The storied career of Thomas Hearns may be best remembered for his days at welterweight and middleweight, but it was in another division where he believes he faced his finest opponent.
Over the course of a 67-fight career spanning 29 years, Hearns won world titles in five weight classes: welterweight, super-welterweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight and cruiserweight. His battles with Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler are among the greatest ever seen, while his knockouts of Pipino Cuevas and Roberto Durán remain some of the most devastating in boxing history.
Hearns is a bona fide all-time great, but when asked to name the best fighter he ever shared a ring with, his answer might surprise you.
Leonard, Hagler and Durán would have been the obvious candidates, yet Hearns told Ring magazine in a ‘best I faced’ feature that it was instead a Puerto Rican master boxer he met at super-welterweight in December 1982.
“Wilfred Benitez was very good … slick and very crafty … He moved well and fights all around the ring.”
A year after losing his titanic welterweight unification bout with Leonard, Hearns stepped up to 154lbs to challenge WBC champion Benitez at the New Orleans Superdome. That night, “The Hitman” proved he didn’t need to rely on his phenomenal punching power and was determined to give Benitez a boxing lesson instead.
Hearns’ manager and trainer Emanuel Steward said afterwards:
“Thomas outboxed the boxer.”
The new champion later revealed he had injured his right hand halfway through the fight and used it sparingly in the later rounds. Hearns had little intention of lingering at 154lbs, however, soon setting his sights on the middleweight division — and a fight for the ages against Marvelous Marvin Hagler.