Pipino Cuevas vs. Adolfo Viruet 'May 8, 1976'

[Nile4000]

Viruet could have scored an upset split decision.If I'm correct Andy Price beat Pipino around this time, so anything is possible.

[Chuck1052]

Good Call,

Adolfo may have had the slick-style to baffle Pipino and his wide-hooking attack.

I agree, Adolfo most likely would have won a Close 10-Round Decision over Pipino in
May 1976.

Adolfo had a 'great chin', and nobody could put him down back then. A very
tricky southpaw. Could see Adolfo getting rocked a few times, but he always came
back with a stiff right-left to the face.

I'll take Adolfo by a '1-Point' {96-95} Decision win over 10-Rounds.

Though Adolfo only had a record of 13-1-0 {5 KO's} at the time, he had a lot of
gym experience and was a very good fighter in 1976. He was ranked as the
#2 Light-Welterweight at the end of 1975 following his win over Monroe Brooks.

I remember when Adolfo Viruet gave Monroe Brooks a boxing lesson in a televised bout.

- Chuck Johnston

[Chuck1052]

While sitting in the balcony of the Olympic Auditorium, I saw Pete Ranzany fight Abel Cordoba on the undercard of the first WBC world welterweight title bout between Carlos Palomino and Armando Muniz. I also saw Ranzany fight Pipino Cuevas for the latter's WBA world welterweight title during a closed-circuit TV telecast from Sacramento at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center. Ranzany simply couldn't handle Cuevas' punching power.

I remember reading that Ranzany received a small purse for the bout with Cuevas despite the fact he was a tremendous gate attraction in Sacramento and the receipts from the live gate and close-circuit TV were huge for a non-heavyweight title bout for that period of time before Sugar Ray Leonard raised the bar by a massive amount. In fact, Ranzany may have been a major reason why Sacramento became such a big boxing venue during that era.

- Chuck Johnston