BoxRec

What were these fights like?.
Is it true Benitez would only train for a week or two for most of his fights?

Steve M wrote:What were these fights like?.
Is it true Benitez would only train for a week or two for most of his fights?

Both great fights. Benitez trained hard for the Leonard fight, believe me. He overcame a rocky start to dig in and give Leonard a tough fight. Leonard said fighting Benitez was like fighting himself. He said only the fact he wanted it more, pulled him through.
I would recommend you get a copy of the Leonard-Kalule fight; a real under-appreciated classic. Kalule's southpaw skills are sublime. Leonard had the power, but hurt his right hand and struggled for a time. Again, he sucked it up and found the big punches to end it. Great fight.

[quote="bennie"][quote="Steve M"]What were these fights like?.
Is it true Benitez would only train for a week or two for most of his fights?[/quote]
Both great fights. Benitez trained hard for the Leonard fight, believe me. He overcame a rocky start to dig in and give Leonard a tough fight. Leonard said fighting Benitez was like fighting himself. He said only the fact he wanted it more, pulled him through.
I would recommend you get a copy of the Leonard-Kalule fight; a real under-appreciated classic. Kalule's southpaw skills are sublime. Leonard had the power, but hurt his right hand and struggled for a time. Again, he sucked it up and found the big punches to end it. Great fight.[/quote]

I agree, Benitiez must have put the training in against Leonard. You can't come back like he did gritting his teeth without putting the work in at the gym. They did look evenly matched except Leonards sharpness made the difference IMO.

Benitez MUST have been in shape, contrary to what a lot of people say. He weighed in at about 144 for the fight, so unless his walking around weight is 147, he was in shape.

That fight was a test of Benitez's superior defense, technique, and experience vs. Leonard's quicker hands and harder punches. Leonard got off to a fast start, but Benitez eventually found his rhythm and held him even most of the rest of the way. What eventually decided the fight was a combination of Benitez's questionable chin and his own lack of power... Leonard just kept coming and finally he got to him in the last round. The stoppage was BS IMO, although by then Leonard already had the fight won (on the scorecards, anyway).


After seeing that fight, I would've loved to have seen Leonard in with guys like Kid Gavilan and Luis Rodriguez, two guys with all the slickness of a Benitez but with more power and MUCH better chins.

Given his performance that night and what I recalled at the time, I was also under the impression that Benitez had trained hard for the Leonard fight.

However, I was recently going through some my old "Ring en espanol" magazines (a late 70s-1980s publication based in Miami and devoted 80% of its pages to latin fighters) and there was a long article on Wilfred, his problems with his father and his habit of slacking off and coming out of shape and with little time on the gym to some of his fights.

It said there that they had learned from a good source in Puerto Rico that Benitez had started training for the Leonard fight one week before. And that they believed it was thought to be anywhere between 2 to 9 days!! (The Bruce Curry fight where Benitez was knocked down and won a controversial split decision was also mentioned as another time when he put less than a week's training time before the fight)

The veracity of this is very difficult to asess as the article doesnt identify the sources, but unless Steve M reads Spanish, now I'm curious to know if there are any other accounts that might have hinted that in fact Benitez did not do any serious training for the Leonard fight.

Broncano wrote:
The veracity of this is very difficult to asess as the article doesnt identify the sources, but unless Steve M reads Spanish, now I'm curious to know if there are any other accounts that might have hinted that in fact Benitez did not do any serious training for the Leonard fight.

Yes. The Boxing Register says flat out that he only trained for somewhere between 2 and 9 days, and it states it like it's a fact. I've heard that said a couple other times too. I just don't see how on earth that's humanly possible. Like I said, did the guy walk around at 147 pounds??

Yes, very difficult to believe that he came at 144 training for 2 days.

On the previous post you mention Luis Manuel Rodriguez, I heard people question his chin based on what most have seen which is the Benvenutti KO (a fight he was leading on the cards, incidentally). But the fact is that was the only time he was out for the count and that fight was at middleweight. Rodriguez very often fought middles giving up several pounds in advantage, I have the fight where he stops Yama Bahama, a serious banger at middle at the time when Luis' weight is announced at 150 and Bahama's at 158. "El feo" just outclassed him and took his best shots.

Broncano wrote:Yes, very difficult to believe that he came at 144 training for 2 days.

On the previous post you mention Luis Manuel Rodriguez, I heard people question his chin based on what most have seen which is the Benvenutti KO (a fight he was leading on the cards, incidentally). But the fact is that was the only time he was out for the count and that fight was at middleweight. Rodriguez very often fought middles giving up several pounds in advantage, I have the fight where he stops Yama Bahama, a serious banger at middle at the time when Luis' weight is announced at 150 and Bahama's at 158. "El feo" just outclassed him and took his best shots.

Hey, where'd you get that fight?? I'd love to get that one on tape.

Yes, the guy had a great chin. He was never knocked down a long time into his career... I think the fight with Ruben Carter was the first time, and we know Carter can punch. Remember also, Rodriguez was well past his prime when he got caught by Benvenuti.

"The veracity of this is very difficult to asess as the article doesnt identify the sources, but unless Steve M reads Spanish, now I'm curious to know if there are any other accounts that might have hinted that in fact Benitez did not do any serious training for the Leonard fight."

I had heard people say he did not like to train much for his fights in conversations over the years.I also saw a thread on eastside boxing i think it was recently where posters were saying the same and actually that he did not like boxing very much and would only put in the least work possible to get by.

i find it hard to believe a man can go 15 rounds and fight effectively with only a weeks training though to be honest.

Both were really excellent contests. Leonard vs Benitez was possibly the ultimate chess match. It was Leonard using his boxing skills (none of the flashy stuff we saw vs Hagler and Duran). Benitez too was a master boxer.

The other posters have got it spot on, Benitez had a terrible start (down by a jab in the third) and Leonard appeared in control. A cut (on Benitez) in the 6th caused by an accidental head clash spurred some life into Benitez and he won the round and also started really causing Leonard some problems.

Leonard had a massive 11th, in which Benitez looked on the verge of getting stopped, however Benitez recovered and the 12th, 13th, 14th where close rounds. However, Leonard nailed him again in the last Benitez went down and then a further combination and the ref was forced to stop the fight with about 25 seconds to go.

It was a very close fight overall, however, Leonard was definately winning and I think was always in control. He won about 4-5 of the rounds big, whereas all of the rounds you could give to Wilfredo were very close (and could have been scored the other way).

It was a different Leonard who faught Kalule, Leonard was more of a slugger in this fight. Despite giving up natural weight, Leonard went in there and tried to KO Kalule. Kalule at times showed some suprisingly quick hands and the southpaw style did flumux Ray. Again, Leonard was in control of this fight although again many of the rounds were close. Leonard's surprising power (especially given his hand injury) eventually wore down a tiring Kalule (who was an undertated champion) in the 9th round.

Leonard has mentioned Kalule as one of his 5 hardest fights, not sure what the other 4 were (but I don't think Hagler was on that list).