How do you rate Pipeno Cuevas eleven title defenses? With poll

In some era's fighters like Weston, Shields, Gray,
Espada, and Ranzany were good enough to
at the least win a version of a championship.
Not only did Cuevas beat them, he ruined
a few of them.
Cuevas didn't beat any atg's.
But he beat a lot of very goods in an
especially deep era in the welterweight division.
his competition during his championship run
was above average.

 

I gave him a 7. Decent opposition, coupled with longevity. It's a good mix. Most fighters aspiring to be champions would be envious of it.

 

Man he LITERALLY broke his opponents bones.

 

He fought the best fighters of his time and didn't duck anybody. There were no great ones during his reign, with King Carlos being the other best welter of the time. Would've loved to see that fight. Pipino had flaws but he had the heart of a lion. I think he would have gone in with anybody, anywhere. Just out of curiosity, how much did he get for fighting Hearns? I expect that would have been his biggest payday. He took some beatings but he still seems fit, healthy and clear headed from the interviews I've seen.

 

Pipino got $1.5M to defend against Hearns, who got $500K. All of it came straight out of the coffers of Wells Fargo courtesy Harold Smith aka Ross Fields, who embezzled north of $20M from the bank to fund his Muhammad Ali Professional Sports operation (some of that went to Ali as compensation for using his name and making some appearances) before he got caught and went underground as one of the FBI’s Most Wanted (which he turned himself in around I think a month later).

Smith wanted to take over boxing as well as amateur track and field (he put on big meets with big-name Olympic-level runners and such who got paid big money to participate).

It’s almost a certainty that none of the Smith promotions made money even though he got several of them on network TV.

By comparison, Wilfred Benitez got $1.2M to defend against Ray Leonard ($1M), although iirc Wilfred pocketed another $1M to buy out of a rematch clause allowing Leonard-Hearns to take place.

 

Very solid.

 

I started following boxing during Cuevas' reign. I remember it made national news when Shields went the 15-round distance with Pipino.

He's all but forgotten by most fans 50 years on. But boxers feared Pipino during his reign.

I'd have loved to see him unify with Palomino. The letters section in most boxing magazines in that era always included letters from fans predicting who'd win a unification.

It doesn't come up anymore, but Palomino-Cuevas was a unification that we sadly didn't see.

 

I'd favour Palomino he had an iron jaw and was a great body puncher.

But if he anyone could crack Palominos chin it would be Cuevas.

 

Seemed like a classic boxer/puncher matchup.

 

Cuevas had the rare ability to ruin fighters. Someone putting their guy in with a prime Pepino is taking a chance on his fighter coming out of the bout as a ruined/washed up fighter. As a minimum it'd be a long road back to title contention and lots of small paydays back then in that division. That turns things a big risk.

 

Jose Cuevas was the original bonecrusher.

One of boxing’s legendary feats is to break the buckle/attachment on a speed bag. George Foreman did it, I think maybe Shavers too. Mostly when you hear about it (it was a thing back in the day) it’s a heavyweight.

Cuevas is the lightest guy, at welterweight, I’ve ever heard of doing it.

Atomic power.

Yeah, Hearns blasted him out with relative ease, but there’s a bit more to the story. The humidity in the building (I think it was Cobo Hall) was such that the canvas became so slick it was like fighting on ice. You can see Randall Cobb and Earnie Shavers on the undercard slipping and sliding all over the place during their fight, unable to get their feet to hold when they planted.

You can see the same with Pipino, who wore his usual leather-bottomed (??) shoes, basically normal boxing gear for the time. Thomas wore rubber-soled boxing shoes that Manny Steward ‘just happened’ to bring along even though that’s not what he normally wore.

I think Manny knew the score having had fighters fight in that venue before and probably knew the humidity was prone to do that with that particular canvas (home field advantage). Thomas never slipped or had any traction problems. In short, Pipino couldn’t plant and was more occupied with trying to get a grip than with Hearns and fighting.

Not cheating but it’s an edge for sure. It’s the kind of stunt that if Ray Leonard had pulled it we’d hear for eternity how he didn’t want to face Cuevas at his best with an even playing field. On this one, of course, not a peep.

I’m not saying Cuevas beats Hearns under normal circumstances — the height, reach, speed and power were huge advantages to overcome. But I do think if Cuevas ever lands his left hook (which he certainly has a better chance to do if he can plant his feet and fight under normal circumstances) that with Thomas’ sometimes questionable mandible there’s a reasonable chance Pipino bombs him out.

 

It was a solid, consistent, and at times terrifying run. It's underrated and unsung nowadays due to a couple of reasons. Firstly the way
Hearns totally annihilated him, and secondly because after that he was a shell of himself that didn't get much of anything done ever again. The man who ruined guys was ruined himself. If he would have had a decent little run post Hearns he'd be etched in the memory more and you'd see more talk about him in here.

 

One day, God woke up and managed to cast the entirety of Thor's hammer into the fists of a human soul.

When the soul arrived on earth,his name was Jose Pipino Cuevas.

In seriousness he's basically the Julian Jackson of the old times,I want to say Shavers but he's a bit poor at times finishing big chin guys, Pipino just deletes and rampages your chin.

 

Seldom mentioned is that Pipino was only 18 when he became world champion what makes his reign even more impressive .