He was once untouchable. He is, so many boxing fans declare, the uncrowned ‘Fifth King.’ Right up there with superstars Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, Roberto “Hands of Stone” Duran, Wilfred Benitez – who had a couple of ring nicknames: “El Radar,” and “Bible of Boxing” – might have been the most naturally talented of them all.
Some fighters make astonishingly rapid progress in the ring. When we think of fighters who conquered the world at a tender age, we instantly think of warriors like Mike Tyson, who was just 20 years old when he won his first world title, this of course the WBC heavyweight title.
45 years ago (yesterday), in San Juan, Puerto Rico, two greats came together at welterweight. Wilfred Benitez, still just 20 years of age but already a former champion, with “El Radar” having been stripped of the 140-pound title he had won at age 17 due to inactivity, met defending welterweight champ Carlos Palomino.
Mike Tyson made incredibly rapid progress as a boxer, as did Floyd Patterson. And one or two other special fighters. But no man, indeed no boy, ever took a swifter route to the top than Puerto Rican boxing wizard Wilfred Benitez.
The “Fifth King?”
Some say Wilfred Benitez – a fighter who had almost supernatural reflexive ability and skill in his prime, which came at a young age, Benitez reaching the top at a meteoric rate – deserves to be ranked right there with Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran (or however you choose to rank the “Fab Four”).
Bobby Chacon, Meldrick Taylor, Wilfred Benitez…..Muhammad Ali.
These are just four of the most famous cases of ring casualties we can list; fighters who thrilled millions yet left the sport (far too late) as seriously damaged human beings.