Do you think Duran thought he'd have his handsfull against Benitez like that and lose

Its interesting that if they had fought 2 years later Duran probably knocks Benitez out even though Duran was much older man.

With that said Benitez fought a great fight. He was at or near his best that night and Duran wasnt in bad shape at all he just got outboxed.

 

Wilfred Benitez vs Roberto Duran

At Madison Square Garden,,,,,,

March 1977 at 140 lbs.

Wilfred was already having trouble getting down to 140 lbs. and was usually fighting
at 144 lbs., with an 'adjusted scale'.

After re-thinking this,,,,,,in March 1977, Roberto would probably have pounded a
'weakened teenager' into a stoppage by a TKO 7.

 

Benitez fell off pretty fast. He was shot by about 84-85. His legs were gone.

 

Dont know if he was in good shape or not thats always debatable with Duran but i remember SRL who was doing the commentary for this fight saying that Duran didnt had anything in his punches as early as the second round.

 

With all due respect, who gives a rat's behind what Ray Leonard said as a commentator. IMO he was one of the worst boxers to sit at ringside and call a fight.

 

Beating him by a few points...doing better than that against the less than stellar Benitez that came up a couple of times at 140-147.

I don't think he was done...but that was the feeling among many at the time, hence why the odds were like that.
He didn't look sharp and was blowing pretty hard but I think he looked in reasonable shape and just packed it in mentally once he Benitez took to much of a lead.

Reeled the odds in...as in he got closer to Benitez in the odds.

 

Duran seemed to be in good physical shape. I dont know about the mental side of it. The fire wasnt there. So much of boxing is between the ears.

When his people walked away from him. King, Eleta and the boxing world was sure he was finished. That seemed to be rock bottem for him.

JMO. Im definitley biased.