‘It was hell to get him to train,’ said a trainer of Wilfred’s from that time. ‘He thought because he is Wilfred Benitez he doesn’t have to train. I remember his father saying to him, ‘Who do you think you are fighting? A nobody? Leonard is a monster created by American TV and you have to beat him convincingly.’’
Despite his negligence, Benitez gave Leonard hell before being stopped with just six seconds remaining in the 15th and final round. Wilfred conducted himself during and after the contest like a champion, even if he had not beforehand.
‘Sometimes I train good, sometimes I don’t train at all,’ Benitez admitted when communication was as effortless as throwing and dodging punches. ‘My father would say, ‘Train.’ I would say, ‘No.’ But if I train, then I am the best boxer in the world.’
Benitez spoke to Vender five months before he won his third world title. In May 1981, Wilfred knocked out WBC light-middleweight champion Maurice Hope with one of the most stunning finishes of all time. Expertly positioning his prey on the ropes, Benitez devoured his third world belt with a stunning overhand right. As the Brit slumped to the deck, Benitez, his place in history assured, looked out to the crowd and smiled.
‘This was Wilfred’s finest hour,’ his father observed afterwards. ‘Now there are so many things we can aim for and achieve.’
Boxing News shared the opinion that the then-22-year-old’s future would be paved with gold.
‘With Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran all being discussed as future opponents, a financially secure future is guaranteed for Benitez’, we wrote.
But there would only be one more highlight before the darkness started to set on Wilfred Benitez. And he would navigate only two more contests before his invitation to join the Fantastic Four was revoked.
In 1982 he impressively outscored Duran over 15 rounds to set up a fight with Thomas Hearns. And although it wasn’t obvious at the time, in convincingly outpointing Benitez, Hearns indelibly loosened the wheels on Wilfred’s gravy train.
His fluid movements started to stutter. Ringsiders were puzzled as Benitez, still just 24, subsequently allowed crude underdog Mustafa Hamsho to bully him around the ring for 12 bruising sessions.
‘His [Benitez] legs were out of control and he staggered drunkenly around the ring’, is how we described his defeat. ‘At one stage Benitez was bent double and grabbing Hamsho around the waist to prevent himself from going down’.
Always a defensive master, Wilfred was developing a habit of retreating to the ropes and getting beaten up.
‘He’s still a young man but he’s an old fighter,’ Davey Moore opined after blasting the Puerto Rican out of action in two rounds. ‘He didn’t show much opposition tonight.’
Suddenly, the world, and Boxing News, knew the game was up. ‘This looks like the end for Benitez at only 25,’ we reported in the summer of 1984. But Benitez, cheered on by echoes of the past, continued. In 1986 he travelled to hard-hitting prospect Matthew Hilton’s Montreal backyard and, before being knocked out in the ninth, he was handed another horrible shellacking.
‘Benitez stood up to some tremendous punches to body and head,’ we described. ‘He was staggering several times but he shook his head defiantly and managed to jab and counter from time to time.’
Like many greats who had gone before, Benitez had been reduced to fighting on instinct. Still two years shy of his 30th birthday, he was completely washed-up. Shortly afterwards, Puerto Rican commissions agreed that their hero should not fight again.
But at the end of the year, he was taken to Argentina, by two promoters and knocked silly by a man, Carlos Maria del Valle Herrera, who would not have been fit to lace Benitez’s boots only a few years before. The promoters returned without him and Benitez, confused ashamed and alone, stayed in Argentina for almost two years.
By 1988, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition of the brain caused by cerebral trauma. Or more simply, he had brain damage caused by being repeatedly punched in the head.
Incredibly, Benitez took part in four more fights in poorly-administrated states of America. Each new punch that crashed off his head slammed his eroding brain into his skull.
Benitez today is a distressing vision. He struggles to recognise his sister that cares for him. He has been told the same information several times about deaths in his family, and he cries for 20 seconds, before forgetting the news.
Benitez deserves better than this. We should remember him how Steve Vender remembered him, in 1981, when he was the rightful king of his castle.
‘Whenever I see him I can’t help thinking of him as The King, because when Wilfred Benitez steps into the ring and starts to work those beautiful fakes and counters the thing you’re seeing can only be described as royal.’
Fantastic Four? There’s only one Wilfred Benitez. Boxing News online article Matt Christie 12th September 2018, ‘On This Day: The Great Wonder Kid Wilfred Benitez is Born’
[8.6] WINKY WRIGHT 58-51(25)-6-1 [Light- Heavyweight & Middleweight & Light-Middleweight]: Bad Left Hook online -
Following a fairly one-sided loss to Peter Quillin last night on Showtime, 40-year-old Winky Wright has announced his retirement from the sport of boxing. Wright told the Tampa Bay Times that he didn’t want to continue on as just another fighter.
If this is the end for Winky – and knowing boxers, he might watch the tape a few times and change his mind – then he goes out with no shame. Honestly, for a guy his age, who hadn’t fought in three years, he didn’t fight poorly last night. He got put down on a good right hand that was as much to do with Wright’s shaky balance as the punch itself, but he hung in there and gave Quillin some good work. It was a valuable fight for ‘Kid Chocolate’, without question, at least in my opinion.
Wright’s career traveled a hell of a path over the years. He turned pro in 1990, and fought his first sixteen fights in his native Florida. After that, the traveling began, with trips to Luxembourg, France, and Germany in early 1993, fighting three times between January and March. A one-fight return home was just a buffer before he broke out the passport again, and he wouldn’t fight in the States for two years, mostly staying in France, but also hitting up Monaco and Argentina.
March 1996 saw Wright get his next crack at a world title, as he went to the small town of Monroe, Michigan, to face hometown boy and WBO junior middleweight titlist Bronco McKart. Wright won that night, and then hit the road to defend his title in the UK three times, since he’d never fought there. After that was a trip to South Africa, where he lost the belt via majority decision to Harry Simon. A year later, he lost his next title shot via majority decision to Fernando Vargas.
Wright never really got a big, true breakthrough opportunity with the American audience until 2004, when Shane Mosley granted him an opportunity to fight for the WBC WBA and IBF belts. Wright won, and won the rematch again later that year. Finally, Winky Wright was something approaching a star in America, 14 years after his pro debut.
He moved up to middleweight after that, completely dominating Felix Trinidad and sending him into one of his retirements. A shot at middleweight champ Jermain Taylor came in June 2006, and the two fought to a draw, with many feeling Wright had deserved the win.
From there, Wright’s career flatlined, more or less. It never went up, but never really went down, either. He beat Ike Quartey six months after the Taylor fight, then moved up to 170 to face light-heavyweight champ Bernard Hopkins in a catchweight bout in 2007. Hopkins won, but Wright did pretty well considering he was clearly fighting heavy, and had to deal with a bad cut and a fellow great boxer, t’boot.
After two years off, he came back and lost to Paul Williams in 2009. Numerous alleged dates fell through after that, before Wright signed up to face unbeaten Quillin last night. It wasn’t meant to be, but Winky Wright made clear with both of those returns that he truly was not interested in fighting just to fight. He earned his stripes traveling the world early in his career. He was accustomed to the finer things in the sport, big fights against real opposition.
In truth, Winky could probably take some tune-ups and hang around as a solid fighter at 160 or even 154 if he can still make that (he seems to believe he could). But at 40, and reportedly comfortable in life, he’s not looking to hang on. That’s respectable and commendable.
If this is really the end for Winky Wright, I say happy trails. His defensive excellence wasn’t always the most exciting thing to watch, but he gave us plenty to remember, and it may well be a while before we see someone like Winky, as good at what he did as he was, in the ring again. Bad Left Hook online article 3 June 2012 Scott Christ, ‘Winky Wright Announces Retirement From Boxing’
[8.6] JULIAN JACKSON 61-55(49)-6: The St Thomas Source online -
Three-time world boxing champion Julian ‘The Hawk’ Jackson reacted with characteristic humility this weekend when he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Jackson is generally a quiet man who prefers to make his statements inside the ring rather than out. Since hanging up his gloves, Jackson has taken up coaching, established his own gym and is devoted to his church and youth ministry.
He’s a Rotarian, focused on community service, and prefers to spend his time in the company of people he loves or at home with his family.
If you didn’t know better, it would be easy to see Jackson as a humble, hard-working Virgin Islander who’s happiest out of the spotlight rather than in the middle of it.
But for those who’ve followed his career, it’s hard to forget Jackson’s power, his one-shot knockouts or the way the crowd chanted his name throughout a packed stadium. Still considered one of the greatest punchers of all time, it’s was no surprise to his fans that Jackson was elected this weekend to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, alongside a Class of 2019 that includes the likes of two-time division champions Donald ‘Lone Star Cobra’ Curry, James ‘Buddy’ McGirt and welterweight champion Tony DeMarco.
The announcement, however, did come as a surprise to Jackson, who said this weekend that he was ‘touched’ by the honor.
‘It means that people, one day, will remember Julian Jackson, the Hawk, someone who came from humble beginnings, who wasn’t affected by the glitter of the boxing life, but instead worked hard to make a name for himself. I’ll be honest, it’s amazing to be part of something so historical,’ Jackson said this weekend, as he returned from Puerto Rico and coaching step-son Clayton Laurent junior through his third professional win.
‘It shows that the sacrifices you sometimes have to make will one day be worth it,’ he added.
Jackson first entered the boxing world at 12 years old, after following a friend into the local gym. Raised by a single mother who was always looking for something to do, Jackson at first thought boxing would be constructive, but after meeting coach Willie Wilhelm George, learned that it could instead be life changing.
‘Some of the kids I see in the gym every day remind me of myself,’ Jackson said, referring to his current work with the US Virgin Islands amateur boxing program. ‘When I first started, I had low self esteem, I was negative and had it not been for boxing, I could have ended up in jail or in the grave. But then I met an old man named Willie and he spoke of traveling the world and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I see our kids every day thinking the same thing, I see them sacrificing the same way and trying to make a name for themselves in boxing.’
And just like he tries to offer a support system for the young boxers he mentors, so too did Jackson’s team support him when he was younger. Even after all the world-famous bouts and the celebrity promoters, Jackson said what made all the difference in his life was having people at home who told him that he could be great some day.
‘They made me want to be an example of what a Virgin Islander should be,’ Jackson said. ‘I wanted to go out there and take risks. Life is about risks and when people said I couldn’t make it outside the Virgin Islands, I wanted to go out there and prove them wrong. That was the message I got back then and that’s the message I want to send now: you can make a difference in life, a difference in the Virgin Islands just by saying you can.’
With that in mind, Jackson soared: his professional career spanned more than a decade, from 1981 to 1998, and within that time, he became a three-time world champion in two weight classes, holding the World Boxing Association welterweight title from 1987 to 1990, and the Wold Boxing Council middleweight title twice between 1990 and 1995.