As Spaghetti Western fans we know Nino Benvenuti as an
actor from “Alive or Preferably Dead” (aka Sundance Cassidy & Butch the
Kid), but as an amateur welterweight boxer he won the Italian title in 1956–60,
the European title in 1957 and 1959, and an Olympic gold medal in 1960,
receiving the Val Barker trophy for boxing style. In 1961, having an amateur
record of 120-0, he turned professional and won world titles in the
light-middleweight division and twice in the middleweight division. Near the
end of his boxing career is when he appeared in “Alive or Preferably Dead” (aka
Sundance Cassidy & Butch the Kid) (1969), and then in “Mark Shoots First”.
Benvenuti was inducted into the International Boxing Hall
of Fame in 1992. In 1968, Benvenuti was voted Fighter of the Year by The Ring
magazine. In 2011, The Ring magazine ranked him as seventh on their list of the
"10 best middleweight title holders of the last 50 years."
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