Cuevas vs Shields. Pipino beginning to slip?

9th of 11 successful defenses for Cuevas.

Cuevas wins on 2 cards by 1 point.

Randy Shields at 142 lbs was a beefed up Jr. WW for the fight.

1979-07-30 : Pipino Cuevas 146½ lbs beat Randy Shields 142½ lbs by UD in round 15 of 15

• Location: International Amphitheatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Referee: Luis Sulbaran 72-71
• Judge: Albert Tremari 73-67
• Judge: Marco Antonio Rodriguez 72-71

• WBA World Welterweight Title (9th defense by Cuevas)
• Photo #2, Photo #3, Photo #4

Notes

• The fight was postponed four times. It was rescheduled once because Cuevas had a sore throat. The last postponement was caused by an injury to Shields' left arm.
• Cuevas was a heavy betting favorite.
• Cuevas received $80,000, plus a share of Mexican TV revenue. Shields was guaranteed $25,000.
• There were no knockdowns in the bout.
• This was the first time Cuevas was forced to go the distance in a title defense.

Newspaper Articles

• "Boxer's plan — keep his distance" Associated Press, July 29, 1979
• "Cuevas defends championship" United Press International, July 31, 1979

 

Great underrated fight..this must have been a quasi-closed circuit TV station link-up.

Fight could have gone either way.

Per an above newspaper link, Cuevas claimed he hurt a hand in the 2nd round, but the tape doesn't show any loss in Cuevas' power punching. Shields also said he hit Cuevas with right hands all night long .

One TV fight announcer stated that if Shields had Roberto Duran's right hand, this fight would have been over rounds ago.

Obviously, Manny Steward & Hearns reviewed this fight tape numerous times.

 

The Winner of the Cuevas vs Shields fight was mandated by the WBA to give Angel Espada the next shot at the WBA WW title. Espada had fought ZERO welterweight contenders in two years between his last Cuevas title fight (fight#2). After Cuevas k.o.'ed Espada, Espada's Management 3 months later threw Angel in with Hearns, who crushed him in 4 rounds.


Pipino Cuevas vs. Angel Espada (3rd meeting)

1979-12-08 : Pipino Cuevas 146 lbs beat Angel Espada 144½ lbs by TKO at 1:18 in round 10 of 15

• Location: Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Referee: Jerry Smith

"Jose (Pipino) Cuevas of Mexico City knocked out Angel Espada of Puerto Rico in the 10th round Saturday to retain his WBA welterweight championship. Cuevas started fast using his jab and left hooks to the head. In the 3rd round, a Cuevas left send Espada reeling and the champion closed in, landing nearly 20 blows while the challenger was in his corner. Espada rallied in the 4th but Cuevas came back in the 5th and 6th, although he was warned for a low blow in the latter and again in the 10th. Espada looked strong with head shots in the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds but took severe punishment to the body as the Cuevas corner urged the champion to use that strategy. Cuevas opened a cut over Espada's right eye and had it bleeding badly in the 7th. Then he switched to a body attack in the 8th and 9th to slow the challenger before putting him away at 1:18 of the 10th round in the scheduled 15 rounder at the Sports Arena." -Associated Press

• Purses: Cuevas - $100,000 plus undesignated training expenses. Espada - $25,000 plus $15,000 in training expenses.

Post fight comments

• "I was never hurt in the fight although he hit me with some good right hand shots. The fight did go longer than I expected." -Pipino Cuevas

• "He jabbed more and was boxing better than before. I wasn't quite prepared for that." -Angel Espada

 

Napoles era, plus Late 70's & early 80's....great times in the WW Division.
Bunch of good fights....and shame Cuevas v Palomino never happened.

 

I watched that Cuevas vs Shields fight tape above with interest...all 15 rds. There is a lot of good tidbits of info via the announcers who stayed "neutral",.. though the Closed Circuit probably was organized by West Coast interest. The Hispanic announcer states some info in Spanish which I did not fully understand....maybe about Duran starting to move up to welter.