Thursday, September 27, 2007

1970s: Golden Age of Boxing in Europe

The foundation for the "Golden Age" of professional boxing in Europe was essentially laid during the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy---an Olympics better known for the gold medalist at light-heavyweight, an American named Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali. A 22-year-old Italian named Giovanni "Nino" Benvenuti won the gold medal at welterweight and received the Val Barker trophy as the Games best boxer. Concluding his amateur career with a phenomenal record of 120-0, Nino began his pro boxing career in January 1961 and won his first 65 bouts, the longest consecutive win streak by any former Olympic boxer in the pro ranks, a record that stands until this day. That 65-bout win streak included a 6th-round KO over highly regarded countryman Sandro Mazzinghi, who had held the undisputed world junior middleweight crown for nearly 2 years before losing it to Benvenuti in June 1965. After successfully defending the crown in December 1965 with a 15-round unanimous decision over Mazzinghi, Nino's win streak came to a controversial finish when he travelled to South Korea and lost a disputed 15-round decision to local Korean hero Ki Soo Kim in June 1966.

The disputed loss caused Benvenuti to return to middleweight, where he had spent most of his pro career before dropping down to face Mazzinghi. After logging another 6 wins in Italy, Nino has a sensational U.S. debut at Madison Square Garden in April 1967, winning a unanimous 15-round decision over undisputed world middleweight champion Emile Griffith in a bout that was selected "Fight of the Year" by Ring magazine. Benvenuti lost the rematch to Griffith in Yankee Stadium by 15-round majority decision 5 months later but in March 1968, Nino regained the undisputed title in the rubber match with another 15-round unanimous decision over Griffith at Madison Square Garden. Clearly the best of a long line of durable Italian fistic warriors, Benvenuti is still widely considered the best European boxer in history. After he had successfully defended the undisputed crown 4 more times and with an 82-4-1 record, Benvenuti was already a certainty for the Hall of Fame.

Ironically, the "Golden Age" of European boxing was ushered in by Nino's defeat in November 1970 at the hands of fast-rising Argentine star Carlos Monzon. Although the 28-year-old Monzon had an unbeaten streak of 60 consecutive bouts, stretching all the way back to October 1964, he had never fought outside his home country, was virtually unknown in Europe and had never faced anyone even close to the caliber of Benvenuti. Carlos brought an impressive record of 67-3-9 into the undisputed title match in Nino's home country, having avenged all 3 losses and most of the draws. Monzon applied pressure from the start, finally landing a picture-perfect right hand to the jaw for a 12th-round TKO. The action-packed, undisputed world middleweight championship bout between future Hall-of-Famers Monzon and Benvenuti was judged "Fight of the Year" for 1970 by Ring magazine and a world boxing legend was born.

After 3 non-title fights back in Argentina, Monzon returned to Europe for the rematch, this time held in the tiny nation of Monaco. The Monte Carlo section of that country was an internationally renowned Riviera resort that had legalized gambling over a century earlier and had hosted professional boxing matches as far back as 1912. Future world light-heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier of France was European champ when he appeared there in 1920. A European featherweight championship bout was held in Monte Carlo in 1931 when history records that the audience included legendary French actor Maurice Chevalier, New York City mayor James Walker (a prime mover in the American boxing scene) and "many of the social leaders of the Riviera". Walker was a guest of the new Monte Carlo Casino management, presumably to scout the potential of future boxing there, but although occasional fights of local significance were held there over the next few decades, nothing materialized in the way of major boxing matches.

That is until May 1971, when Stade Louis II played host to the first world championship boxing match in Monte Carlo's history, with the inaugural title bout being the Monzon-Benvenuti undisputed world title rematch. (Benvenuti retired after losing by 3rd-round TKO, but his role in launching Europe's "Golden Age" of boxing should not be underestimated.) Although gambling hotbed Las Vegas, Nevada had entered into the world championship boxing business nearly 10 years earlier, it looked for awhile that Monte Carlo might rival its American counterpart as a major epicenter of the fight game. The Riviera resort had a 2-year hiatus from the sweet science until Monzon returned to Monte Carlo again in June 1973 to defend against former undisputed champ Emile Griffith, whom he defeated by 15-round decision. But even before returning to Monte Carlo, Monzon had already made Europe his primary base of operations, winning world title defenses in Rome, Paris and Copenhagen, Denmark in 1972. After defeating legendary Cuban champ Jose Angel Napoles in February 1974 on a 7th-round TKO in Paris, Monzon was stripped of the WBC portion of his world title for not defending against mandatory contender Rodrigo Valdez of Colombia. The 27-year-old Valdez then claimed the WBC belt 3 months later with a 7th-round TKO of previous Monzon challenger Bennie Briscoe---a seasoned, world-class warrior from the boxing hotbed of Philadelphia. The Valdez-Briscoe epic took place in (where else?) Stade Louis II in Monte Carlo, and that storied venue also played host to the eagerly awaited world title unification bout between Monzon and Valdez. Their June 1976 megafight, won by Monzon on a 15-round decision also featured an undercard bout between previous challengers Griffith and Briscoe, who also fought numerous bouts throughout Europe. After defeating Valdez in Monte Carlo again in a much more exciting and competitive 15-round decision in July 1977, Monzon retired as undisputed world middleweight champ at age 35. Having fought 12 times throughout the Continent---11 being world title defenses and 10 of those for the undisputed title---the troubled Argentine succumbed to a troubled life that makes Mike Tyson's look mild by comparison and died in a car wreck while on furlough from prison in 1995. But add to his already impressive ring credentials the fact that he played the key role in helping to launch the most competitive, exciting era in European boxing history.

Throughout the 1970s, Monte Carlo hosted numerous fights of international significance, often featuring bouts where both combatants were world-class Western hemisphere fighters. The ripple effect energized the entire European fight scene, with Italy, France and Great Britain hosting major international fights on through the 1980s and even into the early 1990s with many bouts featuring at least one world-class fighter from the Americas. The long-range impact helped the European fighters to raise their game to new, unprecedented levels since an environment where the best are regularly fighting the best benefits fans and fighters alike. The Monte Carlo scene faded somewhat in the 1980s, but still bore witness to compelling battles like Patrizio Oliva-Ubaldo Sacco and Julio Cesar Chavez-Rocky Lockridge. The biggest superfight in Monte Carlo in the 1990s was Mike McCallum-Sambu Kalambay, where the future Hall of Famer from Jamaica avenged his only loss at the time with an epic 12-round split decision over the durable African warrior who had taken his WBA junior crown 3 years earlier in Kalambay's adopted homeland of Italy. The last world title fight in Monte Carlo was July 1994, when Anaclet Wamba of France retained his WBC cruiser title with a 12-round draw against American challenger Adolpho Washington.

After an 11-year hiatus in Monte Carlo, there have been several half-hearted attempts to restore the glory with substandard fight cards in 2005-06, leading some to believe that boxing's popularity has faded among the Riviera glitterati that frequent the luxurious haunts of the Riviera resort on the Mediterranean coast. But in its heyday it drew an abundance of world-class fighters from throughout the Western hemisphere, many of whom returned frequently to fight in other European venues. Boxing legends like Monzon, Griffith, Valdez, McCallum and Chavez in compelling matchups that energized the sport across an entire continent and whose footsteps will hopefully be followed in the future by Europe's current wave of boxing immigrants from the former Soviet Union and its Eastern bloc satellites. As it stands now, there seems to be a general reluctance on the part of European promoters to match the best against the best, but perhaps the much-awaited Joe Calzaghe-Mikkel Kessler megafight will be successful enough fistically and financially to energize the sweet science on the Continent.

WORLD-CLASS BOXERS (Non-European) WHO HAVE CAMPAIGNED IN EUROPE SINCE 1970 (Minimum 2 Bouts in Europe)

JOHNNY FAMECHON (1970)
CARLOS MONZON (1970-77)
EMILE GRIFFITH (1970-77)
MUHAMMAD ALI (1971-76)
RODRIGO VALDEZ (1972-78)
VICTOR GALINDEZ (1976-78)
JOSE NAPOLES (1972-74)
MANDO RAMOS (1971-74)
VITO ANTUOFERMO (1974-80)
MUHAMMAD ALI (1971-76)
CARLOS PALOMINO (1976-78)
BENNIE BRISCOE (1974-79)
ELISHA OBED (1975-78)
ROCKY MATTIOLI (1975-81)
HUGO CORRO (1977-79)
MIGUEL ANGEL CASTELLINI (1974-77)
MIGUEL ANGGEL CUELLO (1975-77)
TONY MUNDINE (1973-79)
TONY LICATA (1976-78)
MATTHEW SAAD MUHAMMAD (1974-78)
EDDIE MUSTAFA MUHAMMAD (1974-85)
YAQUI LOPEZ (1976-78)
MARVIN JOHNSON (1978)
BARRY MICHAEL (1978)
ALFREDO ESCALERA (1978-79)
LOTTE MWALE (1978-88)
ALEXIS ARGUELLO (1979-81)
MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER (1979-82)
FULGENCIO OBELMEJIAS (1980-84)
JOHN ODHIAMBO (1980-86)
JOHN MUGABI (1980-91)
SANTOS LACIAR (1982-87)
EUSEBIO PEDROZA (1983-92)
ROCKY LOCKRIDGE (1983-87)
DONALD CURRY (1983-90)
MIKE McCALLUM (1984-96)
UBALDO SACCO (1985-86)
GILBERTO ROMAN (1986-87)
CARLOS SANTOS (1986-89)
JOSE LUIS RAMIREZ (1986-90)
JULIO CESAR CHAVEZ (1986-90)
CARLOS DELEON (1986-95)
BRIAN MITCHELL (1987-90)
ANTONIO ESPARRAGOZA (1988-89)
DANIEL ZARAGOZA (1988-92)
PERNELL WHITAKER (1988-90)
AZUMAH NELSON (1989-91)
JUAN MARTIN COGGI (1987-99)
LUPE AQUINO (1988)
VIRGIL HILL (1987-2007)
PRINCE CHARLES WILLIAMS (1988-96)
WELCOME NCITA (1989-92)
REGGIE JOHNSON (1989-98)
THULANE MALINGA (1989-2000)
REGILIO TUUR (1989-2002)
WILFREDO VAZQUEZ (1990-98)
TERRY NORRIS (1990-98)
MICHAEL NUNN (1990-98)
JEFF HARDING (1991-92)
NANA KONADU (1991-94)
THOMAS TATE (1991-2002)
ORLANDO CANIZALES (1992-93)
RONALD WRIGHT (1993-97)
JULIO CESAR VASQUEZ (1991-2005)
FRANK LILES (1995-96)
JUAN CARLOS GOMEZ (1995-2007)
HARRY SIMON (1996-2002)
CHARLES BREWER (1998-2005)
GLEN JOHNSON (1999-2006)
CHRIS BYRD (2000-07)
MIKE TYSON (2001-02)
CORY SPINKS (2002-03)
JEFF LACY (2002-06)
OMAR NARVAEZ (2002-07)