How close were the Benitez-Cervantes, Palomino fights?

I feel Benitez vs Cervantes is actually his best performance.

 

There were many close rounds in the Cervantes-Benetiz fight.

Wilfed did have the benefit of fighting in his home country, where the setting was
absolutely crazy.
Every time Benetiz, did the slightest thing, the crowd went into a frenzy.

On neutral territorty, this could have easily been a Draw.

Antonio Cervantes did come in with a remarkable record of over 6-years without a loss,
and had simply over-whelmed Esteban DeJesus a year earlier.

In watching the fight, Benetiz was scoring with mosquito-like punches, and never did
any damage to Cervantes.
Cervantes was the heavier-handed fighter, and did shake Benetiz a couple of times.

I had it 5-5-5 (145-145)
One scorecard was 6-2-7 (148-144),,,,,,,,7 rounds even!!!
One scorecard was 8-3-4 (147-142)
One scorecard was 5-3-7 (147-145) for Cervantes, with 7 rounds even!!!

 

Cervantes barely landed anything other than jabs.Benitez did his best work with the jab as well and outjabbed Antonio imo.That's what won it for him.

It wasn't a powerpunching kind of fight.Not one where you could point to one man's heavier punching winning it for him.A couple of semi-flush cuffing rights and the odd bodyshot per round don't win you 15 round bouts unless your opponent is doing nothing at all.

 

Lora,

That fight was in Puerto Rico,
And Cervantes was clearly the harder hitter here.
There were more even rounds, than rounds won by either of the combatants.

Don't forget, one judge had it 5-3-7 for Cervantes.
But kudos for Wilfred Benetiz, he was only 17 years old, and was really a
lightweight at that time.
He smartly took the fight with an aging Antonio Cervantes.
They convinced Cervantes to come to Puerto Rico.
If he fought Roberto Duran at that time, it would have been a disaster.

 

Being the harder hitter shouldn't win fights though when you're being completely outboxed and outscored.

Cervantes was also coming off some of his best performances against DeJesus and Thompson.

 

A legendary accomplishment for the 17 year old Benitez...just incredible!

 

Agree there were a lot of rounds with not a lot in them, but i don't feel it's right in most cases to score more than a third of a fight even.In the case of this fight that is poor judging, flat-out.

 

Lets not forget,
Antonio Cervantes agreed to fight Benetiz in Puerto Rico for the WBA title.
They had a return-match clause, that stated if Benetiz won, they would
have a return bout within 9 months, in Columbia.

Benetiz had (2) title defenses, then refused to give Cervantes a rematch
in Columbia.
He would only grant a fight in Puerto Rico or New York City.
The WBA stripped Benetiz of the title.

 

The Palomino scoring was a bit controversial. I didnt think that fight was close at all. I agree that the Cervantes fight could be construed as difficult to score but I didnt think that was close either. I dont think a case can be made for either champ retaining his title.

 

I've certainly never seen anyone score the fights for Cervantes and Palomino outside of the two judges.

 

I always thought that Papa Benetiz was afraid to go to Columbia or Venezuela
(WBA territory) in fear of being killed by the Cervantes backers.

He was smart in protecting his kid, he was only 17, as well as his 'meal ticket'.

I always thought, that to win the title from a champion, you had to beat him,
not bite him like a mosquito.

 

Sweet, found my card on this one. I had Benitez winning rounds 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11 & 14. I had Cervantes winning rounds 5, 9, 10, 12 & 13 and rounds 1, 3 & 15 even. 7-5-3 in rounds for Benitez. Like I said, my criteria is clean and effective punches. I don't count punches on my fingers. If fighter A touches fighter B twice and fighter B responds with a solid hook to the body, how does one score? This is why this fight was close IMO. It rode a fine line on my criteria, maybe not so much on others. Regardless, I always felt Cervantes would have beaten Benitez in a rematch. Like Il Duce said, Benitez refused to grant him one. The WBA gave him an edict to meet Cervantes by a stipulated date, which he agreed to, but then signed to fight Tony Petronelli, thus causing the WBA to strip him of the title.

Scartissue

 

scartissue,

Great Evaluation,,,,,,,

PaPa Benetiz had to put $25,000 of Wilfred's purse from the 3/6/76 Title shot in escrow, for the
rematch guarantee clause.
As per agreement with the WBA, and to get Antonio Cervantes to agree to come to defend the
WBA Junior Welterweight in Puerto Rico.

9 months later, the money went into the WBA Treasurer's Bank Account.
The WBA eventually stripped the title from Benetiz, and Cervantes fought for the vacant title
in June 1977, in Venezuela.
While their, he received $12,500 (50%) of the escrow money that PaPa Benetiz had forfeited.

Antonio Cervantes was 'livid', and never forgave PaPa Benetiz for lieing to his face.

I had it 5-5-5;

E B E B C,,,,B B E C C,,,,E C C B E

 

Bruce Curry got a raw deal relating to Wilfred as well, not just in the first fight, but when he had a fight booked for him a week before the rematch in Japan.

 

I thought Benitez won both Curry bouts, although the first was desperately close.