Fight:451675

Mel Collins 157 lbs beat Joe DeNucci 165 lbs by UD in round 10 of 10

• Date: 1967-11-02
• Location: Exposition Building, Portland, Maine, USA

Mel Collins, 157, Trenton, N.J., gave Joe DeNucci, 165, Boston, a boxing lesson in the ten-round main bout at the Exposition Building Thursday night to win a unanimous decision over the onetime middleweight contender. The bout might well have ended DeNucci’s comeback, for the unranked Collins won with ridiculous ease. It was DeNucci’s second loss in 12 fights since he returned to the ring in mid-1966 after a year’s layoff. Collins gave a masterful exhibition of boxing, and his superiority was so marked that some fans started to leave the building during the ninth round. It was evident from the first that DeNucci wasn’t going to make the only kind of fight that could win for him, and it was equally apparent that the light-hitting Collins couldn’t punch DeNucci out, so round followed round with tiresome monotony as Collins piled up the points with left jabs, an occasional sneaky right to the head, and a lightning fast combination of left jab, left hook and right cross. Blaine Davis, Portland Press Herald.