Nino Benvenuti, an Istrian exile and Italian boxing legend, Olympic and world champion , recently died at the age of 87.

Born in Isola d'Istria on April 26, 1938, he lived through the spring of 1945 during the occupation of the army of communist Yugoslavia, which brought mourning and persecution to the Italians in the context of Tito's annexationist project. His brother was arrested by the OZNA, the Yugoslavian secret police, suffered a harsh detention but fortunately returned home, unlike thousands of Julian, Fiume and Dalmatian people of whom nothing more was heard. His family fled to Trieste, where the young Nino began his boxing career and would later also be elected city councilor for the MSI for a short period.

Giovanni, known as Nino, Benvenuti was the 1960 Olympic welterweight champion in Rome, world super welterweight champion (1965-66) and middleweight champion (1967-70), as well as European middleweight champion (1965-67). In 1968, he won the prestigious Fighter of the Year award, the only Italian to do so. He was also the only Italian boxer to hold world titles in two categories (middleweight and super welterweight), a feat shared with only nine other athletes worldwide. In 1992, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the first Italian to receive this honor, and was admitted to the National Italian-American Sport Hall of Fame for his successes in the USA. When he returned to Trieste after winning the world title in the New York ring, it was April 17, 1967, and that night, millions of Italians listened on the radio to the voice of Paolo Valenti, thrilled by his victory over Emile Griffith.

He has told his story in numerous interviews, but above all in the book "L'Isola che non c'è. Il mio esodo dall'Istria" (Eraclea, Rome 2013), written together with journalist Mauro Grimaldi, who then collaborated with the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia and the publishing house Ferrogallico to create the comic " Nino Benvenuti. Il mio esodo dall'Istria, " which told his story of suffering, rebirth, and success in a format aimed primarily at new generations.

Proud of his origins, Benvenuti was a testimonial for the Corsa del Ricordo, a “Blue Bench” in the Julian-Dalmatian Quarter of Rome already celebrating his sporting skills as an exile who has always maintained a deep connection with Istria, receiving in 2018 the Isola d'Istria award from the Self-Managed Community of Italian Nationalities of his hometown : in one of his last interviews he said that he would have liked, when the time came, his ashes to be scattered in the Adriatic Sea from “soscojo”, the rock in Isola where he learned to swim as a child.

We remember him with the documentary Nino Benvenuti: From Isola d'Istria to the rings of the whole world, produced by Tele Capodistria in 2023:

https://365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/i-documentari-di-tv-capodistria/175004560