More impressive wonderkid Benitez or Cuevas?

On the overall, Wilfred Benetiz comes out on 'top'.

But for winning the championship only, Pipino gets my vote over
Wilfred vs. Kid Cervantes.

Pipino's first 9 fights involving the WBA Championship,
went less than 39 Rounds.
Approximately, 4 Rounds per Bout.

 

Zeke,

The WBA Elimination Series
pitted
4/17/75 in San Juan, Puerto Rico
10-Round Eliminator
#2 Luis Acosta vs #3 Angel Espada

This was a rematch, the two had on 3/15/75 in Venezuela.

The winner, was to meet Clyde Gray for the vacant Title in June 1975.
Clyde Gray was the #1 WBA Welterweight
Also, The British Commonwealth Welterweight Champion

 

Both a great, although Benitez is considered better than Cuevas I think. But Cuevas at welt. was dominating. Wish we had fighters like this now who came to fight.

 

yeah he fought Hearns and Duran in 1982 and went 15 with both of them. When Benitez was the 154 pound WBC champ in 1981-1982 I thought he was almost at his best and put it all together. He was fighting well. Too bad he was matched with Hearns because Benitez would have gone another 2 years defending that title. Hearns was just too quick for Wilfred. It was the only time I saw Hearns miss with a bodypunch.

 

You know, if Wilfred reallly trained, he could have gotten back down to
147 lbs.

I would have loved to see him in with;
* Donald Curry
* Milton McCrory
* Jun-Sok Hwang (That tough S.O.B. from South Korea)
* Nino LaRocca
* Pipino Cuevas (Even the faded version)

154 lbs. and up was really not his proper fighting weight. He had a small upper-body.

 

I always thought 154 he fought better than 147. He fought better guys and beat Duran easily. 154 was a good weight for him and he adjusted well to the weight. The only problem was he fought Hearns when Hearns was prime. 160 was too high for him. He should have just stayed at 154 and fought on and won another title. but the Hearns loss ruined his plans and he choose bad decisions by moving up to middleweight. His win against Duran for his title at 154 was one of his best performances. He controlled Duran.

 

IL Duce were do you get these ranking from? Theyre really interesting

 

All the 1970 WBA Monthly Newsletters.
South American Boxing Federation Newsletters
Mexico Boxing Federation (Telemundo Boxing Division)

If you look at Pipino Cuevas record before his WBA Championship bout,
it doesn't look that impressive.
But, many of the fighters boxing records were incomplete.

In Pipino's 5 previous bouts up to the title fight, every fighter
was listed in the Top 20 of the WBA rankings.
* Andy Price
* Rafael Piamonte
* Carlos Obregon
* Ruben Vazquez Zamora
* Sammy Garcia

Another note, not sure how Wilfred Benetiz slid into the WBA Light Welterweight Division,
when all of previous 16-bouts were at 145+ lbs.

Some funny business in Puerto Rico (adjusted scales, obviously for both Benetiz and Cervantes)
The WBA representative,,,,,,,,maybe $$$ to look the other way, for sure.

 

Yeh, he looks really impressive on the film we have.

What makes you say that?

 

Because we have film of him from all of those eras and while he still a skilled boxer he is nowhere near as fast or as active and he couldnt get out of the way of punches like he used to. I have footage of him from 1959 thru 1974 and by as early as 1965 and particularly 1966 and 1967 there is a noted decline in all of the above attributes. That certainly wasnt getting better 3 years later as the 1970s dawned and Perkins turned 33 (a pretty advanced age for a lighter weight fighter, particularly during that time period) just before defeating Gray. He was 34 and a half when he defeated Espada, almost 36 when he defeated Muniz the first time and had just turned 37 when he defeated Muniz the second time. He certainly wasnt in his prime, he certainly wasnt getting any better, and he certainly wasnt better in 1970 than he was in 1963/1964 or even, as stated above 1965/66.

 

Eddie Perkins one 'cagey-cat'.
He could make any inexperienced fighter look bad.

Even at an advanced age, he was all too slick.
Look at all his 'road' wins.......amazing.

 

it is hard to rate either of them over the other. Benitez hung better with the greats but Cuevas had a terrifying reign at welt. Great in different ways.

 

I looked at Cuevas vs Gray/Ranzany yesterday and I liked what I saw. He showed decent head movement & defensive footwork. I'm not a fan yet but I might become one. I am a Benitez fan and love his showings against Palomino, Curry 2, Duran, Hearns, and Hope. Both are great fighters and are great to watch. My goodness could Cuevas crack and Benitez could make people miss. On a sidenote, I haven't seen any of Eddie Perkins but would love to see some of his fights on yt if possible.

 

Well we could compare common early opponents, or cross-common opponents.

One is Harold Weston Jr.
vs Benitez I,,,,,,Draw 10
vs Benitez II,,,,L Dec 15
vs Cuevas,,,,,,,L KO 9

Pete Ranzany
vs. Benitez,,,,,L Dec 10
vs. Cuevas,,,,,L KO 2

Randy Shields
vs. Benitez,,,, L KO 6
vs. Cuevas,,,,,L Dec 15

Roberto Duran
vs. Benitez,,,, L Dec 15
vs. Cuevas,,,,,W KO 4