BoxRec

Anyone remember if Duran and Cuevas were in negotiations for a title bout in 1979 ? I remember Leonard was earmarked as a challenger to Benitez as early as the spring of 1979 but it seems a Duran-Cuevas winner would have been in a great position to demand a big payday against the winner, not to mention that a Duran-Cuevas bout would have been very lucrative in itself.

I don’t recall any talk of them fighting.
Unfortunately, the wbc -wba groups were able to prevent a number of interesting bouts.
Cuevas-Palomino, Arguello-Duran on and on.

Roberto Duran relinquished the lightweight crown in February 1979. Almost 7 years as the boss of the lightweights with 12 title defenses, 11 of them won by knockout.

I wanted to see the fight with Pipino Cuevas then after he beat Carlos Palomino at Madison Square Garden in June 1979.

I think that the fight with Pipino would have had lots of fireworks while it lasted.

It's odd to consider that Duran had no title fights from January 1978 until June 1980. Different era.

As early as fall 1979, everyone was talking about the eventuality of Duran vs Leonard. The suspense was building-up even before Sugar Ray beat Benitez for the title later that year. But I don't remember any talk about Cuevas-Duran at that point in time.

goose 5 wrote: ↑14 Aug 2026, 19:06 It's odd to consider that Duran had no title fights from January 1978 until June 1980. Different era.

Yep. "Only" 2 titles at each weight class instead of 4. And you could have an important non-title fight that people cared about.

I found an April 8, 1979 newspaper article: "NBC dreaming of Duran-Cuevas." Also, an article from the same time saying Hearns' management turned down a title fight with Cuevas in Detroit.

Good digging. Sounds like Hearn's team didn't think he was ready for Cuevas yet. He certainly would eventually be.