43 years ago today: Wilfred "El Radar" Benítez Rosa vs. Thomas "The Hitman/Motor City Cobra" Hearns

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With as legitimate a claim as you'll find to being the "5th King" of the last Golden Age of Boxing, the precocious P.R. prodigy fought three of the majestic Four over a three-year-and-one-month span. He posted a 1-2 record in his efforts, but the win is a great one and the second loss was a MD. Of course, if he moved up and fought Hagler anytime in the late seventies or early eighties, Marvin would have spat out Wilfred's bones in no time - but even so, running one King even remotely close and beating another is legendary in and of itself.

On this day in 1982 - when yours truly was but 33 days old - Benítez came in, directly off the Durán upset and having only ever lost to Leonard, to meet another young lion making waves. The ice-veined predator from Detroit stared a hole down through his three-inches-shorter rival, and you can tell his intention was to punch a hole through him not long after.

Wasn't to be.

While the "Bible of Boxing" certainly was the deserving loser on this night regardless of what Lou Filippo thought he was seeing - most pundits, fans, and historians see Tommy Hearns as the very clear winner - he didn't get steamrolled, which is an impressive feat already when in with a prime and fired-up Hitman. The advantages in height, speed, and power were all too much for the boricua slipping/feinting/countering maestro to gain any respect from the fearsome Michigander. Still, he a) lasted the distance and b) won a handful of rounds on most observers' cards - and officially scored a knockdown, albeit somewhat of a sketchy one. That and defeating Durán are alone all sufficient to have punched Benítez's ticket into Canastota, never mind the additional solid victories over Palomino, Cervantes, and Curry x2.

 

Well, he conquered perhaps the most intimidating of those, so ...

 

He was great at both weights IMO, but this was a hard ceiling for him. Middleweight would have been a bridge too far. I could see him being undone by much lesser 160lbers (as he was in the second half of the decade) if he jumped up earlier still close to his prime - let alone the 4th King missing from his résumé.