Theres nothing to believe, everyone in NYC knows Benitez was partying at the Copa the nightbefore the fight. This is common knowledge. Does Duran have a greater legacy? Yes. But Benitez, his skills are out of this world and everyone who watched him fight can tell you, if this man was more dedicated hed be top 10 atg easily.
partying the night before and only training for three days are two different things. And lets not go overboard here,yes Benitez was skilled but so were a lot of fighters, as for him being an atg if he was more dedicated thats just a "what If" and you can say that about lots of fighters(Toney,Gomez,Duran etc).
No Benitez was in a different level, He was a prodigy. His reflexes are out of this world. And he had it all, power, speed, skill. His lifestyle caught up with him, which is usually the case for alot of newyorican fighters. As far a Gomez is concerned, he reached his potential, considered the greatest at 122, he was never any good north of that. Toney, what can you say. The man in his prime barely beat an old McCallum and was dominated by RJJ. He is very good but I would never consider him great.
Toney was great, no doubt about that, but he had to train. He was not ready for RJJ and had to lose so much weight before the RJJ fight, and had nothing. He, the same thing happened when he fought Dave Tiberi. Benitez was a freak. If he actually trained like a champion usually does, he would have been a much better fighter, and this is saying something. I heard he only trained 1 week for his fight with Ray Leonard.
Wilfred Benitez was the first to come to mind. Notorious for being lazy in the gym. Lew Jenkins was also notorious for not training hard, and partying instead.
if you talk about an on the spot fight with 5 mins to get your trunks on and get in the ring... B-HOP. the guy never gets out of shape. well Toney is a great call too.
true but other than his right hand, jenkins didn't bring much to the table. still, what a ****ing punch...
I would say Roy Jones for talent....but he trains his ass off. Mike Tyson ..... has the punch, speed and chin
Isidro Garcia was never an elite fighter but when a figter pulled out in WBO title fight Garicia was in the crowd eating a donut and the promoter asked if he could fill in he had to borrow trunks,mouthpiece and a cup on only a an hour notice he ended up winning the title over Jose Lopez.
Mando Ramos was a fighter known to regularly get drunk and drugged up the day before defending his title and still come out victorious.
I'm glad this thread was made. I actually admire fighters like Mayorga. They are a breed of their own. Many people will criticize Mayorga for not being a good technical boxer, but he does have a style, and it works for him. People should judge a boxer on the results, and not so much on a specific way of fighting. Technical people will always judge things on a technical basis, but not everyone thinks or acts that way. In my opinion, you can't judge a fighter like Mayorga on that basis. He is who he is. He's found a way to box differently from others. What's wrong with that? I think most boxers follow a more technical path, and that's fine only because I think most people fall in that category. But a few like Mayorga should not be "boxed in" to fight in a certain way. We also need fighters like that, it adds variety for boxing viewers, and a challenge for many boxers.