Vincenzo Nardiello (born 11 June 1966) is a retired former world champion Italian

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

in the super middleweight division.

Early life & amateur career

Nardiello was born in Stuttgart,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, West Germany. A former world champion in the super middleweight division, he and

Roy Jones Jr. Roy Levesta Jones Jr. (born January 16, 1969) is an American former professional boxer who holds dual American and Russian citizenship. He competed in boxing from 1989 to 2018, and held multiple world championships in four weight classes, inc ...

are best remembered as the two boxers who were controversially robbed of decisions against eventually Olympic light middleweight gold medalist

Park Si-Hun A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

in the last two rounds of the 1988 Olympics despite Nardiello and Jones clearly landing more punches in their bouts. Two of the judges in Jones versus Si-Hun finals were banned for life after the tournament, while the third admitted his card was a mistake, with Jones being named the outstanding fighter of the tournament. Si-Hun apologized and retired. The stain of the 'bad decisions' in the 1988 Olympics stayed with Nardiello and Jones for the rest of their careers. 36 of 37 Americans got decisions in boxing in the 1984 Olympics in the United States, and the South Koreans had vowed to get back at the American media for being terribly wronged in 1984, and Nardiello and Jones were targets of the South Korean scorecards of the time. Nardiello, who lost a 3–2 split decision

, felt he had been cheated, argued with the officials at ringside and had to be physically dragged from the Seoul Olympics ring area.

Amateur achievements

*1984 Italian superlightweight champion *1985 Silver Trofeo Italy **Lost ''Jose Luis Hernandez'' (Kuba) WO *1986 Italian superwelterweight champion *1986 Winner Trofeo Italy **Defeated Kalin Stoyanov (Bulgaria) KO 2 *1987 Italian middleweight champion *Represented Italy as a Light Middleweight, at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Results were: **1st round bye **Defeated Likou Aliu (Samoa) KO 3 **Defeated Quinton Paynter (Bermuda) KO 2 **Lost to

(South Korea) 2–3 *1988 Winner Trofeo Italia – Venice, Italy **Defeated Renato Mastria (Italy) 5–0 *1989 Silver Box-Am Tournament – Huelva, Spain ** Defeated Javier Martinez (Espania) KO 3 ** Lost to Theuer Marco (Germany) 0–5 *1990 Winner Trofeo Italia – Venice, Italy **Defeated Miodrag Radulovic (Yugoslawia) 4–1 ** Defeated Theuer Marco (Germany) 3–2

Professional career

Nardiello turned pro after the 1988 Olympics and won seventeen consecutive bouts. On 13 December 1991, Nardiello was stopped in the 11th round of his first world title bout by WBA Super Middleweight champion Victor Corboba in France. He then won and lost, regained and lost again the European Super Middleweight title in bouts in Italy and France. After knocking Massimiliano Bocchini in Italy, Nardiello again challenged for a world title, but was stopped in the eighth round of a London bout against WBC Super Middleweight champion

Nigel Benn Nigel Gregory Benn (born 22 January 1964) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1987 to 1996. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title in 1990 and the WBC super-middleweight ti ...

, in Benn's first bout since his bout with

Gerald McClellan Gerald Allen McClellan (born October 23, 1967) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 1995. He is a two-time middleweight world champion, having held the WBO title from 1991 to 1992, and the WBC title from 1993 to ...

who sustained critical injuries. Benn then lost his title to Thulani Malinga, lost his last three title bouts and retired in 1996. Nardiello qualified for another world title shot by knocking out Norberto Bueno in Italy. On 6 July 1996, in Manchester, England, Nardiello defeated WBC champion Thulani Malinga to win a share of the World Super Middleweight title in his third attempt. Nardiello lost the WBC title in Milan, Italy, later in 1996, when he was stopped by Robin Reid After winning three more bouts, Nardiello was unsuccessful in his final world title bout, getting stopped in the sixth round of a WBC World Super Middleweight title bout against

Richie Woodhall Richie Woodhall (born 17 April 1968) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and the E ...

(who had lost the 'other' 1988 Olympics semi-final bout to Jones) on 13 February 1999. Nardiello retired after winning a six-round decision over Glenn Odem in Italy on 29 May 1999.

Professional boxing record

Miscellaneous

*Brother of Giovanni Nardiello, a former Italian Super Middleweight champion, who lost an IBF world title bout to

Sven Ottke Sven Ottke (born 3 June 1967) is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2004. He was a unified super-middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 1998 to 2004, and the WBA (Unified) title from 2003 to 2004. ...

in his only world title opportunity.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nardiello, Vincenzo 1966 births Living people German male boxers German sportspeople of Italian descent Sportspeople from Stuttgart Southpaw boxers Italian male boxers Olympic boxers for Italy Boxers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Super-middleweight boxers World super-middleweight boxing champions European Boxing Union champions World Boxing Council champions