Battle of the untouchables:Leonard vs Benitez

Don't know if this was posted already but it was a good read so here u go... (the translation ain't the best) original link in spanish: http://www.elnuevodia.com/labatalladelosintocables-642857.html They were 23 seconds that seemed an eternity. Separated by millimeters, “Sugar” Ray Leonard and Wilfredo “the Radar” Benítez - two of the best fighters of all the times in center were face to face of the quadrilateral, moments before being moderate in the battle that initiated one decade of gold in the divisions to welter, super to welter, and medium and to appear again in the boxing. “I was well nervous”, admitted Leonard in one recent interview with the New Day, on the night of the 30 of November of 1979, when she challenged to Benítez, by the title 147 pounds of the World-wide WBC, into the hands of boricua. “But he well was calmed. He had a glance that he embroidered in the arrogance. With time I put myself I also took root, because it is the signal of a winner”. Leonard, poster child of the American liking, had to its salary 25 victories, 16 by KO, in little more than two years like professional boxer, after gaining the gold medal in the 1976 Olympic Games. Benítez was the defending champion, also unconquered (38-0-1, 25 KO), but was the youngest child in the quadrilateral. Leonard was 23 years old; the boricua hardly turned 21 two months before. Sounding You think that already the Christmas spirit breathes itself? Yes No To think As much confidence had Benítez in his abilities, that information of the time indicate that his training hardly lasted nine days. A junior to welter natural, “the Radar” marked to 144 ½ pounds the day of the fight. “Benítez in fact by then was better than me. But I was in much better condition and had more tenacity when the fight went away extending”, nowadays Leonard understands, that he dominated to the first three rounds with a lightning jab of left that reached to previously untouchable boricua. He was with a left with which lacking 27 seconds in the third round, “Sugar Ray” sent his opponent to the canvas. The fall showed Benítez that he was facing a world class rival. Decided not to abdicate to the throne without giving fight, Benítez stepped on the five accelerator and accurately dominated the next rounds with fine boxing. But in sixth, a shock of heads gave another reason to worry him. “That was very strange”, explained Leonard. “We caused the blow on the head and I was stunned, but he was who left cut”. “When someone bleeds you trust more and you become more aggressive”, he said five divisional champion. “But I occurred high counting rate of which it could not trust to me”. A counterstrike to the body in the middle of combat made clear to him that, although demolished and bleeding, Benítez had not occurred by won. “The only one that hurt me to the body in all my career was Benítez”, maintained Leonard. “It connected me just when I I was extending throwing a blow and that increased the damage”. But the cut and the rate of fight made an impression on the son of Goyo and Clara. Little by little, Leonard was taking the control from the interchanges. “Benítez tightened in the middle of the fight, but already he was slower. I believe that my speed was a factor”, thought Leonard, distant from 1997. “It surprised him that I was faster than he was, or at least just as fast. It felt to me well trusting of which it would win, but in fact did not have idea of how talented Benítez was in fact. He was so intelligent and slippery as I, and I was readier and night watchman”. The final wine in the fifteenth assault, when Leonard demolished Benitez for the second time. Benitez was put standing up before the account of 10, but the referee Zack Padilla stopped the fight, byTKO. “The difference was that, by then they were 15 assaults, and that is long time”, maintained Ray. “After the fight I was so worn out physically and mentally, they took me to the hospital. He had the face swollen enough and was hurt by the blows, but more than he had was dehydrated”, added. “It was a closed fight, I did not give him a beating and a re-match would have been deserved”, secondly commented Leonard on a possible encounter. “According to memory there was a clause for a re-match, but we paid something to him like milllion or half million so that he lay down to a side and allowed us to fight with Durán”. “After I fought with Duran and lost, Benítez saw me and told me, ' If you box him, you win'. And he was right”, remembered Leonard on another one of the rivalries historical of the Eighties: Leonard-Durán. Unfortunately, his opponent does not have memories of the epic combat. Problems of health have left in evil been to Benítez, and Leonard was witness of it during a visit to the Island in the 2002 in which it traveled to the home where they took care of then to Benítez. “When we entered I saw this guy in a corner, and there was Benítez. Her mother asked him, ' Wilfredo, you remember who he is? ' ”, Leonard related on the encounter. “He looked and said, No, but he beat me.'It was so strange for me that his memory of me was null, but still remembered the fight”. A commentary that Benítez still did that day to him resounds in the mind of Leonard. “They put the fight in the tv and while we saw it he told me, `Ray, I did not train for that fight'", related Leonard. “And I said, `good, thanks'".