[Rocco Del Sesto]

Ok, trying to get back into the swing of things and do some boxing!

01/20/67 Friday
Bologna, Italy
Bobby Stininato – HW (32-12-2) vs. Vittorio Saraudi – LHW (22-0-1)


Bobby Stininato - USA Rating 3
Heayweight 1954-74
42 wins / 20 losses / 2 draws / 17 KO

Hometown: Youngstown, Ohio
Birthplace: Rosedale

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Calling Youngstown, Ohio home, Stininato actually fought very little of his career around his native Ohio. From 1954-early 1962 he bounced around actually starting his career with 3 out his first 4 fights in Washington DC. He traveled to Cleveland, Pittsburg, McKeesport, PA several times, northeast/northwest PA area, Chicago several times, Sarnia, Ontario Canada and even Miami, Florida and Madison Square Garden in New York once each.His biggest fights were a 10 round loss to Freddy Blades and a 10 round victory over Jesse Bowdry. He actually fought in Youngstown only twice in compiling a 17-7-1 record before he went down under to New Zealand in March 1962. He won 5 and lost 2 fights in New Zealand including a 12 round decision over Mike Holt. He came back to the US via a couple fights in Honolulu first in 1963 and 1964. He beat Chuck Leslie in Honolulu. Between 1964 and early 1967 he fought mostly in california and some in Nevada. He lost fights to Mauro Mina and Bill McMurray and fought a 10 round draw with Henry Clark in 1966. In January 1967 he KO'd Vittorio Saraudi in 8 rounds in a fight in Bologna Italy then came back to California the next month loosing a 10 round decision to Fred Lewis.

At that time, Stininato went back to the south pacific for good for the rest of his career except for one fight. In April 1968 we see him show up in Pittsburgh, PA to KO Mert Brownfield. Why Pittsburgh.He goes right back to the south seas area right after that to never fight again in the States. From 1967 through July 1969 Bobby lost fights to Eddie Cotton, Bob Dunlop twice and Leweni Waga while also defeating Waga in another fight. After a 10 round win over Mani Vaka in July 1969, Stininato then did not fight for 4 years until July 1973 loosing an 8 rounder to Joe Jackson and then later in October that year won by 6th round disqualification over Ounce Tui. The next month in November 1973 he lost an 8 round decision to Ben Chapman. In March 1974 he won a 6 round decision over Amosi Felevai for his last recorded fight.

Vittorio Saraudi - Italy Rating 5
Light Heavyweight 1963-69
27 wins / 3 losses / 2 draws / 15 KO

Hometown: Amaduzzi, Italy
Birthplace: Civitavecchia, Italy

Rating by: Rocco Del Sesto

Saraudi packed a decent punch stopping his opponenet 13 times punching his way to a 22-0-1 record from 1963 through 1966. All those fights were in his homeland of Italy with the only recognizeable names from the game being Johnny Halafihi whom Vittorio won a 4th round TKO against in November 1964 and an 8 round decision over Lion Ven in December 1966. Some other opponents with good records were Guerrino Scattolin(20-14-2,10), Jose Menno(23-21-7,7), Harry Kneipp(24-12-5,5) and Jose Angel Manzur(31-33-14,13). The fight against Menno was the 1 draw. In June 1965 he defeated Benito Michelon(11-5-0,6) for the Italian Light Heavyweight Title.

After the Ven fight, in January 1967 Vittorio took on American Bobby Stininato in Bologna, Italy. Stininato KO'd the Italian in the 8th round for his first defeat. Five months later Saraudi rebounded to defend his Italian LHW title in a 12 round decision over Guerrino Scattolin, but then a couple months later in September 1967 he was KO'd in the 4th round by Piero Del Papa trying to take the European (EBU) LHW Title.

Later in May 1968 Vittorio fought a 10 round draw with Gregorio Peralta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the only fight of Saraudi's career outside of Italy. He came back to Italy to defend his Italian LHW title against Giovanni Biancardi in October 1968. After a couple more wins against Kurt Stroer and Joe Shelton, he took on Charlie Green(14-15-0,9) from Harlem, NY in March 1969 in Rome. Green KO'd Saraudi in the 1st round. That was it, his 3rd career loss, 3rd time KO'd and Saraudi was finished.


The fight....
Well traveled heavyweight Bobby Stininato from Youngstown, Ohio has been fighting out on the west coast for the past three years after spending a year down under in New Zealand. Bobby is on a 5-0-1 streak, the one draw being a 10 rounder with Henry Clark back in May 1966. He then makes this sudden, unexpected trip to Europe to take on the current undefeated Italian Light Heavyweight champion, Vittorio Saraudi. It would be guessed maybe to try and gain some notoriety outside the States, something not really done fighting down in Zealand. For Saraudi, this would look like the opportunity to take on some tougher competition outside his native Italy with the goal being the European LHW title. The fight here in Bologna, Italy would appear to have been a fairly tough affair with it ending in a disappointing 8th round KO of Saraudi by the American. Despite the victory for Stininato, his venture to Europe is quickly abbreviated as he returns to California for a fight there against Fred Lewis in February and then heads back to the south seas. Got to wonder why and how this fight ever came about?
Our replay fight, a scheduled 10 rounder, went the full distance. Not a lot of extensive action. The Italian champion, managed to control things in the first 4 rounds with the scoring going 38-38, 40-36, 39-37 in Saraudi’s favor. The tide began to turn though in the 5th and by the 6th the light heavy Saraudi was loosing steam against the heavyweight American. A ½ minute into the 6th, Stininato landed a hard shot to the body that dropped Vittorio down for a short 2 count. Halfway through the 7th, Stininato managed to drop Saraudi again for a short count. Saraudi managed to hang on, but it was more from Stininato’s lack of aggressiveness to finish the fight that let it go the full distance. In the end the two short knockdowns and modest scoring advantage over those last rounds turned the tide in the American’s favor for a 97-91, 95-93, 96-92 unanimous decision victory for Bobby Stininato.

Sorry for the layoff. Hey Mark, good to see you bouncing around the forum here again some! Missed you!

Rocco