BoxRec

Who would win in their prime at middleweight between the man, whom Carlos Monzon took the title off him and the two-time middleweight champion, whom Monzon defeated twice to end his career? In my opinion, Rodrigo Valdez would swarm over Benvenuti with body punches and eventually knock him out in 8 rounds. What is your opinion?

Benvenuti would win prime for prime... He won his first 65 professional fights and all 120 of his amateur fights leading up to his Gold Medal in the Olympics... But he wasn't looking that good in a lot of fights around the time he fought Monzon.. His chin wore down.. He didn't look good in losses to Dick Tiger and Tom Bethea -- and even looked bad in wins over Don Fullmer, Fraser Scott, and Luis Rodriguez.. He seemed to be struggling in those fights whenever he took a good head shot... Valdez would have beaten him around the time he fought Monzon.

But the Benvenuti who beat the Hernandez brothers and Emile Griffith probably would have outboxed him over 15. I say that because Valdez didn't necessarily fight boxers that well. Aside from Monzon beating him he lost to Ralph Palladin and struggled to a win over poorly skilled Carlos Marks. He lost twice to Hugo Corro. He had that great one-shot KO of Bennie Briscoe which was impressive as Hell -- but any wins over outstanding boxers aren't there. I would say it would be a very interesting and exciting fight prime for prime and Nino wins a clear decision.

That's a good opinion and yes, Benvenuti would use his long left jab and sharp punches from long range to avoid Valdez's powerful right hand to take a 15 round decision if Bevenuti fight the right tactic to defeat Valdez.