Leonard-Benitez - I had Benitez winning entering the final round

**** me solid

 

In reading through this right now, my only surprise is that Rooster hasn't been here to say that not only was Benitez winning handily, but that the referee was bought off by Howard Cosell.

 

I haven't watched it recently but thought Leonard was well in control and well ahead

 

What you have to understand, what casual fans and novices are too uneducated to see, is that sometimes when you think you see a fist hitting a face, its actually a face landing cleanly on a fist. A fist is a smaller target to hit also and it takes a technician like Benitez to pull it off, it a very subtle talent. Right, Duranimal?

Its subjective really, depends how you like to score a fight. Fist hitting face or face hitting fist. I dont disagree with either way.

 

In that case you don't need to re-watch it, trust me.

 

I had Leonard by 4 (3 at worst) going in to the last round. Despite the technical genius showed on each side, and the tense nature of the fight, Leonard was the fighter who took the risks in this fight. Benitez needed to be a bit more active in this fight. Credit to Leonard for making Benitez aware of the potential price of opening up.

 

Expectations make a fight hard to judge later on. I notice that with any fight. If you have it in your mind that a fighter dominated a fight 20 years ago, when you watch it again its a little different. I do this with Duran/Leonard 1 all the time. If I haven't watched it in a long time and I remember Duran dominating, the next time I watch it expectations make me think it was closer then i remembered. Every fight is like this. Go with your initial scoring.

As for Leonard/Benitez. Leonard was clearing winning the fight. Benitez like usual wasn't throwing enough punches. Just like his fight with Hearns. he didn't win many rounds at all against Leonard.
Benitez always had my vote is the most boring fighter ever. Throw some freaking punches, its a fight.

 

I adopted this method of scoring in the Duran/Joppy fight. I had Duran ahead.

 

Good point; in reality, the man getting hit in the face is really controlling the tempo of the fight. After all, without his face in the way, nothing would ever happen.

 

Fair call, but i don't think he's going to rewatch it and suddenly see it on a razor's edge or being won by Benitez. I'd certainly hope not anyways

 

just scored it, i had leonard 2 points ahead going into the final round so we disagree on a round. I think it was round 4, i thought leonard was faster getting his jab off and dominated the early rounds.
Overall its a good fight with the main difference being that the rounds Benitez won were close rounds and alot of the rounds leonard won i felt he won comfortably. Big ups to Benitez though he could have folded after leonard pulled away in the early rounds (especially with KD)

In the end i would have had it 4 points clear to leonard if it had gone the extra 15 seconds (10-8 round 15) one of the best leonard fights, his jab is great and he looked focussed throughout

 

id also like to note that the footage i watched was pretty bad so there was bits of the fight cut in certain parts - notable 7 & 8 which made it a little harder to score for me

 

Leonard was up by at least 3 points, it was close in spots, but Wilfred was going to lose it anyway, no chance of winning.

 

I had Ray ahead but it was very close and he was being given serious problems. Benitez was driving him crazy at times. He made great adjustments though and i feel this is Leonard's most underrated fight. He couldn't hit Benitez with his jab so he did something very subtle and change the pace and angle. He started using an up jab coming from below Benitez's sight and he immedietely started hitting Benitez with it. He even got a KD because of that up jab IIRC. Brillient boxing brain.

 

I always felt that Leonard was comfortably ahead by at least 3 rounds, perhaps 4. He undoubtebly carried the fight, was more aggressive and landed the better punches. Benitez just didn't do enough to win (though he fought well) and Leonards speed took the play away from him.