What Made Pipino Cuevas Such A Uniquely Dangerous Fighter?

I think Espada, Gray, Weston and Ranzany were far better than Shields. I never took a liking to the Shields style, but he had one helluva jaw. His main attribute.

 

Or just go back a few scant years to the welterweight primes of Jose Mantequilla Napoles...tko 4 Cuevas...at least.

 

Ive only seen his fights against hearns and Duran and thought he looked terrible. Did he have a short prime? Power is usually the last thing to go.

 

Not really, you need to look up his record. The Hearns fight was his 12th title defense.

 

Angel Espada > Shields

 

^^ This ^^

 

I have a friend that sparred with Bobby Chacon, as I mentioned in another thread, and he also did rounds with Cuevas. I tried to get him to talk about it but all he said was "he could hit."

 

He knew he had power and he was willing to swing with confidence. I don't think he was overly skilled, he just had great power and confidence.

 

His record is a little deceiving with the losses because he turned pro at the age of 14. And was fighting grown men at that age. Of course not the greatest welter in history, but probably hit just as hard with his left hook as Hearns did with the straight right hand. Had a very good run as champ knocking-out a decent group of welter contenders. I'd rank him just outside the top ten in welter history just going off the top of my head. A true bone breaker at the weight. With A number of broken eye sockets,broken noses,and cracked ribs on his resume.

 

Excellent assessment of Cuevas...and he sure did leave a trail of injuries, didn't he?

 

Well, what's the concensus on Pipino vs Palomino? Has that changed?

 

Don't think Duran wanted a piece of him at his best.

 

Good call on the deceptive quickness & punching angles. There's a reason beyond just his power that so many skilled boxer/technicians were unable to take advantage of what visible flaws he had & found themselves flat on their backs instead.

It was an era lacking in superstars, but he beat (& often blew out) some very good, solid competition like Espada, Weston, Gray, Ranzany, & Shields.

That isn't much of a criticism. If Shields had a punch, he might've pulled out the Hearns fight too.

he was basically shot against Duran except for what remained of his power. A prime-for-prime matchup between them would've been an all-time classic.

He was prime for Hearns & was simply overwhelmed by a superior fighter, but given what we later saw from Hearns (his blowout of Duran & title wins all the way up @175), I think he should be vindicated to some degree.

I think Cuevas rates comparably to other wws like Curry & Spence & would be no less than 50-50 h2h vs. any ww not rated among the top 20 or 25.

 

Cuevas was a good/solid fighter with a heavy punch but he wasn’t on the level of a Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Benitez, or Pryor, all of whom would have beaten him, and two did. He even lost to Andy Price. A lot of his defenses were to guys Hearns and Leonard beat with relative ease on their way up. I’m not so sure Cuevas would have beaten Carlos Palomino either.