What was it about Benitez that gave Duran so much trouble?

I remember a story, I think in Sports Illustrated, about the Leonard-Benitez fight.

Ray, as fast as they come, threw like 23 right hands in the first round and landed zero.

Angelo Dundee told him not to worry about the right hand to the head, work the jab and the body, they'll go back to the right later.

Leonard replied, "But he's RIGHT THERE."

But ... radar.

 

For sure, i remember similar. His anticipation of punches and slipping of them was extraordinary. Hearns and Stewards gameplan was much coontrived from SRL and Dundee's. I wish i had the relevant info with me but it involved a lot of feinting and jabbing including jabs to the chest. Also involved HARD right hands at the heart. He was also told not to be sucked into the web and be patient. The one obvious time Hearns went ballistic at Benitez he produced a defensive highlight reel for the ages hahaha

 

Couldn't hit him with a handful of salt.

He had this ability -- natural, not taught, I think -- to get (and this is hard to explain) inside the other guy's rhythm. That's the only way I can describe it.

You can see (especially vs. Leonard) that he's kind of a mimick. It's like he -- to some degree physically but to a much greater degree I think in his own head -- sort of naturally just kind of falls into the other guy's complete style and approach to the point that he knows what they're doing before they do.

Specific to Duran, he took away the sneaky-fast lead right that Duran loved to throw. He couldn't land it, and he couldn't find anything else to compensate for it.

The Bible of Boxing.

 

It's hard to pinpoint isn't it. Thru whatever means he sure could anticipate. He had to have had great reflexes too but he was definitely avoiding punches at times that he simply could not have seen. Hearns would be one of the most difficult fighters in history to go 15 with and avoid being caught hard and square much. His reach, speed and class are easily seen but Benitez did one helluva job of it.

 

With his enormous talent and skills, Wilfredo Benitez may have been the best junior welterweight during the last forty-five years. As a result, I believe that Benitez beat Aaron Pryor. It is too bad that Benitez had so little discipline and dedication.

- Chuck Johnston

 

I went to a Sugar Ray Leonard boxing talk in several years ago in my home town.
I managed to get to ask Leonard a question and I simply asked who was the best he ever fought.
I think most were expecting the answer to be a Duran, Hearns or Hagler.
His answer was Benitez, he said his natural talent was extraordinary.

 

Benitez had skills.
Strange how we think he was almost impossible to hit but somehow he ended up taking too many punches. There must have been a point where it all went downhill. Then again, we didn't see what punishment he may have been taking in the gym. That's often where the brain damage occurs.

Duran was simply outboxed.

 

Genius defensive ability.

 

There's a link inside the link i provided above. His dad was pimping them out. From memory he was fighting on the street against bigger boys for money for dad from the age of 5 or something. Without going and reading it i think he was taking punches from like that age forward.

 

To be a champ at 17, he was sparring with full-grown men -- accomplished pros -- when he was barely old enough to drive (or maybe even when he was 14 and 15). I suspect that toll was greater than anything he ever took in the ring.

 

He was a kickass fighter. That's what it was.

 

In a word, because virtually everyone out there before the fight, including Vegas, had Benitez the favorite!
I've only bet $500 on a fighter twice in my life and this fight was one of them. I didn't win $500, I think my bud and I got back about $300 apiece give or take as our bookie didn't require anything up front as we were friends. The other was Holmes-Cooney. Same result basically, got about $300 back as Larry was the fav.
I think just prior to the Wilfred-Duran s c r a p Benitez KO'd Maurice Hope, a fine fighter. At the time we thought Wilfred was hitting his wheelhouse of prime and went ALL in!

 

This thread inspired me to watch a good bit of Hearns-Benitez last night.

Hearns -- the most fearsome specimen with the hardest punch in that weight range, an absolute KILLER -- chose (by Manny's game plan, I am sure) to just back off whenever Wilfred went to the ropes.

Think about that for a minute; the absolute RESPECT they gave to the ability of Benitez to counter off the ropes that Hearns completely conceded that he wasn't going to go there. He just stepped back to the middle of the ring rather than engage on Wilfred's terms on Wilfred's turf.

Not "Let's see if he can counter ME," not "I don't care what he did to Palomino or the others, I'm the Hitman and I'll destroy him if he sets up on the ropes or in a corner" ... but "No way. Not going there."

And while Tommy won fair and square, no dispute, I get the feeling watching that if Hearns hadn't fought a VERY careful fight that he wouldn't have won. He lost most every time they exchanged and Wilfred showed no signs of being outgunned.