Wilfred Benitez 1979 vs Jose Pipino Cuevas 1979, Title Unification, 147 lbs.

I need to watch some more Cuevas.

You can discount any losses prior to 77 as he was just a teenager then.

The Hearns loss is fine, everyone loses to Hearns at WW pretty much.

The Stafford loss is troubling, a guy brought in to lose managed to knock Cuevas down and frustrate him over 10 rounds to get the W.

And, as much credit as Duran gets on here, anything after 81 is meaningless as he was semi retired and fully burnt out.

So we're talking a small 4 year window where he's regarded as prime.

As a man, before burning out, I'm sure he'd cause problems with his aggression and power, but Benitez is Benitez.

 

He was passed it for Stafford. Stafford himself went on a nice short streak himself

 

With hindsight he is. At the time people thought he had a full career ahead of him.

 

This would be my pick as well

 

Fair play, lets move on mate. chat soon.

 

As was mentioned, Stafford was after Hearns. Sounds simplistic and trite but Cuecas was dented after Tommy fought him. He was never close to the same afterward.

Cuevas is great fun to watch, look some of his title reign up. Nobody's trying to suggest he's a top-ten welter but he did rule for four years, against decent opposition too. He's worth the time.

 

No whag I mean is, at the time it was a case of Hearns catching him whilst he was young, see what kind of fighter he grows into.

The Stafford loss was a huge upset, no one saw it coming.

I've watched highlights of Cuevas, but never a collection of his fights.

Every time I go to watch them i get annoyed that he never fought Palomino.

 

Cuevas was a guy who just had a hell of a peak. Wasn’t anything particularly stand out coming up as a teenager. Pretty sure he lost a decision to Andy Price just before getting a shot at Espada for the title. He then shocked the world and became the youngest Welterweight champion of all time. Then, instead of being a fluke he became a dominant champ and one of the most feared fighters in the sport.

On some level, I think Hearns ruined his psyche. He fought that fight like a man who’d already been thrashed in two rounds instead of a man who was about to be. Tommy just had him shook from the get go. It’s really something when you watch it with perspective.

 

Right. The defeat to Stafford seemed like a really big thing at the time but in retrospect it shouldn't have been a surprise. Cuevas was never world class after Hearns. He never had a big win afterward.

 

I think Cuevas is all wrong for Wilfred.

Benitez is brilliant at making people miss, El Radar and all that, but what he was particularly great at was taking away the right hand — Leonard missed more than 20 right hands in the first round alone, all right there in the pocket, and Dundee instructed Ray to work hooks and jabs ... which he did until he was later able to find the range.

He’s still good defensively but less adept at avoiding left hooks .. and Pipino’s was a wrecking ball. He’s the lightest person I’ve ever heard of to break the metal buckle on a speed bag. Foreman did it and I think Shavers. No welter or even middle or light heavy that I ever heard of did it, but Cuevas did.

Furthermore, Benitez is most comfortable fighting off the ropes — look at how he picked apart Palomino there and you can see the same in a lot of his other fights. Hearns, in fact, would not engage him there: Manny Steward instructed him to step back to the middle of the ring and wave Wilfred out rather than fight him there and get countered.

But Pipino is a different sort of animal. He thrived, somewhat like Foreman, in destroying people when he pinned them on the ropes. And he was willing and able to go to the body with both hands rather than head-hunt, and Wilfred can’t make his body disappear.

I think eventually, probably inside of 10 rounds, Benitez gets nailed in a corner or on the ropes with a right that stuns enough that Pipino comes crashing down with that wicked left hook and he never gives Wilfred a chance to recover.

Cuevas by TKO, I’ll say in eight, while behind on the cards.

 

Benitez was badly hurt by Bruce Curry left hook. Pipino left hook was a hammer.
Pipino ko Benitez in 4th rd.

 

Wilfred would take an early lead, but gets caught by one of Pipino's hooks in the fifth, and gets stopped in the sixth.

 

Benitez is the gut reaction, but Cuevas was a beast at that moment in history. And the Bruce Curry knockdowns right before Benitez beat Palomino kind of hang out there, because Benitez was moving up to welter and Cuevas was just brutalizing people there.

If Benitez had even the slightest bit of a slow start, it's over for him.

 

Benitez was more skilled and quicker handed so I think he wins by late round knockout. Cuevas had power, but I don't see him landing that big left hook on Wilfred. Tommy and Roberto couldn't really land punches on Wilfred. Ray did, but Ray was also hit a lot, so that was the hand speed of Ray. That is the interesting thing about it Ray hit Wilfred more than Tommy or Roberto. but he was hit more than those guys were since he felt he had to stand in there at times to land the punches and he did stop Wilfred.. I am always stuck on the fab 4. I think Wilfred just a better fighter than Pipino, who had great power and knew how to win.