He pretty much had Benvenuti where he wanted him until that left hook landed; had he pulled out the decision, it probably would have been he who went up against Monzon in 70. So.... a.) To what greater degree of esteem would he be held in? Careerwise I mean, although his career was pretty ****ing remarkable anyway. b) How would he have fared against Monzon at that stage of his career?
a) He would probably be more well known, as i will be honest beforre i came on here i hadnt heard of him and still i have only seen 1 of his fights, perhaps if he became champion he would be more known and be more ready to get fights of. b) I think Monzon would beat him but LMR did have a good style to fare against Monzon but in the end i do think Monzon would catch up with him.
Not sure it changes things much. Everyone knew Rodriguez was a pretty good fighter. The bigger factor is the amount of disrespect out there for Benvenuti for some reason. Sometimes people are influenced by style more than results. Nino was a guy that got the results and was the type that could be way behind in a fight and hang tough and find a way to win. Some folks thought Benvenuti was a front runner type and that Rodriguez bout showed a guy that could get the late ko over elite opponents. You just rarely see that done and it takes mental toughness in addition to tools to be able to pull that off. Tough loss for Rodriguez and those are always tough losses to rebound from.
If Luiz had held out and won, who's to say that a fired up Benvenuti wouldn't have triumphed in a rematch? Luiz was in the latter stages of his career, and Benvenuti still had that capacity to come back stronger in a rematch, as was his forte. If no rematch were to happen, Monzon would have been too much for him..he would have been stopped, IMO.
I agree with RC. A rematch would likely have been made with Benvenuti claiming revenge and the Bethea loss doesn't occur and the middleweight path doesn't alter.
Rodriguez Benvenuti is a a pretty terrible fight incidentally.I don't think either man looked that good in it at all.
I think it would make Luis a lot more well known today among more mainstream boxing fans. Many people who do remember him today do so almost exclusively for his (losing) series to Griffith. Now he'd have something just as big on his resume that only a handful of other welters have done.
I also often wonder how he would be remembered had he been the victor in his series vs Emile Griffith as well. He clearly won their last three bouts especially the last one, and the first one whilst close I still had him edging by three points I think it was. Emile is highly regarded today and rightfully so, but Luis was clearly a better fighter and the fact that he beat so many bonafide middleweights while he himself weighed in below the jr.middleweight limit is an astonishing feat, especially since he stopped quite a few of them as well. Had he beaten Nino to top it off he would be easily considered among the top ten welterweights of all-time imo, can`t see how he wouldn`t be and even now I consider him to be in top ten regardless.
Yeah... the prevailing perception that he lost the series to Griffith hurts him more than anything. It's a shame that all the Griffith-Rodriguez fights aren't more commonly available to right the perception amongst current day boxing fans as to who the better welter was. Just as an aside, I wish all three of Billy Graham's fights with Joey Giardello were available on film too. Graham might be remembered in a much more favourable light as he arguably won all three of their encounters.
