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Middleweight great and
Hall-Of-Famer Nino Benvenuti
(82-7-1, 35 Kos) has confirmed
his attendance as a special
guest at the 2016 World Boxing
Federation (WBF) convention to
be held in Maribor, Slovenia
between September 22 and
September 25 at the luxurious
Hotel Habakuk.
Besides former WBF and IBF world
champion Jan Zaveck, Benvenuti
(78) is the only boxer born in
what is today known as Slovenia
to become a professional world
champion, and he did so no less
than three times between 1965
and 1968, losing his WBC and WBA
titles in his third reign to
Carlos Monzon in 1970.
Born in fishing-town Izola,
which was Italian at the time
but incorporated into Slovenia,
then a part of Yugoslavia, in
1954, Benvenuti turned
professional in 1961 after an
amazing amateur career. Various
reports list his amateur record
as 120-0, 120-1 and 119-1, but
it is a fact that he won
Italian, European and Olympic
gold (1960 in Rome).
In the paid ranks he won the
Italian national title in 1963,
and became WBC and WBA world
Super Welterweight champion in 1965
when he knocked out Sandro
Mazzinghi in six rounds in
Milan. He lost those titles to
Ki-Soo Kim in South Korea a year
later (SD15), but
became a
two-weight world champion in 1967 when he beat
WBC/WBA
Middleweight ruler Emile
Griffith (UD15) at Madison
Square Garden in New York.
Griffith won the rematch (MD15)
the following September, but
Benvenuti became a three-time
champion when he prevailed in
the rubber-match, again at
Madison Square Garden, in March
1968. After losing his crown to
Monzon in Rome in 1970 (TKO 12),
he was awarded a shot at
redemption the following year,
but Monzon stopped him in three
rounds.
In addition to Griffith and
Monzon, and many top contenders,
Benvenuti shared the ring with
legendary fighters such as Don
Fulmer (W UD12 & W UD15), and
Dick Tiger (L UD10) in a very
accomplished and active career
that included ninety pro fights
in ten years.
After retiring following the
second Monzon defeat, Benvenuti
became a successful businessman
and TV host in Italy,
interviewing Carlos Monzon, whom
he had befriended after their
ring wars, several times. Twice
married, he has five children,
one of which has a famous
godfather by the name of Emile
Griffith.
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