Nope. The weight would mean fuck all in the outcome. Miggy gets his ass handed to him at all three weights. At 154, I can envision a Benitez stoppage.
Cotto would be more capable of beating Benitez than Trinidad. He would still lose though at all weights.
I don't think that's true. I think he has equally zero chance against both. Trinidad knocks him out, and Benitez beats the crap outta him. He's equally fucked against both. Of the three, Benitez was the best fighter. Followed by Tito, then a BIG gap.... then faggot ass Miggy.
I dont think benitez was better than tito. He might beat him h2h because if style (and even then, its far from a gimme), but i think tito was a superior fighter overall
No, Tito was the more CONSISTENT fighter. Tito lived in the gym. Benitez lived in the club. That doesn't make Tito BETTER. Benitez on his best two nights from 147-154 (Palomino and Duran versions) was a better fighter than Tito ever was.
There's not a whole helluva lot fighters I'd pick over the Duran version of Benitez at 154. Obviously, Hearns, cause he did beat him. Leonard, cause he'd always beat Benitez. And Robinson, who really was a junior middle. Other than those three, you can make a case that on that night Benitez beats every other junior middle in history. That INCLUDES McCallum.
Benitez vs Norris would have been great. But yeah, Cotto has virtually no shot against either Benitez or Trinidad.
Agreed. The only scenario in which I can see Cotto beating Benitez if it's the hungover totally unprepared version and he gets hit with one of those perfect liver shots most fighters can't recover from.
Benitez was definitely a wild card... He'd look like a fucking genius one night and a lazy, goof-off bum the next... When he was ON, he was like A LOT better at boxing than Miguel Cotto has ever been
There isn't any question about it which is why I brought it up as a scenario. If Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson I don't think it's insanity to think Cotto on a great night could beat Benitez on one of his (plentiful) off days.
As much as I disliked Benitez as the arrogant son-of-a-bitch he was, I KNOW he was way, way, way, way superior to Cotto and Trinidad. Heck, not even a prime Hearns could knock him out in Benitez worst performance! Benitez wins in all divisions to Cotto and at 154 could pull a Maurice Hope-like KO on Caguas favorite closet-fag.
Benitez doesn't have the equalizer Tito has. As good as he was when SRL and Hearns were better, they outclassed him and he had no answer or possible way out. That's what would probably happen to Tito against SRL, Hearns and a few other guys, but it might not.
well being consistent, is for me, an important criteria In determining the quality of a fighter. Benitez was very inconsistent, and im not sure we can always put his bad performance on him not training hard. And to be honest with you, im not as impressed as you are of his performance against palomino. I think it was a very close competitive fight, and not the whitewash you claim it was
It may not be long and short of it but it means something that the best Benitez was against lw Duran and he got dominated by welter/ Jr. Middle SRL and Hearns just like it means something that Pryor was invulnerable to featherweight Arguello yet got hurt and dropped consistently by lesser guys that were young strong true jr welters.
Except "featherweight" Arguello still hit like a truck at 140 as evidenced by his other bouts there It's more likely that Pryor took Arguello's shots because he took Arguello more seriously than the guys who managed to score flash knockdowns against him before he jumped up and beat their brains out of their heads. He was more prepared to take the shots, the adrenaline was going. He respected the opponent.
They were only flash knockdowns in the sense that he got up quickly. He got dropped clean most of the time and he was visibly hurt and wobbled quite a few times. He couldn't play defense which is why Johnson dropped him like a cinder block and he was wide open to be hit when he punched which is why the Korean guy folded him up like a lawn chair.
LOL. Wasn't a damn thing close about Benitez-Palomino my friend. Benitez won going away. Outta 15 rounds, at BEST Palomino won 5. 11-4 was more realistic.
First half of the fight was close but once Benitez started luring Palomino to come after him near the ropes, he turned the fight in his favor big time
