Benitez-Duran at 140

No, but I also expected Duran to kill him at 154. Wilfred was still a maturing teenager, while Duran was a fully grown adult. Roberto would have been going downstairs an awful lot (not that bodypunching ever troubled Wilfred much), and at some point, I'd expect Duran to stun the boy prodigy. Then, it would be over.

Again, keep in mind that I was very surprised at how Benitez handled him when they did meet, so this may not be a very meaningful prognosis.

 

Well, one big tip off I missed was Wilfred's performance against Palomino, another instance where I figured Benitez would get himself killed if he boxed off the ropes. (Predicting the outcomes of his superfights was always a fruitless exercise in futility for me. For all I know, he might have driven Hagler up a wall.)

 

So what titles did he hold and what great performances was he coming off when he beat Barkley? How about Moore? You need to start thinking a little deeper.

:good

 

I assume the Gonzalez fight you're referring to was against Nino. Two years earlier, SRL badly outshown Roberto on the undercard of Duran's match against another Gonzalez, Zeferino.

Now if you recall, Ray really came of age on that card, with a shockingly sensational first round knockout of Andy Price, in defense of his NABF WW Title. Woefully underprepared to produce a similarly scintillating performance against the lanky upstart Zeferino, Roberto was humiliated. He smiled and clowned his way through an easy ten round decision, but everybody knew that was because he couldn't knock Zeferino out.

The next time Duran stepped in the ring, SRL had dethroned Benitez, and it was a new decade. Against tough uppercutter Joseph Nsubuga, the fire was back. Wolfishly grinning, he rushed Nsubuga like an animal, absorbed some crisp uppercuts out of the corner with no difficulty, and Stonehands swamped Stoneface like a typhoon. In his next match against pro novice Wheatley (who idolized Duran), he demonstrated that he was very hungry for the chance to show Ray up, a hunger that appeared sated after Montreal.

Benitez never had the edginess to him which Duran displayed at his hungriest. He had a lot of trouble with Bruce Curry, and produced an unmotivated showing against Harold Weston, Jr. (Remember how his father slapped him between rounds, to get him going against Harold? Very reminiscent of Gil Clancy during Griffith-Paret I.) Wilfred was outstanding against the skinny and light hitting Shields, but he had not been able to hurt Palomino, and SRL decked him early with a single jab. Ray also handed Benitez a pretty good lesson in boxing basics.

While claiming to want a rematch with SRL, he looked decent against Johnny Turner, but more deliberate than highly motivated. (This despite Turner having earlier kayoed his older brother Frankie out of a viable boxing career.) As Ray provided commentary on his match with Chiaverini, Tony fought Wilfredo's fight, carrying the action to Benitez on the ropes, where Wilfred easily eluded and counterpunched his headhunting opponent into a very one sided stoppage win. Still, he never had the much slower Chiaverini even close to going down, and Tony had neglected the body in his attempted aggression. When Benitez became a champion again, it was obvious Maurice Hope did not belong in the same ring. (The southpaw Hope abandoned what little chance he had of successfully defending his title early, when he inexplicably and stupidly ceased relying on his jab to assault Benitez as Wilfred laid back in wait.) At Hope's expense, Benitez produced the one punch kayo of the year, but there was nothing in Duran's history to indicate he could be knocked senseless that way.

Duran did not display any fire against Minchillo, but he was still punching with leverage (unlike Luigi), and I had Roberto pitching a shutout (as did one of the judges).

After the humiliation of New Orleans, Duran then had a chance to become a champion again, and at the expense of a defending titleholder who had lost a previous championship to his arch nemisis. I figured Roberto would be really fired up to outdo the extent to which SRL had beaten up El Radar, and use that as his ticket to a rubber match with Ray.

So, Duran was a leverage puncher and body attack specialist, who was going in against a defending champion who had been floored at a lower weight by a single jab, and liked to lay back on the ropes to draw his opponents in. There was nothing wrong with Roberto physically, and he'd suddenly recaptured fire once before against Nsubuga, so I figured he'd do it again (just like I expected the slower Palomino to destroy Wilfredo with his downstairs targeting). Furthermore, although Benitez proved against Hope that SRL was correct about his punching power ("I say Benitez can hit!"), it wasn't of sufficient force to trouble Duran. (Since Ray couldn't hurt Duran, how could Wilfredo?) Despite an exchange of punches at a prefight press conference, Duran simply went through the motions of the match itself, displaying more animosity after the bout than he did during it. Benitez took whatever Roberto was able to land without difficulty, and easily landed counters on a challenger who SRL had found to be a pretty elusive target in Montreal.

Logically, there's no way Benitez would avoid getting kayoed by Duran at 140, but for the reasons I've just described, I figured the same principles would apply to the match they actually did have at 154.

Is this sufficient for explaining my erroneous thinking? (If not, feel free to ask for a futher elaboration, and I'll do the best I can to make myself understood. Unfortunately, sometimes no degree of articulation is adequate for expressing a certain process of reasoning behind the conclusions formed.)

 

Hey, happy to help! Remember, just a little bit more forethought

 

Never saw any Duodenum mentioned in your post

Again, happy to help a bloke thru troubled times

 

Those were after the Benitez fight.

 

My point is that many still believed in Duran as they did later vs Moore and Barkley. Such was the legend of Roberto. It's perfectly understandable that Duo could think Duran was going to hammer Benitez based on Duran's ability to get up for the big one, Benitez's suspect chin and the fact that Duran had taken very little wear and tear physically, which is the exact reason (someone that mattered believed in him) he was thrown a lifeline later on in his career and guided to the Moore fight. Benitez was no big puncher either and i am sure there were a lot of guys thought he was going to get overwhelmed.

 

Yeah. All true. :good

 

And JT, let's hold our noses here, and give credit where credit is due. The person who mattered that believed in Duran was Bob Arum. ("He's never taken a beating.") Don King rightfully gave up on Duran after the debacle in New Orleans. Arum shrewdly capitalized.

After Duran's challenge of Hagler, Arum stated that he'd be honored to rematch them again. Duran should have kept seized upon that offer, and kept himself active in the interim against clearly beatable opposition. Instead, he made a grievious error (albeit obvious in hindsight) by getting in the ring with Hearns.

Recriminations aside, Arum has had his share of hits and misses, and this was one instance where he made a very successful gamble. (I'd imagine they've both lamented Hearns/Duran countless times. Hagler/Duran II would have been a sure box office sensation, but after what Tommy did to Roberto, any notion of such a return went out the window.)