After the huge loss to Sugar Ray Leonard on November 30, 1979 in Las Vegas, Wilfred Benitez had no choice but to stage a comeback. He returned to the ring on March 16, 1980 against Johnny Turner in Miami, and stopped him in nine rounds. Five months later he took on the tough Tony Chiaverini at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and won a unanimous ten round decision.
Wilfred had moved up the the super welterweight division after the Leonard loss, and was weighing in at a little over 150 lbs. for his bouts now. On December 12, 1980, he won another ten round decision over Pete Ranzany in Sacramento, California, and was now in line for a title shot in 1981.
I tuned into the bout on CBS at Caesar’s Palace Sports Pavilion on May 23, 1981 between Wilfred and Maurice Hope, and remember the ending very well. After dropping Hope in the tenth, Wilfred landed a perfect right in the twelfth round that knocked Hope out cold. Wilfred laughed into the camera as he stood over Hope, knowing he had landed a perfect punch. He was now a 3-time champion in 3 different weight classes, a tremendous accomplishment at only 22 years of age.
Wilfred would defend that title once in 1981, on November 14 at the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Benitez won an easy fifteen round decision, setting up his next big bout, a title defense against the come-backing Roberto Duran in early 1982. If I was a betting man at the time, I would have put my money on Wilfred, especially after the way Duran was embarrassed by Leonard’s boxing skills in November of 1980. The winner of that fight, would only set themselves up for bigger paydays in 1982 and beyond.
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