Who was better than Benitez at light welter from any era?

Jel · Aug 30, 2018

Benitez h2h was a match for almost anyone in light welter history when he trained properly.

Talent-wise, he was prodigously gifted and probably one of the ten best defensive fighters of the last 40 years. His reflexes were unreal. But he was lazy with his training. I don't blame him - he had in his father and manager a man who transparently saw his own son as a pure commodity.

Any account I've read of Gregorio (including the wonderful one about the Curry fight above) paints him to be a heartless and contemptible father, so I have no reason to doubt that Wilfred's angst and his rebellion (in the form of not training) were born out of that relationship.

Leaving that aside, his resume at 140 is thin, aside from one of the best wins in division history when he beat Cervantes.

There are at least 10 fighters and probably a lot more that I would place above Benitez at 140 lbs based on overall achievement. But h2h he'd have been a tough fight for all of them.

JohnThomas1 · Aug 31, 2018

Reinhardt said: ↑

I'd say a prime Cervantes beats the heck out of a young Wilfred Benitez.
Click to expand...

Cervantes was a helluva lot closer to prime against Benitez than against Pryor. It was around 4 1/2 years earlier.

Man_Machine · Aug 31, 2018

I think Cervantes was capable of beating Benitez. Shame we never got a rematch.

JohnThomas1 · Aug 31, 2018

Man_Machine said: ↑

I think Cervantes was capable of beating Benitez. Shame we never got a rematch.
Click to expand...

It was a close match and Benitez was a bit underdone at 140 for sure.

robert ungurean · Aug 31, 2018

@ 140 I'd certainly favor Napoles and Duran who jumped strait up to 147

klompton2 · Aug 31, 2018

Longhhorn71 said: ↑

Info re: a potential Benitez vs Duran Jr. WW/Welterweight Fight: "Benitez, 19 years old, began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision over Bruce Curry. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion [url]Roberto Duran[/url] in New York on April 27, 1978.
Benitez vs Bruce Curry #2 MD (Benitez vs B. Curry #1 was a SD)

This Time Curry Wasn't So Hot

By Pat Putnam, Sports Illustrated, February 13, 1978

In view of the first Benitez-Curry fight last November, the rematch was supposed to be all-out war. But what the fans at Madison Square Garden witnessed last Friday night was a dance and a shuffle through the fifth round, and by then Bruce Curry, who had fought only eight days before in Japan, was too exhausted to care. "I just wanted to get it done and go to bed," he said later. "I should have sent out for coffee."

As Curry pooped out, Wilfredo Benitez, the junior welterweight champion of New York, surged. Curry had dropped him three times last year, but by the sixth round last Friday Benitez decided his chin was safe. Benitez began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion Roberto Duran in New York on April 27.

"But hold it a minute," said Gregorio Benitez, the 19-year-old Puerto Rican's father and manager. "We haven't signed any contract to fight Duran. There are still a few things to discuss."

One is money, the other is weight. For the non-title bout, Duran would get $100,000. The Garden has offered Benitez $60,000 and wants him to come in at 143 pounds (for Curry he weighed 145 1/2). Papa Benitez wants another $40,000 and two more pounds--unless he sells his son's contract first.

"I want to sell my kid," said Gregorio. "All I'm asking is $150,000, 10% of all his future purses and two tickets to all his fights. I say to all of them, you put the money in my hand and I put my kid in your hand. After that I don't care what you do with my kid. If the new owner wants him to fight Duran at 143 pounds, that is his worry. I want to be like Pontius Pilate: wash my hands of the whole thing."

Gregorio first offered to sell his son's contract to promoter Don King, who said no thank you, but offered to pay him $150,000 for two fights.

"I wanted to sell him; all Don wanted to do was promote him," said Gregorio. "And Don is always in a hurry. I don't like to do business with people in a hurry. So I tell him to forget it."

Then he asked Teddy Brenner, the Garden matchmaker, to help him find a buyer.

"Are you kidding?" Brenner said. "I find a buyer, the buyer wants him to fight a certain guy, and then you tell him not to take the fight. Who is your son going to listen to: you or his new manager?"

Benitez has a third argument against fighting Duran, at least in April. Last June, Jose Sulaiman, the World Boxing Council president, told Gregorio that he was next in line for a shot at WBC welterweight champion Carlos Palomino.

"Either him or the Chinese guy he's fighting," Gregorio said, apparently referring to Ryu Sorimachi of Japan. "Brenner and me will be out in Las Vegas next week to talk to Palomino. Sulaiman will be there too. So why fight Duran, like they are talking? Palomino is for a title and Duran is for 10 rounds. If we beat Palomino then we got the title and then we give a chance to Duran, only we're fighting at 147 pounds then. With all that, right now a Duran match is too dangerous. Unless Teddy gives us the $100,000 and two more pounds. Then we fight."

For the moment, numbers like $100,000 are beyond Curry's reach. That's $96,000 more than he got for the first Benitez fight, when he was a 3-to-1 underdog despite his 13-0 record. He all but destroyed the overconfident Puerto Rican, knocking him down three times. And then stood there and listened while two of the three New York judges gave Benitez the decision.

Disgusted, the 21-year-old ex-Texan went home to Los Angeles, where he signed to fight Minoru Fugiya for $10,000 in Japan on Jan. 24. Fugiya was Japan's No. 3 junior welterweight. Curry already had knocked out Japan's No. 1 and 2. It was easy money. Then the Garden called and offered him the rematch with Benitez. For $12,500.

"We were really in a bind," says Jesse Reid, Curry's manager. "We were committed to the fight in Japan, where Bruce is something of a hero. And we wanted the rematch with Benitez after the robbery they gave us. We figured we'd just go ahead with both fights."

The first one wasn't much of a problem. Overriding protests from the Garden. Curry flew to Japan, floored Fugiya five times and knocked him out in the third round. It was his eighth knockout in 15 fights.

The next day Curry flew for 10 hours back to Los Angeles, rested there for a day, then flew for five hours to New York City, and rested for a week. Since Jan. 22 he had had but one hard workout, plus three rounds of sparring against the inept Fugiya.

"I know why they fought that bum in Japan," said Gregorio Benitez. "To build Curry's confidence. After we beat him, he had to be down. It was a smart move on their part. But it won't help him. We are going to put him in a hospital this time."

In a smart move of his own, Gregorio had shipped his playboy son to Mexico City for a month's hard work in rarefied air. There Wilfredo sparred more than 100 rounds, which is about 90 more than he sparred before the first Curry fight. "My kid was in terrible shape the first fight," Gregorio said.

Sitting in a chair next to his father, Wilfredo grinned. He had been switching the dial on a TV set, trying to find a monster movie. Now he said, "The first fight was supposed to be with Duran. I was starting to work hard. Then Duran got sick, and they said I was fighting Curry instead. I said, 'Curry who?' And I stopped working. He knocked me down three times. Then I knew who Curry was. This time I have worked very hard. I no play."

For the first four rounds of the fight, Benitez remembered too well who Curry was. Mostly he stayed outside. Far outside.

"Go get him, Bruce!" Tom Logan, Curry's trainer, screamed from the corner. "He's the guy sitting in the second row. Press him. You've got to go get him."

Slowly, Curry pursued Benitez, occasionally banging to the body, pressing the fight, but not much. By the fifth round, Benitez began to realize he was in against a different Curry this time. The Puerto Rican became bolder, became once more the clever boxer who had taken the junior welterweight title from Antonio Cervantes of Colombia. Sliding swiftly in and out, Benitez hammered at Curry in short, sharp bursts: jabs, hooks, straight right hands. They came in a blur. He has astonishing hand speed.

Unhurt, but his strength fading rapidly, Curry husbanded his punches, saving what he had left for the one big punch that could end it. He almost found it--four seconds after the bell ended the seventh round.

With eight seconds to go in the round, which he had dominated, Benitez scored with a hard right to the head. Stung, Curry went at him with both hands, and Benitez met him with both hands. Toe-to-toe they pounded each other. The bell rang. Still they fought. Referee Tony Perez tried to move in between the fighters, and Benitez hooked him hard to the head, blackening his left eye. As Perez staggered back, Curry smashed a crushing hook to the right side of Benitez' head. The Puerto Rican's legs quivered. Benitez' corner was in an uproar.

Leaping into the ring, Benitez' assistant trainer, Jaran Manzanet, yelled back over his shoulder, "Get him. He's hurt. He's hurt."

Quickly his corner hustled Benitez to his stool, sat him down and went to work with ice water and smelling salts.

"He's hurt," Manzanet yelled again.

"I see that," snapped Gregorio. "I see that."

Benitez' recovery was amazing. "Curry has a big punch," he said afterward, "I have a bigger spirit." From the eighth round on, he said, seeing Curry with his right eye was like peeking through a keyhole. Somehow he saw enough of him to bloody his nose in the eighth round, and he finished strongly to win the final two rounds.

Later, Curry stopped by Teddy Brenner's office to pick up a $1,000 check to get his group home to California. On the way out, Reid cashed the check at the Garden box office, collecting 10 $100 bills. The next morning it was discovered one of the bills was counterfeit.

"Good Lord," said Reid, "what else can they do to us in this town?"
Click to expand...

During the telecast of the Curry fight they mention that it was supposed to be Duran in there.

Saad54 · Sep 1, 2018

Longhhorn71 said: ↑

Info re: a potential Benitez vs Duran Jr. WW/Welterweight Fight: "Benitez, 19 years old, began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision over Bruce Curry. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion [url]Roberto Duran[/url] in New York on April 27, 1978.
Benitez vs Bruce Curry #2 MD (Benitez vs B. Curry #1 was a SD)

This Time Curry Wasn't So Hot

By Pat Putnam, Sports Illustrated, February 13, 1978

In view of the first Benitez-Curry fight last November, the rematch was supposed to be all-out war. But what the fans at Madison Square Garden witnessed last Friday night was a dance and a shuffle through the fifth round, and by then Bruce Curry, who had fought only eight days before in Japan, was too exhausted to care. "I just wanted to get it done and go to bed," he said later. "I should have sent out for coffee."

As Curry pooped out, Wilfredo Benitez, the junior welterweight champion of New York, surged. Curry had dropped him three times last year, but by the sixth round last Friday Benitez decided his chin was safe. Benitez began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion Roberto Duran in New York on April 27.

"But hold it a minute," said Gregorio Benitez, the 19-year-old Puerto Rican's father and manager. "We haven't signed any contract to fight Duran. There are still a few things to discuss."

One is money, the other is weight. For the non-title bout, Duran would get $100,000. The Garden has offered Benitez $60,000 and wants him to come in at 143 pounds (for Curry he weighed 145 1/2). Papa Benitez wants another $40,000 and two more pounds--unless he sells his son's contract first.

"I want to sell my kid," said Gregorio. "All I'm asking is $150,000, 10% of all his future purses and two tickets to all his fights. I say to all of them, you put the money in my hand and I put my kid in your hand. After that I don't care what you do with my kid. If the new owner wants him to fight Duran at 143 pounds, that is his worry. I want to be like Pontius Pilate: wash my hands of the whole thing."

Gregorio first offered to sell his son's contract to promoter Don King, who said no thank you, but offered to pay him $150,000 for two fights.

"I wanted to sell him; all Don wanted to do was promote him," said Gregorio. "And Don is always in a hurry. I don't like to do business with people in a hurry. So I tell him to forget it."

Then he asked Teddy Brenner, the Garden matchmaker, to help him find a buyer.

"Are you kidding?" Brenner said. "I find a buyer, the buyer wants him to fight a certain guy, and then you tell him not to take the fight. Who is your son going to listen to: you or his new manager?"

Benitez has a third argument against fighting Duran, at least in April. Last June, Jose Sulaiman, the World Boxing Council president, told Gregorio that he was next in line for a shot at WBC welterweight champion Carlos Palomino.

"Either him or the Chinese guy he's fighting," Gregorio said, apparently referring to Ryu Sorimachi of Japan. "Brenner and me will be out in Las Vegas next week to talk to Palomino. Sulaiman will be there too. So why fight Duran, like they are talking? Palomino is for a title and Duran is for 10 rounds. If we beat Palomino then we got the title and then we give a chance to Duran, only we're fighting at 147 pounds then. With all that, right now a Duran match is too dangerous. Unless Teddy gives us the $100,000 and two more pounds. Then we fight."

For the moment, numbers like $100,000 are beyond Curry's reach. That's $96,000 more than he got for the first Benitez fight, when he was a 3-to-1 underdog despite his 13-0 record. He all but destroyed the overconfident Puerto Rican, knocking him down three times. And then stood there and listened while two of the three New York judges gave Benitez the decision.

Disgusted, the 21-year-old ex-Texan went home to Los Angeles, where he signed to fight Minoru Fugiya for $10,000 in Japan on Jan. 24. Fugiya was Japan's No. 3 junior welterweight. Curry already had knocked out Japan's No. 1 and 2. It was easy money. Then the Garden called and offered him the rematch with Benitez. For $12,500.

"We were really in a bind," says Jesse Reid, Curry's manager. "We were committed to the fight in Japan, where Bruce is something of a hero. And we wanted the rematch with Benitez after the robbery they gave us. We figured we'd just go ahead with both fights."

The first one wasn't much of a problem. Overriding protests from the Garden. Curry flew to Japan, floored Fugiya five times and knocked him out in the third round. It was his eighth knockout in 15 fights.

The next day Curry flew for 10 hours back to Los Angeles, rested there for a day, then flew for five hours to New York City, and rested for a week. Since Jan. 22 he had had but one hard workout, plus three rounds of sparring against the inept Fugiya.

"I know why they fought that bum in Japan," said Gregorio Benitez. "To build Curry's confidence. After we beat him, he had to be down. It was a smart move on their part. But it won't help him. We are going to put him in a hospital this time."

In a smart move of his own, Gregorio had shipped his playboy son to Mexico City for a month's hard work in rarefied air. There Wilfredo sparred more than 100 rounds, which is about 90 more than he sparred before the first Curry fight. "My kid was in terrible shape the first fight," Gregorio said.

Sitting in a chair next to his father, Wilfredo grinned. He had been switching the dial on a TV set, trying to find a monster movie. Now he said, "The first fight was supposed to be with Duran. I was starting to work hard. Then Duran got sick, and they said I was fighting Curry instead. I said, 'Curry who?' And I stopped working. He knocked me down three times. Then I knew who Curry was. This time I have worked very hard. I no play."

For the first four rounds of the fight, Benitez remembered too well who Curry was. Mostly he stayed outside. Far outside.

"Go get him, Bruce!" Tom Logan, Curry's trainer, screamed from the corner. "He's the guy sitting in the second row. Press him. You've got to go get him."

Slowly, Curry pursued Benitez, occasionally banging to the body, pressing the fight, but not much. By the fifth round, Benitez began to realize he was in against a different Curry this time. The Puerto Rican became bolder, became once more the clever boxer who had taken the junior welterweight title from Antonio Cervantes of Colombia. Sliding swiftly in and out, Benitez hammered at Curry in short, sharp bursts: jabs, hooks, straight right hands. They came in a blur. He has astonishing hand speed.

Unhurt, but his strength fading rapidly, Curry husbanded his punches, saving what he had left for the one big punch that could end it. He almost found it--four seconds after the bell ended the seventh round.

With eight seconds to go in the round, which he had dominated, Benitez scored with a hard right to the head. Stung, Curry went at him with both hands, and Benitez met him with both hands. Toe-to-toe they pounded each other. The bell rang. Still they fought. Referee Tony Perez tried to move in between the fighters, and Benitez hooked him hard to the head, blackening his left eye. As Perez staggered back, Curry smashed a crushing hook to the right side of Benitez' head. The Puerto Rican's legs quivered. Benitez' corner was in an uproar.

Leaping into the ring, Benitez' assistant trainer, Jaran Manzanet, yelled back over his shoulder, "Get him. He's hurt. He's hurt."

Quickly his corner hustled Benitez to his stool, sat him down and went to work with ice water and smelling salts.

"He's hurt," Manzanet yelled again.

"I see that," snapped Gregorio. "I see that."

Benitez' recovery was amazing. "Curry has a big punch," he said afterward, "I have a bigger spirit." From the eighth round on, he said, seeing Curry with his right eye was like peeking through a keyhole. Somehow he saw enough of him to bloody his nose in the eighth round, and he finished strongly to win the final two rounds.

Later, Curry stopped by Teddy Brenner's office to pick up a $1,000 check to get his group home to California. On the way out, Reid cashed the check at the Garden box office, collecting 10 $100 bills. The next morning it was discovered one of the bills was counterfeit.

"Good Lord," said Reid, "what else can they do to us in this town?"
Click to expand...

Did Curry have the dumbest manager in history.

Jessie Reid was a great trainer. But, not a good manager.

Fortunanetely, he teamed with the shrewd Billy Baxter, and they guided Roger Mayweather very well, later on.

He fights 8 days before The Benitez rematch and in a 12 hr. different time zone. LOL.

Gregory Benitez sounded pretty ruthless and desperate for cash, but also pretty smart.

He was right to bypass Duran and go for Palominino for the WBC title.

Bronze Tiger · Sep 9, 2018

Benitiz would make Floyd Mayweather switch gears...meaning Floyd would go into his educated pressure fighter style ( with a high guard) that he used against Zab Judah, Demarcus Corley and others .I'd lean towards Mayweather

escudo · Sep 10, 2018

Locche vs Benitez would be a weird fight at 140. 15 rounds with 8 punches landed.

Matt Bargas · Sep 10, 2018

Longhhorn71 said: ↑

Info re: a potential Benitez vs Duran Jr. WW/Welterweight Fight: "Benitez, 19 years old, began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision over Bruce Curry. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion [url]Roberto Duran[/url] in New York on April 27, 1978.
Benitez vs Bruce Curry #2 MD (Benitez vs B. Curry #1 was a SD)

This Time Curry Wasn't So Hot

By Pat Putnam, Sports Illustrated, February 13, 1978

In view of the first Benitez-Curry fight last November, the rematch was supposed to be all-out war. But what the fans at Madison Square Garden witnessed last Friday night was a dance and a shuffle through the fifth round, and by then Bruce Curry, who had fought only eight days before in Japan, was too exhausted to care. "I just wanted to get it done and go to bed," he said later. "I should have sent out for coffee."

As Curry pooped out, Wilfredo Benitez, the junior welterweight champion of New York, surged. Curry had dropped him three times last year, but by the sixth round last Friday Benitez decided his chin was safe. Benitez began piling up points, more than enough, as it turned out, to win the 10-round decision. Which earned him the dubious pleasure of meeting lightweight champion Roberto Duran in New York on April 27.

"But hold it a minute," said Gregorio Benitez, the 19-year-old Puerto Rican's father and manager. "We haven't signed any contract to fight Duran. There are still a few things to discuss."

One is money, the other is weight. For the non-title bout, Duran would get $100,000. The Garden has offered Benitez $60,000 and wants him to come in at 143 pounds (for Curry he weighed 145 1/2). Papa Benitez wants another $40,000 and two more pounds--unless he sells his son's contract first.

"I want to sell my kid," said Gregorio. "All I'm asking is $150,000, 10% of all his future purses and two tickets to all his fights. I say to all of them, you put the money in my hand and I put my kid in your hand. After that I don't care what you do with my kid. If the new owner wants him to fight Duran at 143 pounds, that is his worry. I want to be like Pontius Pilate: wash my hands of the whole thing."

Gregorio first offered to sell his son's contract to promoter Don King, who said no thank you, but offered to pay him $150,000 for two fights.

"I wanted to sell him; all Don wanted to do was promote him," said Gregorio. "And Don is always in a hurry. I don't like to do business with people in a hurry. So I tell him to forget it."

Then he asked Teddy Brenner, the Garden matchmaker, to help him find a buyer.

"Are you kidding?" Brenner said. "I find a buyer, the buyer wants him to fight a certain guy, and then you tell him not to take the fight. Who is your son going to listen to: you or his new manager?"

Benitez has a third argument against fighting Duran, at least in April. Last June, Jose Sulaiman, the World Boxing Council president, told Gregorio that he was next in line for a shot at WBC welterweight champion Carlos Palomino.

"Either him or the Chinese guy he's fighting," Gregorio said, apparently referring to Ryu Sorimachi of Japan. "Brenner and me will be out in Las Vegas next week to talk to Palomino. Sulaiman will be there too. So why fight Duran, like they are talking? Palomino is for a title and Duran is for 10 rounds. If we beat Palomino then we got the title and then we give a chance to Duran, only we're fighting at 147 pounds then. With all that, right now a Duran match is too dangerous. Unless Teddy gives us the $100,000 and two more pounds. Then we fight."

For the moment, numbers like $100,000 are beyond Curry's reach. That's $96,000 more than he got for the first Benitez fight, when he was a 3-to-1 underdog despite his 13-0 record. He all but destroyed the overconfident Puerto Rican, knocking him down three times. And then stood there and listened while two of the three New York judges gave Benitez the decision.

Disgusted, the 21-year-old ex-Texan went home to Los Angeles, where he signed to fight Minoru Fugiya for $10,000 in Japan on Jan. 24. Fugiya was Japan's No. 3 junior welterweight. Curry already had knocked out Japan's No. 1 and 2. It was easy money. Then the Garden called and offered him the rematch with Benitez. For $12,500.

"We were really in a bind," says Jesse Reid, Curry's manager. "We were committed to the fight in Japan, where Bruce is something of a hero. And we wanted the rematch with Benitez after the robbery they gave us. We figured we'd just go ahead with both fights."

The first one wasn't much of a problem. Overriding protests from the Garden. Curry flew to Japan, floored Fugiya five times and knocked him out in the third round. It was his eighth knockout in 15 fights.

The next day Curry flew for 10 hours back to Los Angeles, rested there for a day, then flew for five hours to New York City, and rested for a week. Since Jan. 22 he had had but one hard workout, plus three rounds of sparring against the inept Fugiya.

"I know why they fought that bum in Japan," said Gregorio Benitez. "To build Curry's confidence. After we beat him, he had to be down. It was a smart move on their part. But it won't help him. We are going to put him in a hospital this time."

In a smart move of his own, Gregorio had shipped his playboy son to Mexico City for a month's hard work in rarefied air. There Wilfredo sparred more than 100 rounds, which is about 90 more than he sparred before the first Curry fight. "My kid was in terrible shape the first fight," Gregorio said.

Sitting in a chair next to his father, Wilfredo grinned. He had been switching the dial on a TV set, trying to find a monster movie. Now he said, "The first fight was supposed to be with Duran. I was starting to work hard. Then Duran got sick, and they said I was fighting Curry instead. I said, 'Curry who?' And I stopped working. He knocked me down three times. Then I knew who Curry was. This time I have worked very hard. I no play."

For the first four rounds of the fight, Benitez remembered too well who Curry was. Mostly he stayed outside. Far outside.

"Go get him, Bruce!" Tom Logan, Curry's trainer, screamed from the corner. "He's the guy sitting in the second row. Press him. You've got to go get him."

Slowly, Curry pursued Benitez, occasionally banging to the body, pressing the fight, but not much. By the fifth round, Benitez began to realize he was in against a different Curry this time. The Puerto Rican became bolder, became once more the clever boxer who had taken the junior welterweight title from Antonio Cervantes of Colombia. Sliding swiftly in and out, Benitez hammered at Curry in short, sharp bursts: jabs, hooks, straight right hands. They came in a blur. He has astonishing hand speed.

Unhurt, but his strength fading rapidly, Curry husbanded his punches, saving what he had left for the one big punch that could end it. He almost found it--four seconds after the bell ended the seventh round.

With eight seconds to go in the round, which he had dominated, Benitez scored with a hard right to the head. Stung, Curry went at him with both hands, and Benitez met him with both hands. Toe-to-toe they pounded each other. The bell rang. Still they fought. Referee Tony Perez tried to move in between the fighters, and Benitez hooked him hard to the head, blackening his left eye. As Perez staggered back, Curry smashed a crushing hook to the right side of Benitez' head. The Puerto Rican's legs quivered. Benitez' corner was in an uproar.

Leaping into the ring, Benitez' assistant trainer, Jaran Manzanet, yelled back over his shoulder, "Get him. He's hurt. He's hurt."

Quickly his corner hustled Benitez to his stool, sat him down and went to work with ice water and smelling salts.

"He's hurt," Manzanet yelled again.

"I see that," snapped Gregorio. "I see that."

Benitez' recovery was amazing. "Curry has a big punch," he said afterward, "I have a bigger spirit." From the eighth round on, he said, seeing Curry with his right eye was like peeking through a keyhole. Somehow he saw enough of him to bloody his nose in the eighth round, and he finished strongly to win the final two rounds.

Later, Curry stopped by Teddy Brenner's office to pick up a $1,000 check to get his group home to California. On the way out, Reid cashed the check at the Garden box office, collecting 10 $100 bills. The next morning it was discovered one of the bills was counterfeit.

"Good Lord," said Reid, "what else can they do to us in this town?"
Click to expand...

“The Garden has offered Benitez $60,000 and wants him to come in at 143 pounds”

So Benitez had already moved up to Welter and it would have been tough for him to make 140. Much less 135.

Longhhorn71 · Sep 10, 2018

escudo said: ↑

Locche vs Benitez would be a weird fight at 140. 15 rounds with 8 punches landed.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Both guys standing in their respective corners shadow boxing for 3 minutes per rd would be
just as easy. lol.

Longhhorn71 · Sep 10, 2018

Matt Bargas said: ↑

“The Garden has offered Benitez $60,000 and wants him to come in at 143 pounds”

So Benitez had already moved up to Welter and it would have been tough for him to make 140. Much less 135.
Click to expand...

Three months before the 1st BCurry fight, Benitez defended his NYSAC World Linear Jr WW title against
Ray Chavez Guerro (30-6-3). (RCG had most recently beat Clyde Gray (58-4-1) up at WW)
This was Benitez's last fight as a junior welterweight, vs Guerro.

1977-08-03 : [url]Wilfred Benitez[/url] 139½ lbs beat [url]Ray Chavez Guerrero[/url] 139¼ lbs by TKO at 1:41 in round 15 of 15

Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA

Referee: [url]Arthur Mercante[/url]

Judge: [url]Sam Irom[/url]

Judge: [url]Artie Aidala[/url]

Notes

This was for the Lineal World Junior Welterweight Championship.

Benitez had been stripped of the [url]World Boxing Association[/url] title for not defending against [url]Antonio Cervantes[/url].

The fight was sanctioned as a world title match by the [url]New York State Athletic Commission[/url].

This was Benitez's last fight as a junior welterweight.

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