Napoles vs Nino Benvenuti (1970)..who wins?

On Nino in 'sportsmanship'

A) He used his elbows
B) Hit on the break
C) Hit after the bell
D) Hit behind the head
E) Used rough-house tactics in clinches

When things didn't go his way, Nino was known to 'bend the rules' of
ring sportsmanship.

 

Yeah I thought his slide was a bit earlier. Thanks.

 

Benvenuti was getting gift decisions and struggling in non-title bouts throughout his career.It's just the way the man rolled...he was a lazy playboy.

however could still bring the goods right up until he retired if he had actually trained right.He especially looked as good as he ever had at 160 in the first Monzon fight imo.

I expect an in-shape Benvenuti would ultimately be too strong and rangey on the outside for the smaller Napoles, but could easily drop a ten-rounder if he's not in the best shape.

 

Its laughable to say Benvenuti looked as good as he ever did in the first Monzon fight.

Obviously you never saw Benvenuti at 154 when he was at his best, yet still beatable.

He had a couple of moments against Monzon, but thats all they were were, mere moments. Beyond that Monzon had the fight well in hand.

As early as 1968 Benvenuti received a gift draw against completely unknown local clubfighter Doyle Baird.

In his next fight he won a competetive fight against Don Fullmer after being dropped. Fullmer hadnt defeated anyone of note in over two years since gaining a majority decision over a very faded Bobo Olson in Olson's last fight.

Benvenuti then lost to forty year old Dick Tiger.

Benvenuti then fought a totally inexperienced Fraser Scott and while Benvenuti was winning he was tiring and Scott was coming on when the referee stopped the fight for no reason other than Scott was fighting out of a low crouch. The stoppage set off a riot and even Benvenuti admitted it was a bad stoppage.

His next fight was against 32 year old faded ex welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez who was easily outpointing Benvenuti, who was also cut in the fight, when a miracle left hook made Rodriguez take the count for the first time in his career.

Benvenuti then got stopped by Tom Bethea who had something like 15 fights under his belt, losing nearly half, and had never beaten anyone of note. Benvenuti then had two more fights, avenging his loss to Bethea and his gift draw, which should have been a loss, to Baird, before facing Monzon.

So in essence, not only was Benvenuti clearly faded. But, all of his wins were on his home turf (including Umag, Croatia which is ten miles from his home town of Trieste) where he was well known to get special treatment. In all of those fights he weighed over or just at 160. And the majority of those fights were against guys who were at the very least in the lower tier of the ratings or not rated at all.

If Benvenuti has to make 155 (which would kill him) and fight on neutral ground I give Napoles a very good shot at beating him.

 

Lord Tywin,,,,,,,

Good Stuff

The oddity,,,,,Nino was a 2-1 Betting Favorite over Carlos Monzon in their 1st-Bout.

 

I wasn't serious about the catchweight. The thread starter gives out the weights as 152 for Napoles and 159 for Benvenuti.

Nino obviously has the size advantage going for him but the question in my mind is whether Napoles could get the job done against middleweights at all. He wasn't a big welterweight in the first place but did he have enough skill to make up for it?

Benvenuti was beatable in 1970 and it didn't necessarily have to be a Carlos Monzon to pull off the feat. I do think Napoles's ability to deal with middleweigts is too much of an unknown factor in order to favour him clearly. He only ever fought Monzon, a man who would make similar work of most middleweights, although Napoles did decent for a couple of rounds I suppose.

 

That had a lot to do with Monzon being totally unknown and having never fought out of South America, not any overwhelming opinion that Benvenuti was "that good" at that point.

Monzon was seen as another in the line of guys like Scott, Bethea, and past their prime guys like Tiger and Rodriguez that Benvenuti "should" have been able to beat. The fact that he either didnt or struggled said more about where he was at in his career than where they were.

 

Its obviously a more difficult fight for Napoles based on size alone if Benvenuti can come in at 159.

He would be the biggest guy Napoles had ever faced at that point.

But, and its a big but, Benvenuti wasnt a big puncher, even at 154, he didnt have a huge reach advantage over Napoles, and most importantly he didnt fight as tall and rangy as Monzon.

He often fought more squared up to his opponent in a straight up European style. Napoles had enough speed, and rhythm, as well as the ability to improvise that even with the size difference Id give him at least a 50/50 shot.

The best Napoles is never beating the worst Monzon. A good Napoles might beat a bad Benvenuti.

 

Up to mid-1970

Nino Benvenuti had never lost in Italy or Monte Carlo.

So the comfortable surroundings of the Mediterranean suited 'Playboy Nino'
very well.

Though Nino did pop in a few "puzzo's", when the "Canoli's" were on the line,
he usually came through.

The taller guys usually gave Jose Napoles a bit of trouble, so if Nino kept on his
bicycle, I can't see Mr. Napoles getting close enough to do damage to Nino's fragile ribs.

 

ON the contrary anyone that's watched enough of Benvenuti should know he was inconsistent throughout damn near most of his career, as you just described yourself.When did he start to decline for you? was it 65\66 after a glorious roughly five year pro career?Maybe after the Griffith trilogy? yeah i can see that but he didn't suddenly become a consistently bad fighter.You need to stop dealing in absolutes all the time.


Be gone klompton.

 

Nino, 'mucho forte'

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I think Nino at his best would be trouble for any lmw and mw. when not he was beatable by average fighters. And he knew it himself. He was only motivated when there was something in it, if the opponent was a great challenge or fame. Did well for himself, still beloved in Italy and still alive and kicking as far as I know.

 

Rough house tactics in his day were not cheating. Some (many) fighters fought that way and it was considered part of the game. No one said he didn't legitimately beat Emile Griffith. Watch the old fights and you'll see a large number of fighters would get in the elbows, laces, thumbs, etc. Most of those guys would have won anyway, as Nino would have. But it's a fact that boxing had more of that then than it does now.

And it would have been rough on Napoles' eyes.