Franco Cavicchi

Cavicchi, Franco
Data
Birth Name	Cavicchi, Francesco
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Italy
birthday	May 12, 1928
place of birth	Pieve di Cento , Emilia-Romagna
Date of death	22nd August 2018
style	Left-hand boom
Combat Statistics
Struggles	89
Victories	71
Knockout victories	46
Defeats	14th
draw	4th

Franco Cavicchi (born May 12, 1928 in Pieve di Cento , Emilia-Romagna , † August 22, 2018 ) was an Italian boxer . He was the European heavyweight professional boxer champion .

Career

Amateur career

Franco Cavicchi had a very successful amateur career in the early 1950s. The greatest success was winning the Italian heavyweight championship in 1952, which took place in Trieste. At the European Amateur Boxing Championships in Milan in 1951 and at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, however, it was not used. At both championships, Giacomo di Segni represented the Italian colors in the heavyweight division .

Franco Cavicchi also played a few international matches for Italy from 1950 to 1952. On May 10, 1952, he boxed it in Rome against Ed Sanders from the United States and lost against this on points. Ed Sanders became Olympic champion in Helsinki in 1952 a few months later . He prematurely defeated Ingemar Johansson from Sweden in the final .

Profile career

In the fall of 1952, Franco Cavicchi joined professional boxers. His domicile was Bologna and his manager was Renato Venturi. He played his first professional fight on October 1, 1952 in Bologna and defeated his compatriot Mario Azzaria by knockout in the 2nd round. In his career he often fought against German opponents. He started on March 2, 1953 in Bologna against Hans Friedrich, against whom he faced again on July 2, 1953, again in Bologna. Both times these fights ended in a draw. On May 15, 1953, he played his first professional fight outside of Italy. In Munich he lost to Hugo Salfeld by disqualification in the 5th round.

In 1954, Franco Cavicchi played no fewer than eleven fights, all of which he won. On October 15, 1954 he was also Italian heavyweight champion in Milan with a technical knockout victory over the defending champion Uber Bacilieri .

In 1955 Franco Cavicchi got into the ring even more often than in 1954. In the first half of 1955 he played, for example. B. 13 fights, all of which he also won. On June 26, 1955, he boxed at the Stadio Comunale in Bologna in front of 60,000 spectators against the German title holder Heinz Neuhaus for the European title. Neuhaus weighed approx. 97 kg, Cavicchi approx. 93 kg. The fight was pretty even, but towards the end of the 15 round fight Franco Cavicchi was able to score a few more hits than Neuhaus and was therefore deservedly proclaimed the points winner and the new European champion by the Spanish referee Esperraguera, who was given sole decision-making authority. Heinz Neuhaus was sweetened this defeat by the promoter of this fight Renato Torri with a fight exchange of 88,000.00 DM. A ridiculous amount by today's standards, but a record exchange for those times (see "Box Sport" No. 26/1955, p. 2/4). Franco Cavicchi was ranked 9th in the July world rankings of the then "Boxing Tsar" Nat Fleischer in the American journal "The Ring" .

A few months later, on September 1, 1955, there was a revenge between Franco Cavicchi and Heinz Neuhaus in Dortmund , which was not about the European title. Heinz Neuhaus won this fight because the Dutch referee Bergström disqualified Cavicchi for constantly stopping in the 9th round (see "Box Sport" No. 36, pp. 3–6).

The third meeting of these two boxers took place on July 21, 1956 in Bologna, in which it was again about the European title. Franco Cavicchi successfully defended this title with a knockout victory in the 11th round over Heinz Neuhaus, who was down several times. This fight had 25,000 spectators (see "Box Sport" No. 30/56, pp. 16-18). On September 30, 1956, he was already defending the European Championship again against Ingemar Johansson from Sweden . But he was superior to him in all respects and knocked Franco Cavicchi in the 13th round (see "Box Sport" No. 41/56, S 7). So Franco Cavicchi was rid of the European title.

In the years 1957 to 1960 he still fought many fights against well-known opponents, mostly in Bologna. But he never came back to a European or even a world championship match. Even so, he usually performed well. Some of the fights of that time are mentioned here. On October 3, 1957, he defeated Albert Westphal from Germany in Bologna by knockout in the 9th round. On June 15, 1958, he lost in an effort to make the American boxing business interesting to Willie Pastrano from the United States after 10 rounds on points. On September 7, 1958, Franco Cavicchi suffered a knockout loss in the 8th round in Bologna in the fight against Giacomo Bozzano . On January 19, 1959, he managed only one draw in Rome against the German Ulli Ritter . On June 27, 1960, however, he shone in Bologna with a point victory over Joe Bygraves , while on December 7, 1960 in Bologna he was scored over 10 laps by the German Karl Mildenberger .

On October 2, 1961 Franco Cavicchi failed while trying to become Italian heavyweight champion again. The fight against the title holder Rocco Mazzola ended in a draw after 12 rounds, making Mazzola champions. On March 17, 1962, Cavicchi managed to become Italian champion again after winning points over Rocco Mazzola in Bologna. On May 31, 1962 he lost this title again when he was disqualified in the fight against Santo Amonti in the 5th round.

Franco Cavicchi played his last fight on February 25, 1963 in Bologna, in which he lost to the American Tommy Fields in the 7th round by technical knockout.

Title fights from Franco Cavicchi

date	place	for the title of	Weight class	Result
10/15/1954	Milan	Italy	Heavy	Technical knockout victory over Uber Bacilieri
June 26, 1955	Bologna	Europe (EBU)	Heavy	Points victory after 15 laps over Heinz Neuhaus , Germany
July 21, 1956	Bologna	Europe (EBU)	Heavy	KO victory in the 11th round over Heinz Neuhaus
9/30/1956	Bologna	Europe (EBU)	Heavy	Knockout loss in the 13th round against Ingemar Johansson, Sweden
October 2, 1961	Bologna	Italy	Heavy	Draw after 12 rounds against Rocco Mazzola
3/17/1962	Bologna	Italy	Heavy	Points victory after 12 laps over Rocco Mazzola
May 31, 1962	Brescia	Italy	Heavy	Disq. Defeat in the 5th round against Santo Amonti

literature

• Box Sport magazine

Web links

• Portrait with fight record by Franco Cavicchi
• Homage to Franco Cavicchi
• Excerpts from the Cavicchi (black trousers) fight against Neuhaus on June 26, 1955 in Bologna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ News from August 23, 2018 on repubblica.it (accessed on September 3, 2018)