the what fights did you watch today\scorecard thread.

Yeah but Palomino was the welterweight champion on a good streak. That win means more IMO, even though Duran was clearly the far superior fighter (also had a breathtaking showing against Palomino later on of course)

 

someone on here said it was a masterclass of feinting. it was one of the first fights i watched when i got duran's career set

 

Fair enough. The win might have meant more, but I hold Benitez's performance against Duran at 154lbs in higher regard. In my mind, that's the best Benitez I've seen on film.

 

Fair enough also.

 

I actually thought the Benitez-Palomino fight was quite close in a Mayweather-Cotto sense. Mayweather/Benitez were always going to have their nose ahead by dint of being a class above, but Cotto/Palomino made them earn it and with a somewhat generous take on their body work you could have them taking quite a few rounds.

 

Maybe it's just me then. Just as I didn't think Benitez-Leonard was remotely close, I didn't think this fight was either.

 

As far as people offering opinions on Benitez-Palomino around here, I've found most tend to agree with you that it was wide and fairly comfy for Wilfred.

 

I thought it was definitive for Benitez for sure, but I gave Palomino a decent amount of rounds. Of all three title-winning performances for him, I rank this one last, personally. I don't think he dominated it quite the way he did the other two.

As to Duran being in shape for Benitez, it reminded me of what I read in "Hands of Stone." The author told the story of Duran being sent to a penal colony island, and made to live in a compound with deranged murderers and all that, far away from any possible distraction (and there were many by then). Needless to say, he hated it, and used that as an excuse as to why he lost. You can always count on Duran for an excuse after all, but it does mark perhaps the one time in that career stage where he didn't struggle to make weight. That suggests he was in very good shape for Benitez.

 

Well you can count on just about any decent boxer to have an excuse. Its the nature of the game.

Anyway I think that this is the one match, more than New orleans even, that Duran would want back. He was in shape and he hated Benitez passionately.

 

True, true.....

 

Indeed. I can't give Duran a hard time for excuses. MAB had one for every loss. People made threats to kidnap his neice ahead of Jones I, he was robbed in the rematch, he was robbed against Morales, and a forest fire caused him to get obliterated by Manny Pacquiao in 2003.

 

Duran just wasn't as good a 154 fighter as Benitez was.Not at that stage of their career's.

Maybe he'd have done better if he'd thumbed Wilfred's eye shut early.

 

:yep

 

rewatched broner-demarco. i see a LOT of potential in this kid. total domination of the likely top rated lightweight in the world. rendered it about as non-competitive as possible.

 

Shocking time for the division though, for Demarco to be no.1 based on....nothing.