Wilfred Benitez

Wilfred or Wilfredo Benítez (born September 12, 1958) is a Puerto Rican former boxer who was a world champion in three different divisions. Benítez is also known as Wilfredo. His nicknames in the ring were The Radar and The Boxing Bible .

Biography

Benítez was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents. In his youth, he moved to Carolina, Puerto Rico. There he would become a partner of other boxing celebrities, such as Esteban de Jesús and Josué Márquez. Benítez took out a false birth certificate in New York at the age of 15, and was allowed to box professionally.

At the age of 17, on March 6, 1976, he challenges Antonio Cervantes for the World Boxing Association junior welterweight world title. Benítez became the youngest world champion in history by defeating Cervantes by a fifteen round split decision. He defended the crown three times and vacated it.

Benítez moved up the ranks in 1979 to challenge World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight world champion Carlos Palomino of Mexico, winning again the world title by fifteen-round decision. After a successful defense, Benítez lost for the first time, defeated by knockout in the fifteenth round by Sugar Ray Leonard, to lose the Welterweight crown, in November of the same year.

In 1981, Benítez became the fifth boxer to win world crowns in three different categories, the first Latin American to do so, the first to do so since Henry Armstrong four decades earlier, and the youngest to do so, when knocked out world junior middleweight champion. of the World Council, the Trinidadian Maurice Hope in twelve rounds.

He successfully defended the crown twice, both times against successful boxing exponents: future world champion Carlos Santos and legendary former lightweight and welterweight champion of the world Roberto Durán. Both were defeated on points over fifteen rounds in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight with Santos was the first time in boxing history that two Puerto Ricans met for a world title. He loses this world crown on December 3, 1982 to Thomas Hearns.

From then on, Benítez's career and health gradually deteriorated. In 1987, Benítez visited Argentina for a fight. When his money and his documents were stolen, he had to spend a year in that country before he could return to Puerto Rico.

Benítez lived with his mother, Clara Benítez, in Puerto Rico, until her death in 2008. Benítez requires constant medical attention due to blows suffered during his years as a boxer. Among others, Félix Trinidad and Héctor Camacho (the latter before he passed away in 2012) have helped him.

Benítez had a record of 53 wins, 8 losses (most of them when he was already in declining health), and one draw, with 31 knockout wins.

Since 1996, Benítez has been a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.