino would win if the fight were held anywhere..of course Nino would be pumped up more if it were in Italy, but I think it wouldn't matter.