benitez

Very sad indeed.

 

He probably developed faster than any boxer in history due to this, which also led to him fading out younger than almost any. But man, what a technician the guy was at such a young age. His performance against a great LWW in Cervantes at just 17 years old is a sight to behold.

 

That sentence alone is an amazing fact.

He was an amazing boxer, and by boxer i mean that he wasnt completely on the back foot as people say. Sure that was his preferred role, but when a guy tried to stand off, he would step in and out shooting jabs and the like, or circle and do the same, luring guys onto him. Great boxer.

 

It was inevitable that one would get brought up!

He crushed him.

 

If anyone was to say that Benitez at his best was among the best fighters they'd ever seen, no problems. He's up there with the likes of Robinson, Pep, Whitaker, etc, at his best around the late 70's and early 80's.

 

Study his performance against Cervantes. He was more often than not fighting within range, using his perfect footwork to maintain proper distance and land his counters, often after a perfectly timed slip of a Cervantes jab or straight right in which he'd land his own jabs, right hands, and upper-jab punches in return. A great bout from a technical standpoint that one. A technically sound, up-right technician in Cervantes against a slicker, smoother stylist (but also very fundamentally sound) in Benitez. Masterclass performance.

 

Yeah, see how he gets into that rythm early, (first or secnd round, not sure), circling and jab, jab, jab.

Then as the fight goes on he offers other things to Cervantes, versatile.

 

His head movement against Cervantes was rather 'suttle' to say the least.

 

His KO of Maurice Hope is one of my favorites

 

Some say the brain is most vulnerable to injury during the 12-20 year old period. And Benetiz is in there with the real tough pros.

They thru El Torito in with Cuevas and other top notch pros in SA and he lost it too.

Both situations very sad.

 

Benitez amazed me when he won the welter title against, dang, what was his name,,,,,help me out here. He made him,,miss everything while resting on the ropes. Amazing. Against Sugar Ray L., while far from great conditioned, slower then usual, and cut, I still had him come back on my card be dead even going into the fifteenth, and then be even as they went toe to toe until Ray landed that left uppercut ending it. At his best a pleasure to watch.

 

As did Nunn to Kalambay.

 

You had SRL - Benitez even going into the 15th? :yikes