Thomas Hearns/Wilfred Benitez 1982 segment 13 of 13

[MyUpBoo]

Benitez, Duran, Haglar, Hearns and Leonard, those guys were great. It would be interesting to see how De'Lahoya, Hopkins, Mayweather and some of the other present day greats would fair against the 1980s fabulous 5. By the way, Mike McCallum was just as good as the fabulous 5, but they excluded Mike from the club, by staying away from him.

[greenmean1]

@MyUpBoo Don't insult the fighters of my time, Leonard, Pryor, Hearns, Benitez, Palimino, and on and on to todays scrubbs, Delahoya, and Mayweather would have been contenders and nothing more, Oh maybe sparring pardners.

[tico1289]

wilfredo benitez won this fight with pure defensive skills

[MoonyWeller]

@tico1289 you don't win fights defensively. He did great as he did with Leonard, but again Hearns landed more like Leonard did 2 years before. Benitez was great but Hearns was also. Hearns landed his jab more and controlled the action.

[tico1289]

@MoonyWeller i like hearns to but i think benitez won dis fight flirt punches don win fights real charp punche s do thoses were flirt punches that look pretty

[zerosword112]

oh my god

[SuperHugobox]

Poor Hearns, having a real hard time expressing himself, trying to formulate his words correctly, too bad his speech got much worse as time went on.....

[britelite2657]

Total and utter class

[chifuli1974]

furthermore he made Duran look like an amateur for 15 rounds...

[chifuli1974]

benitez was a great fighter who was very unlucky to be in the era of Leonad, Hagler and Hearns. If he was a fighter today he would dominate all these clowns fighting today. Mayweather gets credit for being a defensive genious and IMO he has nothing on Benitez as far as defense goes. Benitez was a true defensive genious...

[supersubiera1998]

@chifuli1974 true but when he fought leonard he didnt traind for it and put a good fight if he traind he would had the win.



[aragorn5284]

Larry Merchant-Probably the MOST annoying boxing annalist ever to do T.V. coverage!!!

[Chaz770]

@aragorn5284 there is something unlikeable about larry

[shire2005]

Was Benitez really that great? He lost 2 of his next 3 fights in an embarrassing one sided fashion. Mustapha hamsho owned and dominated him like he was nothing and Davey Moore knocked him out early.

[shire2005]

Lou Filipo must have been watching another fight.

[TA152H01]

The judge who scored this fight even should never have been allowed to judge another fight. Even given that judging is subjective, this guy is nuts. Bad judging is a real problem in boxing.

[tw69hands2]

@TA152H01:

I agree.

[tatojunco]

@TA152H01 agree

[dwcsl]

Great fight!!!,I thought Hearns won 12 rounds and Benitez showed skill and heat aginst Big power and reach from Tommy.

[wiporaphell]

yeah i agreed not like duran ''the little bitch'' did u see benitez vs duran?...W

[ichirima]

lol at the end when Benitez tried to congratulate him but he was avoiding him lol. That looked like something like off of a cartoon.

[wiporaphell]

lol duran is a very bad loser...W

[HoustonTexasBoxer]

Hearns and Benitez sure put on a great fight. Two legends. I don't think anyone could have taken Hearns 15 rounds except Benitez and Leonard. Hearns blasted Duran like Duran was nothing. Hearns was too fast for Roberto. Roberto did well with the Davey Moore caliber, but the Hearns caliber was too high a jump in quality. And it showed. Hearns outclassed Duran. Benitez also outclassed Duran months before this fight with Hearns.

[TheChoice264]

Duran WAS nothing in that fight. Duran had major weight issues in the 80's. He was no longer a peak fighter. He wasn't prime. Yet, he still moved up and fought naturally bigger guys who WERE in THEIR prime. Hearns beat duran the ONLY way he could have---CATCH HIM EARLY AND KNOCK HIM OUT. He did that. He tried with Hagler and failed. Duran would have knocked glass jaw hearns out in the late rounds had the fight made it into the late rounds. But he did his job. Congrats.

[dan32113]

i read about Duran yrs ago, that whenever he was in Hearns company, he wouldn"t look him in the eye! almost like he knew he had his number! spooky..

[TheChoice264]

@dan32113 Yeah

[TheChoice264]

@dan32113 I read something along those lines as well yrs ago. I think you're right about Duran's mind. Yeah,that's weird.

[ibhof3]

actually hearns wasnt "too much quality" for duran. it was just the size. duran was at his best at lightweight, moving up in weight, he lost some of his speed and power. duran still is a better fighter than hearns

[songnow]

I wouldn't say a better fighter than hearns, but most forget how amazingly dangerous Duran was at lightweight and then even welterweight. Although Duran lost a lot of speed moving up in weight, he adjusted so well over the years and made him one of the greatest fighters of all time.

[Unwin85]

Hearns best performance along with the Virgil Hill fight

[Piglatinsuperstar]

Tommy's best fight was the Duran and Shuler matches and Hagler

[07091102]

A classic performance by a peak Hearns against an excellent boxer in Benitez who had already won 3 world titles. Leonard aside it is hard to imagine anybody of the last 35 years beating Hearns at welter or light middleweight. What this fight shows that in addition to his chilling punching power Hearns was a superb technical boxer.

In fact I would argue he could outbox anybody. Thomas Hearns is definitely not only one of THE best weltereights but ALSO pound for pound boxers of all time. ..

[Armando316]

I think Ray Robinson would have beaten him in a good fight.

[andrelebaron]

wtf was going on with those scores. two fairly wide margins and one even?

[billyposter]

exactly what i thought..ridiculous

[pnutbutrncrackers]

Five (or seven) judges in boxing would be better for that very reason. With three, one wacko judge (& there have been plenty) can easily ruin the outcome of a fight. Would five make it perfect? Of course not. Would it make it better? Definitely.

[wisefun]

Corruption!!! The mob was behind this fight....!!

[stell29]

WTF???? One guy has it even, another has Hearns winning by 10 points and another has Hearns by 5.

Did they all watch the same fight? How in the hell do u get that wide ranging scores???

[jrekdal]

The scores were: judge: Dick Young 146-137 | judge: Tony Castellano 144-139 | judge: Lou Filippo 142-142

[rumblebee1975]

napalis, what are you talking about?prime duran got tf kod by hearns in 2 rounds duran had no chance he came down like a light pole.

[Goldskool]

yeah but  duran k.o the guy that k'o hearns twise!

[kolst8406]

Duran knocked down Barkley, but did not ko him. Barkley ko'd Hearns in their first fight and won a split decision in their 2nd.

[cbaldwinjr]

Uh...but Hearns STARCHED Duran. So who cares?

[imagendes]

who cares? apparently is obvious you do" i shure don't!..is an old issue ..

[theman1819]

lol that wasent duran at his prime

[DeLunny]

Prime Duran?! lol!

[imagendes]

i don't know how long you being a boxing fan but apparently not too long cus duran prime was in the 70' s ..not 80's ..how come you go by 1975 when you did not know that?

[07091102]

Duran was at his peak in the 1970's but he still was very very good in the 1980's after all he outpointed Leonard, ko'd Cuevas, won the light middleweight title, took a peak Hagler 15 rounds + later won the middleweight title.

However I suspect that Duran would have struggled with Thomas Hearns whenever they fought. Hearns fast, skilful long jab would have kept the much shorter Duran at distance+ in range for the crushing right .

Styles make fights + Hearns style would prevail I think...

[judaschongo]

great point! Duran really had no chance vs Hearns beyond 147; however at that weight in the shape he came in against Leonard could of been an entirely different affair. But beyond that limit Duran was too short and pudgy his frame wasn't designed to handle the weight the way Hearns's was.

[elmersalsa]

I agree with you 100%....Plus Duran was way out of his prime, in his 30s, and was coming from a loss to the great Marvin Hagler

[Poetryisalive]

Most natural 147 fighters are tall and lanky. At one time, it was the hardest weight class to compete in mainly because that is the average and weight for a man.

If you no one makes Tommy fight, then he'll stand outside and pick you apart with those long arms of his. When Hearns lost to a smaller Pryor in the amateurs it was because Aaron Pryor made Tommy Hearns fight. It was the same thing all over again when Hearns lost to Hagler and Barkley. Pressure, Pressure, Pressure!

[billyposter]

If Hearns had stayed at light middle no one would have beaten him apart with Mccallum

[cabalogia]

Wow I almost didnt recognize the young version of Larry Merchant in this interview.

[cfx5000]

well he's still the same clueless asshole

[napalis]

hahaha.

[Odawg96]

Yeah, I remember thinking the same about HEARNS even before Tyson came along. I was like, "Damn, bruh DESTROYS people in the ring, and then when he talks, he sounds like a MUNCHKIN." Hearns had one of the most FORMIDABLE tough guy veneers until he started talking. :-) He didn't get endorsements, but he did get the occasional part on TV shows ("Who's the Boss" and "Martin" come to mind).

[bb62g]

Agree! It has been said for his scrawny frame he had devastating power and could knock out opponents while moving backward. If his chin would have been equal to the power he would have been one of the top 5 all time without a doubt!

[BennyBlancoFromTheBx]

i watch the whole fight and gave benitez just two rounds the most. benitez is probably the most under-rated fighter of all time.hearns really did have a great all around performance

[chicopoco]

i saw this fight @msg close circuit and thought benitez won. how ever benitez did have a rep for paying himself out for drugs.what a shame, benitez could have been one of the greatest fighters of all time.

[Mhendeb]

Tommy Hearns spoke very well in my opinion.

[shire2005]

One judge was blind. 146-136 was more accurate. Just not many rounds at all you can assume benitez won. Tommy's hand problems would be his undoing.

Tommy wanted to clean ray's clock in that interview.

[ckobo84]

Funny how tough guys always have wimpy voices (ala Mike Tyson)? They need to take talking lessons from Mr. T!

[SalvyMic]

Poor Hearns, no wonder he never got any endorsements. The guy could barely speak, compared to the grand eloquence of Leonard.

[m9ronaldo]

bentitez was a great fighter, youngest ever world champion

[clownman]

Tommy Hearns is the Greatest of All-Time!

[napalis]

Duran is the greatest. Prime Duran would crush Hearns.

[JAYFUNK47]

i always wondered that,butboxing very confusing we both may be underestimating hearns ability

[wtw88]

Hearns thrashed Duran when he met him in 1984, on the day before Roberto's 33rd birthday. Hearns was seven years and three months younger than Roberto, which made Tommy 25 - right at his best. But would Roberto have beaten Hearns for certain if they were the same age, or would the fight have been much closer and impossible to predict with confidence?

My opinion? Hearns would have been too fast, too tall, and would have hit too hard for Duran to have beaten him.

[theflea021]

Remember that Duran was a lightweight at 25. he skipped the jr-welter division and went right into welter. eventually moving up to jr. middle and middle weight as he got older.

[theman1819]

Duran is a lightweight

[wtw88]

theman1819.

Roberto fought as a lightweight, and lower for his first few fights, until 1978.

He won his first WBA title in 1972, and relinquished it in 1978 to fight as a welterweight.

In this division he won seven fights in succession before winning the title by decision from Leonard.

Leonard won the 'No mas' rematch in 8.

Duran then fought as a light middleweight, winning the world title in '83 and losing it the same year. He fought as a super middleweight and higher after that, see boxrec.