Who were you picking going into that fight? Did you think Hearns was ready for a Fighter such the caliber of Cuevas? And were you expecting a Knockout somewhere in the fight?
Hearns. Changing of the guard time. And I flat out love some of the things Steward did pre-fight to help his guy. Incidentally, on that same day, Pryor got rid of another champ that was long in the tooth.
After Leonard beat Benitez, Leonard showed up ringside to watch Pipino Cuevas knock out Harold Volbrecht in early 1980. Most thought that unification (Leonard-Cuevas) would happen in 1980. ABC certainly did. That's why they invited Leonard to sit ringside. I watched that Cuevas-Volbrecht fight live, and afterward Leonard didn't seem to want any part of Pipino. (Which seems odd to say now, but not then.) Instead, Leonard decided to defend against Roberto Duran first, who at the time seemed to be the easier opponent (because most believed Duran didn't bring his power with him to welterweight). Then Duran upset Leonard early that summer. Leading into Cuevas-Hearns, which came near the end of the summer, a lot of magazines at the time were hyping a possible Duran-Cuevas unification. Duran-Cuevas for the undisputed welterweight title had people's mouths watering. In other words, Hearns wasn't expected to beat Pipino. Personally, I saw Hearns briefly when Holmes defended against Lorenzo Zanon. And I saw Hearns fight Eddie Gazo (as brief as that was). But, other than that, Hearns hadn't really been on national T.V. much, or I just missed him. (And I tried to watch everything.) So I hadn't seen him. I'm sure a lot of others hadn't either. I'd read articles about Hearns, but I hadn't seen him. Most of his fights to that point had been on "off-TV" undercards of major fights, On the other hand, Cuevas was "feared" ... and I don't use that word lightly ... when he was the welterweight champ. I remember on my local news the sports guy actually did a whole story the night Randy Shields went the distance with Cuevas, because Cuevas brutalized everyone when he was champ. Cuevas-Hearns was held in Detroit because Harold Smith, who stole all the money from Wells Fargo Bank, had signed Hearns. Smith was basically the promoter. He'd also signed Shavers. And he was trying to sign Cooney. Cooney-Shavers and Hearns-Cuevas was supposed to be the doubleheader, but Cooney pulled out and Tex Cobb replaced him. When the films of Hearns-Cuevas are shown now, Hearns gets top billing and it looks like Hearns was the favorite or was expected to win. Truth is, Cuevas was a beast. He'd destroyed basically everyone he fought in title fights. Not just destroyed them, broke their jaws, broke their ribs, broke someone's eye socket. And seeing Pipino get wasted was as shocking as watching Hearns waste Duran a couple years later. Nobody called Hearns blowing out Cuevas. NOBODY. NO ... BODY!
I did. Made a lot of money that day. Made more on the Pryor fight but did not do badly on the Hearns match either.
