Hit Man - Brian Hughes [47]
The tenth round was the best of the fight as both fighters elected to throw off their caution and went at it in a series of toe-to-toe exchanges in the centre of the ring. Benitez caught Hearns with a stinging right cross and was greeted with a left hook in return. Benitez had won the last two rounds in some style and during the minute-long break, Emanuel Steward reminded Hearns to get back to the basics and employ his left jab to re-establish his lead. Whenever Benitez threw his own jab, Hearns was quick to counter with a left and then a right hook, causing Benitez’s nose to bleed continuously.
The champion’s frustration showed and Hearns felt obliged to twice implore the referee to stop Benitez butting him. Although both men attempted to outjab each other, it was mainly the searing left of Hearns which dominated. In the final round, Benitez made a final effort to retain his title and hit Hearns with a right lead which shook him down to his toes. The exchange embodied the pattern of the whole fight as Hearns responded by snapping Benitez’s head backwards with a stinging left hook before landing the two last punches of the contest, a left and right to the head, just before the bell sounded.
It went to the judges’ scorecards. Dick Young favoured Hearns by the wide margin of 146-136 whilst Tony Castalano gave it to Hearns by 144-139. Yet Lou Fillipo called it a draw at 142-142, a score which baffled the vast majority of onlookers. Emanuel Steward explained their conservative ring strategy, using the “we” beloved of boxing managers. “We wanted to outbox him and so we made the fight a footwork contest,” he said. “We countered his counters.” Hearns accepted the congratulations and pronounced himself “very happy to have accomplished another one of my goals – to become a world champion again.”
At the post-fight press conference, Hearns continued to be magnanimous in victory and he brought his mother Lois along to hear him agree to a rematch. “I’m not the type of person who forgets a favour,” he said. “He gave me a chance, so I’ll be glad to give him one.” Benitez, however, could not resist continuing his boorish behaviour, shouting, “I won the fight. I knocked Hearns down and he knocked me down. I am the true champion. It was only the judges who beat me.” Gregorio Benitez was even less sanguine. As the chief cornerman, he was asked why he had instructed his son, before the fifteenth and final round, to take it easy because he had won the fight. He screamed, “How could you not think that? What fight were you watching?” Few agreed with him.
Once back in Detroit, the new WBC light-middleweight champion went to hospital for an examination of the collateral damage he had received in winning the fight. His right hand was more seriously damaged than initially thought; he had suffered a dislocation of two bones in his forehand. Dr Frederick Lewerenz, the Kronk team physician, told the media that Hearns “had suffered a separation of the carpal and metacarpal bones in his hand and wrist, which had lifted whenever he threw a punch.” Hearns predicted that it would keep him away from the gym for only six weeks. In fact it would keep him out of competition for seven months.
Wilfred Benitez would never again reach the lofty heights of greatness. He fought on for another eight years – and was even handled by Emanuel Steward at one point – but his magic deserted him and he lost almost as many as he won. In 1996, at the annual induction ceremony at the Boxing Hall Of Fame,