He was the Marvelous Marvin Hagler of his day … but not the way you think. Marvin moved to Italy to make movies after he retired. Tiberio didn’t have to move since he was already there as an Italian, but he had a pretty prolific acting career from the mid-1950s through 1995 (although some big gaps after 1968 with only a few more roles spread out over decades). He has 27 entries in IMDB, including an uncredited part in Ben-Hur. As for the boxing part, he started about 48-1-3 with that loss coming via DQ. Became Italian and European middleweight champ. Got a title shot, losing by decision to Jake LaMotta in Jake’s first defense. Scorecards were 12-3, 9-6 and 8-7. He hung in pretty good for the first half of the bout from what I can tell but took a pasting down the stretch. His most noteworthy win was a KO 1 of Randolph Turpin to capture the EBU title for the second time. Given Mitri’s KO rate of under 25%, this had to be the Nunn-Kalumbay of its day. As far as being a champion in the 1970s or beyond if he had come along a bit later, problem is it would have to come when Carlos Monzon, Rodrigo Valdez or Marvin Hager weren’t around. There may be a chance post-Hagler but he’s not beating any of those three from what I can tell (looking at a bit of film vs Jake and surmising what I can from his record).
Right! I was thinking more in the Corro-Minter-Antuofermo and of course, the IBF-WBO era but against Monzon, Valdes, Hagler and Leonard, there is no way! Man, I love your posts! I come every day to read your analysis!
