Damiani was a good boxer with excellent amateur achievements and solid professional ones.
Obviously, his amateur win over Teofilo Stevenson was great. His loss to Tyrell Biggs in the Olympic final was quite arguable. I'd say, he edged with the quality aggression in that bout. It was just impossible to win the American at the hometown Olympics.
His avenging win over Biggs in the pros was spectacular as well as the destruction of Johnny du Plooy for the then brand new WBO strap. He was legitemily outboxing Mercer before got caught and suffered broken nose, which forced him to quit. He declined after that. Holyfield would destroy him, if the fight would happen, while in reality Damiani got injured and Holy faced Bert Cooper.
Damiani had a decent skillset and power, he could box and sorta swarm his opponents. His nose appeared to be his weakness, as his both pro-losses, to Mercer and McCall, happened with his nose being shattered. Despite the earlier version of Damiani possibly could have won McCall, overall it seems Francesco achieved about that much of what he had been capable of.
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 09 Oct 2021, 12:30
by Caractacus
-1982-
-1984-
-1987-
-1988-
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 09 Oct 2021, 22:27
by JxhDel.
Better than the continental level but not a world champ (especially at the time). It was great for the Italian scene, though, having him as WBO champ, nowadays he is a respected trainer
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 24 Oct 2024, 15:16
by Caractacus
he looked 'pretty good" to me
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 24 Oct 2024, 15:17
by Caractacus
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 25 Oct 2024, 03:31
by bennie
It's a shame that Damiani and Angelo Musone never squared off in a mouthwatering showdown of Italian heavies. Both men won medals in the 1984 Olympics and strung together long winning streaks in the pros but somehow it never happened.
Re: Francesco Damiani-How Good Was He ?
Posted: 25 Oct 2024, 04:17
by Fray Bentos
bennie wrote: ↑25 Oct 2024, 03:31
It's a shame that Damiani and Angelo Musone never squared off in a mouthwatering showdown of Italian heavies. Both men won medals in the 1984 Olympics and strung together long winning streaks in the pros but somehow it never happened.
Wouldn't Musone have been a bit small for Damiani? He was a big heavyweight for then.
bennie wrote: ↑25 Oct 2024, 03:31
It's a shame that Damiani and Angelo Musone never squared off in a mouthwatering showdown of Italian heavies. Both men won medals in the 1984 Olympics and strung together long winning streaks in the pros but somehow it never happened.
Wouldn't Musone have been a bit small for Damiani? He was a big heavyweight for then.
Yeah, Musone was a small heavy. Maybe that's why it didn't happen, or maybe they stablemates, I don't know. I think they could have met after Musone defeated Leon Spinks in 1987 to stretch his unbeaten record to 19-0. A couple of fights later, Musone suffered a shock defeat to American opponent Steve Mormino and never fought again.
bennie wrote: ↑25 Oct 2024, 03:31
It's a shame that Damiani and Angelo Musone never squared off in a mouthwatering showdown of Italian heavies. Both men won medals in the 1984 Olympics and strung together long winning streaks in the pros but somehow it never happened.
Wouldn't Musone have been a bit small for Damiani? He was a big heavyweight for then.
Yeah, Musone was a small heavy. Maybe that's why it didn't happen, or maybe they stablemates, I don't know. I think they could have met after Musone defeated Leon Spinks in 1987 to stretch his unbeaten record to 19-0. A couple of fights later, Musone suffered a shock defeat to American opponent Steve Mormino and never fought again.
Who was I thinking of? Rottioli? He fought Wamba for the WBC cruiserweight title but was an Italian heavyweight champion but getting mixed up?
What about the story of Andrew Gerrard and Biagio Chianese making the ring collapse out there in Italy in the 80's? now I would have paid to see that!
Wouldn't Musone have been a bit small for Damiani? He was a big heavyweight for then.
Yeah, Musone was a small heavy. Maybe that's why it didn't happen, or maybe they stablemates, I don't know. I think they could have met after Musone defeated Leon Spinks in 1987 to stretch his unbeaten record to 19-0. A couple of fights later, Musone suffered a shock defeat to American opponent Steve Mormino and never fought again.
Who was I thinking of? Rottioli? He fought Wamba for the WBC cruiserweight title but was an Italian heavyweight champion but getting mixed up?
What about the story of Andrew Gerrard and Biagio Chianese making the ring collapse out there in Italy in the 80's? now I would have paid to see that!
I'd forgotten that. Chianese was a huge heavyweight for his time. Just looking at his record, he weighed almost 300 pounds for some fights. Throw in Andrew Gerrard, who was never particularly slim, and the ring is under an awful lot of strain.
now I would have paid to see that!