Had wins over Duran, Palamino and Cervantes - all hall of fame unductees. Unbeaten in his first 39 fights. Three division champion who went 8-2 in world title fights. Took prime versions of Leonard and Hearns 15 rounds. scored some additional good wins over Carlos Santos, Maurice Hope, and Bruce Curry all world champions at one point or another.. He seemed to fizzle out early but what an amazing career.
I love Benitez...did then and still do. He was like a meteor...while he was "on", he was great...and while I am not generally a fan of arrogance,...Benitez's version was theatrical and cool as hell....needless to say, I was a huge fan back then. He was amazing.
I too am a huge fan of Benitez and hate it when posters in general, and here in classic too, refer to him as a poor man's Mayweather, nothing could be further from the truth.
I think we all have to accept one thing we should judge Benitez harshly on is that he's effectivley a poor man's Mayweather.
Benitez has a good record. I do wonder whether he would have beat Duran in 1979, 1980 if he had fought him then rather than 1982 though.
Benitez was great, but I would not put him as a tier 1 hall of fame guy. To me he's more of a tier two Hall of fame guys. Still great, but not top 10 legend type in his weight class. Benitez was a speedy technician ( on defense and offense ) with some power, but not enough of it to turn the tide in a big fight and just an all right chin Tall for his weight class at 5'10" tall, he did not have much reach 70". IMO that cost him a bit. Speed combined with great technical skills are rare, but when you add length and power to the equation, you're really got something special.
The expression " poor man's" generally applies when a lesser version of someone comes along LATER rather than EARLIER. That's not to say that I think Wilfred Benitez was better than Mayweather. But I'd be willing to bet that if Floyd had fought the first 45 bouts of Benitez career he'd likely have the same record, which would be two losses to Hearns and Leonard with Wins over Cervantez, Duran, and Palamino. And the Duran win is no given.
Benitez's career went downwards after the fight with Hearns, as did his lifestyle. Which is a polite way of saying his " alleged " liking for cocaine caught up with him. Makes you wonder what he could have achieved with a " clean " lifestyle.
(minus the getting battered and almost stopped by Bruce Curry part). Tough to compare their careers though: Mayweather didn't reach 140 until he was 27; Benitez had accomplished everything he was going to accomplish in the ring by 25.
all true. But I disagree that Benitez should be classified as a poor man's mayweather. Two totally different fighter, in two totally different eras under totally different circumstances.