Wilfred BenÃtez
Biography
On March 6, 1976 Benitez became the youngest in his 26th pro fight at the age of 17 years and 5 months boxing champion of all time. He defeated at the meeting of two of the largest defense specialists in the history of the Colombian boxing legend Antonio Cervantes on points. Cervantes is evaluated by the " Ring Magazine " as the best Colombian boxer and fourth best Halbweltergewichtler of all time.
After the world title he was denied in 1977, Benitez was promoted to the welterweight division and won in just two fights against Bruce Curry, the brother of Donald Curry, had, however, in the first encounter three times to the ground. On 14 January 1979, he won the WBC world title against Carlos Palomino. Back in November of that year he lost the belt but by technical knockout in the fifteenth round of Sugar Ray Leonard - the first defeat of his career.
Then he rose again a weight class, in the light middleweight, on and defeated on May 23, 1981 WBC title holder, the southpaw Maurice Hope, who had previously boxed a draw with Eckhard Dagge. He defended his title against Roberto Duran, but lost the title in December 1982 against Thomas Hearns on points. Hearns said afterwards: "Nobody makes me miss like that. "
He was at that time only 24 years old, could, however, never able to return to earlier successes to his career in late 1990 and did not win a great fight more. Benitez suffered by the boxing brain damage and now lives in a nursing home in Puerto Rico.