The date was Feb. 23, 1981, a Monday. Madison Square Garden was booked. The lineup: Gerry Cooney vs. Ken Norton, heavyweights, 10 rounds Matthew Saad Muhammad vs. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, light heavyweight WBC/WBA unification, 15 rounds Thomas Hearns (c) vs. Wilfred Benitez, WBA welterweight championship, 15 rounds Wilfredo Gomez (c) vs. Mike Ayala, WBC super bantamweight championship, 15 rounds Hilmer Kenty (c) vs. Alexis Arguello, WBA lightweight championship, 15 rounds Aaron Pryor was originally slated to appear but backed out recovering from a (non-career-threatening) gunshot wound that set back his training, not sure of the opponent. I think some other names were also tossed around. Purses went up to $1.5M for Hearns, Benitez and the Muhammads. Cooney and Norton were in the $1-1.25M range. All or almost all of the fighters collected big advances that they didn’t have to repay. The promoter was one Harold Smith, aka Ross Fields, a con man who had found insiders at Wells Fargo Bank and managed to embezzle $21M with their help to fund his promotional enterprise. Smith operated under the banner of Muhammad Ali Professional Sports, paying the ex-champ (embezzled) money for use of his name and some appearances to lend credibility to his operation. He had previously promoted Thomas Hearns-Pipino Cuevas, Saad Muhammad-Lotte Mwale, a lesser Mustafa Muhammad defense and several other fights involving the likes of Benitez (vs. Pete Ranzany), Andy “Hawk” Price and others. None, apart from Hearns-Cuevas, made money. (He also had Muhammad Ali Amateur Sports, which had signed a number of 1980 Olympic hopefuls before the boycott, and which also promoted track meets attracting top U.S. and world talent. Again, always at a loss.) But he spread money around like candy, handing out advances and ‘training expenses’ in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, usually in cash, to gain favor of fighters and managers. He had done TV fights on several networks. HBO was supposed to have been the televising agent of this extravaganza, but they had not yet come to terms when Wells Fargo stumbled across the theft operation, brought in the FBI and blew the whistle. A month or so before this card was to take place, the plug was pulled when Smith and his major bank benefactor went into hiding after the discovery. Some of the fights would be remade: Cooney-Norton some three months later, Hearns-Benitez at junior middle a couple years later. Smith had already given advance money to Jim Watt, who would later lose his lightweight title to Arguello, and was planning Pryor-Arguello down the line. His plan was to use the Wells Fargo money to take over boxing, supplanting Don King and Bob Arum as the sport’s major player, and, so he said, repay the bank off proceeds of this mega-card (which given the purses and no chance of a TV bonanza to fund it, was likely to actually be his biggest money-loser yet) before they realized the money was missing. When Cooney-Norton did take place at the Garden. Miguel Montilla vs Domingo Ayala at 140 pounds was the chief undercard bout, with preliminary fighters Marvis Frazier, Jimmy Clark, Philipp Brown and Elijah Tillery filling out the card. The biggest card to take place on the Feb. 23 date was in Atlantic City, N.J., with Bobby Czyz and Freddie Roach in the top two bouts. If only Wells Fargo had found out a little later, boxing would have seen perhaps the greatest card ever staged.
So if it had happened, I see it something like this (we do have hindsight on two matches that actually occurred, but the time difference and weight class on Hearns-Benitez could result in a different outcome): Gerry Cooney KO1 Ken Norton, heavyweights. There’s no version of Norton who stands up to Cooney’s power, certainly not this one. Matthew Saad Muhammad W15 Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, light heavyweight WBC/WBA unification. I think MSM weathers a hell storm and manages to nip it with a strong finish as EMM begins to fade in the championship rounds. But I could see Eddie getting a stoppage in the middle rounds. Thomas Hearns (c) TKO 11 Wilfred Benitez, WBA welterweight championship. Hearns broke his hand when they did fight, and that was at junior middle. This time I think it’s a chess match until Thomas catches Wilfred and gets the finisher. Wilfredo Gomez (c) KO 9 Mike Ayala, WBC super bantamweight championship. Ayala’s best showing was against Danny Lopez, and as competitive as he was, he was still outclassed. Bazooka bazooks him out of there. Alexis Arguello W15 Hilmer Kenty (c), WBA lightweight championship. Double-A was capable of taking out top-flight lightweights but I think Hilmer manages to survive but takes a thorough beating.
I think Hilmer had a chance for an upset. But he would have to fight the fight of his life. Benitez, being in New York, does as well.
