Nino Benvenuti, Italy World Junior Middleweight and Middleweight Champion, Dies at 87
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent, Dies at 87
Rome, Italy (May 21st, 2025)– Giovanni ‘Nino’ Benvenuti, the 1960 Olympic Welterweight Gold Medalist in Rome who went on to hold the World Junior Middleweight and World Middleweight championships during his 10-year career between 1961 and 1971, has died at age 87. Benvenuti also held the European Middleweight and Ring Magazine World Middleweight championships to go with his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association World Middleweight titles.
Benvenuti had a career professional record of 82 wins, seven losses and one draw in 90 professional boxing bouts, with 35 wins by knockout. In 1992, 22 years after his retirement from the ring, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Benvenuti was a standout amateur boxer. In 120 fights, the Italian was undefeated, winning four national titles, two European titles and then the Olympic gold medal in 1960.
The Italian National Olympic Committee paid tribute to Benvenuti in an official statement “Italian sport is in mourning. Giovanni ‘Nino’ Benvenuti, one of the best boxers in history and certainly one of the most beloved athletes, passed away today, at the age of 87.”
After retiring from boxing, Benvenuti became a successful businessman, TV show host, and city counsellor for sport in Trieste, Italy. He opened a high-class restaurant, and maintained strong friendships with his former world champion rivals, the late Carlos Monzón and the late Emile Griffith. In 1980, Benvenuti asked Griffith to serve as the godfather of one of his sons, and later helped him financially when Griffith was in debt. Monzón was a guest on Benvenuti’s Italian television show several times. When Monzon was accused of murdering his wife in 1988, Benvenuti became one of his most loyal supporters, visiting him in jail in Argentina. Always of fine character, Benvenuti was a pallbearer at Monzón’s funeral in 1995. Benvenuti outlived Monzon, who beat him twice and went undefeated in his last 80 professional bouts, by 30 years.
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