Dont hear much talk on him. The guy was an asbolute beast at 147lb, he put the fear of god into people with his punches. people often write him off as chinny, but up until the thomas hearns fight, he was considered to have a granite chin. Thomas Hearns seemed to put a dent in cueva's chin that stoof there for an eternity. make no mistake about it, few welters in history.....maybe 1-2 in my opinion would be able to take hearns in this weight class so no shame getting dominated by hearns. I think cuevas with his power, and punching skills would wreak havoc for many 147lb champions throughout history. As far as resume goes, He defintley started off on the wrong foot, but their was a certain time period where cuevas at 147lb looked unbeatable. Those werent ham and egger's bones that he was breaken, but some oustanding fighters. I believe Cuevas warrants a spot in the top 25 welterweights of all time, and certainly if you made a head to head list.
I too like Cuevas. Leonard said he would fight him (pre-Hearns), but figured out a way not to. Cuevas' feet were slipping a lot (leather shoes?) in the Hearns fight, and per Sports Illustrated was trying to box early (wrong strategy). But Cuevas never asked for a rematch with Hearns that I know of.
Good post I was a big fan of Cuevas back in the day. He seems as though he's a forgotten fighter, but he was utterly devestating. He was so tough, so strong, and hit so hard. And I agree with you about his chin. People talked about his chin as one of his strengths prior to the Hearns fight. He took a lot of punches and always seemed to keep coming. But taking punches doesn't bode too well against Hearns. I see Cuevas knocking out Cotto, Margarito, and Cintron. A dream matchup for a fight fan would have been a prime Cuevas against a prime Trinidad at 147.
I like Cuevas-but not enough to call him a top 25 alltime welter;he may have been a top 25 welter puncher.My uncle saw him cave in a heavy bag while training in Detroit for the Hearns fight.Aside from Hearns,I remember seeing Roger Stafford easily outboxing him.And in one of the dream fights from that period that didn't come off between Cuevas and Carlos Palomino,I take Palomino.
I recall seeing a documentary on youtube that said Hearns was not expected to win the fight against Cuevas. I can understand why Pipino didn't ask for a rematch
I like Cuevas and I rate him relatively high , he carried himself like a champion , his run he had with his title was good . His power was great , still I can think of a handful of great welters who I think would beat him (the elite ones) , and a lot that maybe would beat him , but maybe not though . He should be rated well
On April 6, 1980 Cuevas just had defended his title by knocking out Harold Volbrecht in 5 rounds in Houston. Leonard had become Champion in November 1979, but stated in typical Leonard-ese at ringside that he wanted to fight this great champion. Leonard had just knocked out David "Boy" Green (a jr.welter) in 4 rounds a week earlier. Management's choices were to fight Roberto Duran (who had moved up) in late June, or Cuevas /Tommy Hearns in early August. If you throw out WBC / WBA boxing politics, Duran may have looked like the easier of the 3 opponents because Cuevas and Hearns were knocking out people left and right, and Duran may have been perceived as a blown-up lightweight. Let Cuevas and Hearns duke it out.....then we will take the winner after we polish off Duran may have been the thinking. That is my theory.
I think Duran was contemplating fighting Cuevas after Palomino... Palomino thought that Pipino might be too strong for Duran at that time.
