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Sandro Mazzinghi


BoztheMadman
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Mazzinghi was the second best Italian fighter of the 60's and also the second best light middleweight, after the great Nino Benvenuti. However, he succeeded where Benvenuti failed, when he brought the world title back to Italy by defeating the man who took the title from Benvenuti-Ki-Soo Kim. He had a long and coveted career, culminating in a record of 64 wins, 42 by ko with only 3 losses. Only one of them came by knockout, to Benvenuti himself. He was a very durable and tough fighter with plenty of power. He was rather short for a junior middleweight at 5'8 but those things made up for it, as well as his natural ability.

 

Born Alessandro Mazzinghi on 3 October 1938 in Pontedera, a small town in Toscana (Tuscany), in 1961, he became the military world champion and then turned professional same year. He won 16 fights with 12 knockouts before experiencing his first upset against Giampaolo Melis, who was far more experienced, on points. In November 1962 he decisioned Fabio Bettini, future French middleweight champion. Next year on 8 March he first faced an American in Rocky Randell and stopped him in 1 round. On 5 May he faced the experienced multiple-world title challenger Don Fullmer and dominated him in a fight where Fullmer butted him several times, before the fight was stopped in round 8 because Fullmer was groggy. That fight was at middleweight. He also knocked out the former Commonwealth middleweight champion, the Canadian Wilf Greaves, in 5 rounds. Those victories gave him a crack at the world title held by Ralph Dupas. The fight was held at the Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan and Mazzinghi became the world champion for the first time when he halted Dupas in the 9th round by TKO. He defended the title in Sydney, Australia, almost 3 months later, on 2 December 1963 and this time it lasted longer but Mazzinghi was again the winner by a TKO in the 13th round, when he floored Dupas three times.

 

He would defend the title twice more against Tony Montano by TKO12 and Fortunato Manca by UD15 and then all was set for the showdown between the two best Italian boxers of the time when he faced Nino Benvenuti on 18 June 1965. The fight was held at San Siro in Milan and the 56-0 Benvenuti knocked him out in round 6. Unfortunately, not long before this fight he suffered a car accident while driving home from an evening out with his wife. His skull was fractured but still he came back and chose to continue boxing and defending his world titles. Because of this, Benvenuti gave him a rematch on 17 December and though he had Mazzinghi down and almost out in round 2, Sandro came back to give him a good fight and lasted till the final bell, losing on the scorecards but also proving something to himself and others. In June '66 he became the European champion by stopping Yoland Leveque of France by KO12. He then took on the man who had held the title before Leveque took it from him: the Swedish brawler Bo Högberg. The fight was in Stockholm but Mazzinghi still prevailed after a gruelling brawl to stop Högberg by TKO in the 14th round. He would defend the Euro title three more times.

 

As Benvenuti lost the title, somewhat controversially, by a split decision to Korean Ki-Soo Kim, Mazzinghi was now mandated as his challenger. The two faced off at San Siro on 26 May 1968. This time, the tough and crafty Kim would not emerge as the winner as Sandro, supported by 60,000 of his countrymen, forced the fight and took it to the Korean and after 15 hard fought rounds, he emerged as a winner, again by split decision. However, his first defense would be controversial; he took on the little-known but hard-hitting and quality American Freddie Little, at Palazzetto dello Sport in Rome, on 25 October. Little was a tough challenger and the fight ended in the 8th round, when the judge deemed that Little's punch which caused the cut which made Mazzinghi unable to continue was on the brow and therefore illegal. However, Mazzinghi was bleeding from both eyes and the decision seemed unlogical. Although the fight oficially ended as a No Contest, the WBC and WBA stripped Mazzinghi soon afterwards. Little would go on to become the new champion while Mazzinghi was now a spent force, more or less. It seems like that final hooray against Ki Soo Kim was ironically also the fight that cut his career short. He continued fighting until 1970, winning 5 more fights and 1 ending as a NC before he retired. He came back in 1977 but the comeback lasted for less than a year and 3 fights.

 

Sandro Mazzinghi is definitely one of the greatest Italian boxers ever, along with Benvenuti, Duilio Loi, Bruno Arcari and Young Corbett III. One might wonder what would have happened to his career without that car accident, but still his record speaks for itself.

Edited by BoztheMadman
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