How good was he ? Bettina couldn't get past Billy Conn ,but he won ,lost, and drew with Jimmy Bivins,beat Tiger Jack Fox ,Dorazio,Barlund,Burman,Knox,Walker,Sheppard,Bobo,and Beckwith , among others. He is never mentioned today ,yet his record is pretty good.
Yes Melio Bettina,is never mentioned today...Bettina with his southpaw stance was tough to beat...I saw Bettina /Jimmy Bivins MSG 1945...They fought a draw...They fought each other about 4 times I believe,and if you split bouts with Bivins,you are good...I brlieve Jimmy Bivins in prime would be even odds with the likes of Spinks, Foster, etc... But the great Billy Conn beat the prime Melio Bettina twice,that speaks so highly of the "Pittsburgh Kid",Billy Conn....
Since I have had a real interest in the 30s-50s lately Bettina is a guy I come across more and more often in my research. Would be interesting to hear some more about him.
Joe Louis admited that his handlers were wary of matching him with Betina. That is a clue that the rabbit hole goes a bit deeper than it initialy apears.
Bettina may well be the forgotten man of the l/h and Hw's,him or Jeff Clarke. The Lesnevich losses hurt him as they did Mauriello but hell he had a great record. We wax on here about Clarence Henry, Bivins, Cleveland Williams, Harold Johnson, Eddie Machen, and a host of other great fighters but hell, he had a great and long resumee. And Louis was to fight him in "42 and "47. Great thread idea.
Anyone seen the footage of his bout with Conn? There's an 11 minute highlight I'm currently looking to attain.
Yes. I have seen it. Conn got much the better of him on the film. Conn was considerably taller than Bettina and much faster afoot. On how good Bettina was---Bettina certainly was consistent, but his record perhaps lacks marquee names to a large extent. 1. Tiger Jack Fox--One of Bettina's big wins, but there is a cloud over this one as Fox was recovering from a severe stabbing two months earlier and may not have been at full strength. 2. Jimmy Bivins--Bettina's biggest win and best performances, splitting even 1-1-1 with a prime Bivins. 3. Bettina also stopped Fred Apostoli but Apostoli was a middle moving up. 4. Looking at his record from 1939 to 1941, he lost twice decisively to Conn, lost to the middleweight Apostoli, lost to the ordinary Al McCoy, and lost to Anton Christoforidis for the lightheavy title. He then moved up to heavy. One must credit him with being extremely consistent, but the names on his rather deep resume are, other than Bivins, second tier men. 5. He drew with Bivins in 1945. He won quite a few more fights, but my guess would be that none of the men he defeated after this point were rated fighters. Bottom line--was able to split with Bivins, but was outclassed by both Conn and Lesnevich. Fights with men like Walcott, Charles, Maxin, and Moore would have given us a better reading of how good he really was.