Hall of Fame Boxer Nino Benvenuti Passes Away, Aged 87

Benvenuti realized he was at his best when he kept things simple free of distractions. The apartment where he trained, according to Sports Illustrated, had only a white plastic crucifix over the door. Driven to the first Emile Grifith fight in Lincoln Continental he listened exclusively to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

"Near the end of the first movement when the violins come in. It relaxes me," he said.

His 1966 bout against Don Fullmer (54–20-5), the brother of middleweight legend Gene Fullmer, inspired one of the finest pieces of 20th century boxing journalism: “A Jab from the Intellectual” in Sports Illustrated (from which I drew heavily in compiling this piece).

Later that year, Benvenuti faced Emile Griffith (85–24–2) in what would become The Ring Magazine’s 1967 Fight of the Year. Entering as a 2–1 underdog, Benvenuti stunned the crowd in New York with a decision victory. Both men touched the canvas in an instant classic. Griffith would win the rematch at Shea Stadium on September 29, 1967, in front of a cold and somewhat subdued crowd (there were no seats on the infield).

A third bout followed on March 4, 1968, which Benvenuti won by unanimous decision. Both of these fights also included at least one knockdown.

“He was a tough and great fighter,” Griffith said when I interviewed him decades ago. “A great fighter and a friend.”

Later in life Benvenuti became close with both Griffith and Carlos Monzón (87–3–9), the Argentine legend who would later be jailed for killing his wife. Benvenuti visited him in prison in the 1980s.

Though he appeared in a few films after retirement, Benvenuti’s own story had an almost literary arc. Like Mike Tyson and Gene Tunney, he had a deep love of literature from Voltaire to Steinbeck. He once told Sports Illustrated that his favorite novel was Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

In boxing, no matter how humble in the beginning or how graceful in the prime, the final act is almost always a tragedy. In Rome, in 1970, his beloved “Piazza Mio” became the site of his downfall, when he lost the middleweight title to Carlos Monzón.

A rematch in Monaco on May 8, 1971, did not go as planned. In front of 12,000 mostly pro-Benvenuti fans, his corner threw in the towel in the third round. He kicked it away in frustration. Though it meant little to him at the time, the fight helped establish Monaco as a major boxing hub.

“Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Mr. Nino Benvenuti cannot be reached,” Nicoletta Perale, the General Secretary of the Italian Boxing Federation told me last year when I contacted the federation to interview Benvunti.

I surmised then that he was in poor health. Recognition for the grand champion has since poured in from around the world. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued an official statement. But perhaps the most fitting epitaph comes from Hemingway’s final novella, the same one Benvenuti cherished most:

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”