Nino Benvenuti vs. Tom Bethea (1st meeting)
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Nino Benvenuti 163 lbs lost to Tom Bethea 165 lbs by TKO in round 8 of 10
- Date: 1970-03-13
- Location: Olympic Velodrome, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Referee: Billy Rainsbury
Melbourne, Australia (AP) – Tom “the Bomb” Bethea, a virtually unknown New Yorker who had lost his last four fights, scored one of the greatest ring upsets of the decade by stopping world middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti in the eighth round of a non-title ten rounder Friday night.
The 31-year-old Italian, who had absorbed a fierce beating and had been dropped in the seventh round, quit in the first few seconds of the eighth, complaining of a rib injury.
It was scored an eighth round knockout, marking the first time in his 85 fight, 10-year pro career that the handsome Italian had been stopped. His record is 80-4-1.
- Purses: Benvenuti - $30,000, Bethea - $3,500
- Bethea previously worked as a $200-a-week sparring partner for Benvenuti when the Italian was fighting Dick Tiger in New York in a non-title in 1969.