I wasn't around during his era but he's always known as a blue collar guy who was avoided. Did he duck anyone when he was champion?
Hagler would of fought Benitez as his mandatory if Benitez would of defeated Hamsho. He didn't duck anyone
Yeah he ducked Graham who was one of his mandatory challengers cos nearing the end of his career he only wanted the big paydays against the big names an Graham brought nothing to the table.
Was Duran a mandatory? Was Hearns? Leonard, who hadn’t fought for three years? Benitez beat Duran and called out Hagler. He was junior middleweight champion and that fight would have been a PPV. Instead he fought Don Lee (who was not a mandatory) and later in the year he fought Fully Obel for a second time (he was mandatory, again, but Hagler/Arum had previously gotten mandatories like Juan Roldan to take step-aside money + a fight on the undercard to make mandatories wait. No reason they couldn’t have at least tried that to make a Benitez fight. For the record, I think Hagler beats Benitez but it’s not a written-in-stone guarantee. And regardless of whether anything thinks they know who would have won, Wilfred was by far his most attractive potential challenger in a year he completely wasted fighting two nobodies.
Why would he? With respect to SaintPat, who is a deservedly respected poster here, I think a Benitez defense would have been a one-sided bludgeoning that would have resembled an autopsy on someone still living. Hagler was beating really good middles like Scypion, Gibson and Hamsho into puddles of Goo. No one looked like they had a chance outside of Hearns and that turned out to be another one sided beatdown too that left Hearns in a puddle.
He never fought Don Lee; that was derailed when Lee lost to DeWitt and, later, Sibson. You are confusing Don Lee with Caveman Lee.
Haha, my bad. William “Caveman” Lee was less qualified than “Dangerous” Don would have been. Thanks for catching it.
