Antonio Cervantes .Vs. Pipino Cuevas

Ridiculous logic. Ever hear of a guy named Esteban Dejesus who gave Duran three tough fights, beating him once and knocking him down twice? Ever see how easily Dejesus beat him? Ever hear of a guy named Peppermint Frazer who Duran idolized? Ever see what Cervantes did to him? And yeah Benitez beat Cervantes and Leonard who Duran beat beat Benitez but Benitez also beat Duran. As we all know just because A beats B doesnt mean A beats C.

 

that's a bit of hyperbole. Benitez wasn't much past his peak, if at all. He was still able to go 15 with Hearns after that. The Hamsho fight was the beginning of his decline in my opinion.

 

Cuevas was great. His whole rep was ruined by one fight against a great fighter. I saw Pipino fight live many times and along with Danny Lopez think he is the hardest hitter I saw. I never saw him bothered by a punch until about the 50th time Hearns nailed him flush. e fought all the top guys in The Ring mags ratings while Palomino, except for old Muniz, fought real basket cases. Pipino was faster than people thought and during his champ prime was a destruction machine. NOBODY then or since brought out the crowds like Pipino. In his prime which I think dropped heavily after the Shields fight, I would take Pipino by an early Ko over Pambele. AND in his prime, I would take Cuevas of 78 by KO over Leonard. It took the Hitman and all those flush shots to finally topple a somewhat past it Cuevas. Pipino is greatly underrated. He destoyed guys that were never down or KO'd. Why in these hypothetical matchups do people always seem to pick great punchers to only win decisions instead of KOs over their peers? odd

 

Shame on ya for ever putting Pazienzas name on a list with the others. Sickening. Nausiating. Revolting.

 

He was 11 years younger than Duran and won titles @ 135 & 154.
A dangerous man to fight @ ze circumstances Duran fought him under.

 

That's true regarding if A beats B, A doesn't necessarily beat C. Disagree that Dejesus had an easy time beating Duran. He won the first fight on pts, but got kod the other two times. I Still think Cuevas had the style to give Cervantes a very tough fight and no guarantee Cervantes would have beaten Duran either.

 

No way was Cervantes going to beat Duran. I just googled an article on the topic and it never once mentioned Duran avoiding him. If anything it said, but for a couple of factors Duran likely could have won both the jr lightweight title and the jr welterweight titles, on top of the lightweight, the welterweight, the jr middle and the middleweight titles he did win. And based on a bio of Duran I recently read, this mirrors the comments in the book.

For example when Duran fought for the 135 belt against Buchanan he weighed 133 and the jr lightweight limit was 130. For the most part King with Duran's promoter up to the 2nd Leonard fight when he dumped him, but by then Duran was fighting at 147 and 154, not at 140.

This is Wikipedia's blurb on Cervantes's bio.

By this time, there was much talk about a superfight with world Lightweight champion Robrt Duran, who was coming up in weight. Duran decided to challenge Sugar Ray Leonard instead, however, and Cervantes vs. Duran never materialized.

On August 2, 1980, Cervantes dropped his next title challenger, Aaron Pryor, to the canvas in the first round. Pryor recovered, however, and beat Cervantes by a knockout in round four. This turned out to be Cervantes' last world title fight. He fought two times more for the FECARBOX WBC title, winning both fights shortly before retiring in 1980. Now pretty much every thread I've read regarding a mythical matchup between Pryor and Duran the large majority have sided with Duran, so I don't really see Cervantes beating Duran during this time period.

 

I agree Duran would have won. He could have challenged Cervantes as early as 1978 if he chose to. He unified the lightweight title in January 1978 and could have moved up after that. I think a fight with Cervantes then would be more competitive than in 1980, but I still think Duran would have won then.

Klompton bases his assertion that Duran ducked Cervantes on the words of matchmaker Teddy Brenner that Duran's people didn't want to fight Cervantes. I think Teddy Brenner is telling the truth. That said, it could be for reasons other than a fear of Duran losing. My feeling is the financial risk/reward just wasn't there. I think Duran and his people knew there was much more money to be made at 147 and just skipped 140 lbs. altogether.

 

One would have thought that to be obvious considering who Duran ended up fighting during his career. Pretty hard to argue that someone who fought Hagler, Barkley, SRL and Hearns would purposely avoid Cervantes because he feared losing.

 

it still doesnt fly. Duran faced hagler at a time no one else would. a feared middleweight for sure, and Duran was the only one to step up

it doesnt make sense for him to sidestep someone like Cervantes who probably had nowhere near Hagler's level of skill or power

Then of course, there was Barkley in 1989. I dont think fear played any part of it

 

Cervantes would have been a difficult fight for Duran between 72-76. I've always read that Carlos Eleta didn't want that fight because the risk was more than the reward and could ruin long term plans. If true, then he robbed the fans of a possibly classic fight, but did what he was supposed to do as a manager: look out for the best long term career moves for his fighter. I'd pick Duran (but without feeling too certain about it), but that would have been a close, difficult fight.

Then Cervantes lost to Benitez and didn't get the title back until mid-77. I'm sure Cervantes really wanted a fight with Duran then because it certainly would be far more lucrative than fighting the likes of Norman Sekgapane. By the time Duran was ready to move up after the third DeJesus fight in 78, it really wasn't worth it to fight Cervantes. There was much more to achieve at welterweight. Personally, I think Duran beats 78-80 Cervantes without too much trouble, but it wasn't worth the risk at all. Why bother fighting a guy who was in his mid-30s (or possibly almost 40, depending on who you believe) but still dangerous? If he wins, he beat an "old man"...if he lost, he lost to an "old man" and the Leonard fight maybe wouldn't have happened.

 

Just some information from Aaron Pryor's wiki page:

Pryor was offered $750,000 to fight Roberto Duran but turned it down because his new attorney told him not to sign anything until he worked out a new contract with LaRosa. By the time they worked out a new agreement, the chance to fight Duran was gone.[2]

 

The point is that if Duran isn't afraid of Pryor then he certainly wasn't ducking Cervantes.

 

During the time Antonio beat Esteban, maybe Roberto was.