Hearns vs Benitez & Gomez vs Pintor: 35 Years Ago!... Revisited

[elmersalsa]

What a difference a year makes for a fighter. On December 3, 1982 at the Super Dome in New Orleans, LA, two great fights happened. The main event of the evening was Puerto Rican boxing master and WBC World Super Welterweight Champion, Wilfred Benitez, 24, lost his crown to the awesome KO puncher, the great Tommy Hearns, 24, of Detroit, MI.
It was a year earlier that Tommy lost to the great Sugar Ray Leonard in a fantastic battle for the undisputed world welterweight title in the classic Showdown in Las Vegas. Leonard came from behind to win by a technical knockout, producing The Hitman's first pro boxing defeat in 35 fights. After losing to Leonard, Hearns quickly jumped to Jr middleweight and won his next 3 bouts. One of his most sensational wins in 1982 was when he quickly dispatched tough Mexican middleweight contender, Marcos Geraldo in one round.
After stopping Geraldo, The great middleweight world champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler was next in the Hitman's radar by May of 1982, but Hearns suffered an injury in his right hand and the fight was postponed.

Hearns was supposed to fight Benitez in February of 1981 in a defense of his WBA World Welterweight crown, but the fight didn't materialized for corrupted reasons of promoter Harold Smith. I won't get into full details why.

But fast forward to December of 1982 in New Orleans, Don King, American boxing promoter extraordinare, made one if the best fighting cards of the decade even though the it wasn't a large crowd that was expected. The Superdome was ready for a capacity of 40,000 boxing fans. Only 12,000 showed up. Benitez and Hearns agreed to receive huge paycuts from their 1.25 million purses. It was THE LAST TIME that the Super Dome in New Orleans would stage a high quality boxing card of that magnitude.

Hearns came prepared and chiseled. He looked stronger at 154lbs. In this fight, however, The Hitman employed his boxing skills against the master counter puncher by using the jab with perfection. There was nothing that Benitez could do. That jab was in his face all night. It was The Hitman that surprised the boxing contingent that he could outbox the boxer. In round five, he dropped Benitez with a right on the head. Benitez, knowing that he could not outbox Hearns on the ropes, started to attack. And he did win the middle rounds, especially the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds. In round 9, Hearns fell to the canvas. It was not a product of a punch, but, a product of poor balancing. The Mexican referee Octavio Meyran made the mandatory eight-count anyway, and Wilfred evened the scorecards. But after round nine, it was all Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns! He used his jab brilliantly and moved from side to side, not giving a target to The Puerto Rican Radar. Benitez didn't win a single round in my book after the ninth round.
The ONLY WAY to beat Hearns was to be on top of him and pressure him just like Leonard and earlier in the amateurs, Aaron Pryor did. No way Benitez wins this one on the ropes. You gotta be aggressive. Ironically, both of them lost to Leonard by knockout and a win between the two would probably lure Leonard out of retirement for a multi-million dollar payday. But, THE BIG PROBLEM was, Leonard was retired....for now.
Hearns won his second crown by majority decision. It was the MOST UNDERRATED win of his Hall of Fame career in my book. Not too many people talk about it. He redeemed himself and was back on top of boxing's elite. The question was, why he didn't try to KO Benitez? Why he didn't use his lethal right hand after the 8th round? It turned out to be that he broke his right hand.

Benitez? Well, he was never the same fighter after that. At 24, the triple crown champion had a steep decline. His last great win was against the great Roberto Duran by unanimous decision back in January of 1982. Even though he fought his best against Hearns, he never again fought at that level of competition.

But the best fight of the evening was between two super bantanweights that threw leather for 14 unforgettable rounds. The great Wilfredo Gomez of Puerto Rico, 26, made his last title defense of his WBC World Super Bantamweight crown when he stopped WBC World Bantamweight Champion, Lupe Pintor, 27, of Mexico. It was a give and take fight from start to finish. Rounds 3 and 12 we're all time classics. Both men were deducted a point for low blows by American referee Arthur Mercante. Gomez outlasted Pintor. Both were exhausted and beat up. Gomez looked like the loser. His face was disfigured just like the great Salvador Sanchez lof Mexico did it to him a year ago. Gomez redeemed himself with a brutal shot to Pintor's midsection and a left hook to the jaw a la the great Rocky Marciano vs Jersey Joe Walcott fight number 1.

Both greats, Hearns and Gomez redeemed themselves at least for that night from their only defeats of Leonard and Sanchez, respectively. And they both had more glory days under the sun by winning more world titles. As for that night, it was a moment of redemption. What a difference a year makes!