One welterweight who could replace Cuevas in this group is Carlos Palomino. Palomino held the WBC title while Cuevas was the WBA champion. Both won their titles a month apart in 76. Palomino soon lost the WBC title to Wilfred Benitez in 1979, who lost it to Leonard, who lost it to Duran. Cuevas would lose his WBA title to Hearns in 1980.
Palomino has a better record but Cuevas clearly has more power and sports a slightly better Quality of Opposition. Overall, both fighters are about even but are clearly behind the others in the group.
Cuevas' best chance for a win on this list would have come against Wilfred Benitez or Roberto Duran. Considering the idea of facing Leonard, KO Magazine once wrote that "there are safer ways to earn a million dollars". Cuevas was never very effective against boxers. Thomas Hearns utterly destroyed him and would do so if they fought many times.
The reason Cuevas' best chance comes from either Benitez or Duran is because both were known to come in untrained at times. We know Duran already beat Cuevas, 4th round KO. Duran was slightly past his prime and Cuevas was even more past his. It's not likely that Cuevas would have beaten Duran earlier in their respective careers but there is the off chance he would catch Duran off guard, like a few other B-rate opponents did between the Leonard rematch and his destruction of Davey Moore in 1984. Timing would be Pipino's best chance.
Benitez was also known to show up untrained. He lost a few fights later in his career when he could no longer rely on his natural talents to bail him out of trouble. Allen Iverson and Muhammad ALI both come to mind whenever there is the mention of athletes who could have had longer careers had they trained better.
Cuevas was always in shape. He just never had anything more than his power. Against top level boxers, he was rendered ineffective. The only fighter not mentioned was Leonard. Cuevas stands an almost equal chance of beating Leonard as he does of beating Hearns.
None.
I think Cuevas belongs in the group.............just. He was an exciting fighter who made 10 successful defenses of the WBA welterweight title and won the majority of his fights by KO.
However there is a big gulf in my opinion between him and the other four, maybe that is why he isn't often associated with the other great welterweights of the 80's.
He was a big puncher and had heart but didn't have much in the way of skill, he was a knock out or be knocked out type of fighter and his record is peppered with losses.
Among those losses are a second round KO to Thomas Hearns and a fourth round KO to Roberto Duran.
Against Leonard and Benitez I doubt Cuevas fares much better, Leonard would be a class above and although he would stand a punchers chance against Benitez I think at his best Benitez would be too defensively good.
I think that Pipino Cuevas and Carlos Palamino ruled the 70's at welterweight.
Somewhere around 1978 or 79 Hearns and Leonard dominated and with Duran and Benitez moving up to welter at that time, the 80's was the golden age of welterweights.
Just too bad that Cuevas vs Palamino never fought. It was the dream fight at the time and it never happened. Cuevas was more popular and the crowd pleaser but I think that Palamino would have won. Typical Mexican American vs Mexican National.
Two featherweights champs in the 70's that never fought either. Danny Lopez vs Eusebo Pedroza.
At the time I thought that Lopez would have won, but after all of the time that has passed I realize that Pedroza was the better skilled of the two champs.
Clearly Pipino Cuevas didn't reach the mega star levels that Leonard, Hearns and Duran did, and in truth Benitez was a bit more talented than Cuevas. That said, the Hearns KO of Cuevas will be on KO highlight reels for eternity, it forever etched Cuevas and Hearns together in boxing history for as long as televised video highlights can be watched. He was a contemporary and peer of the other four, and while he was the least talented, he was still a champion in his own right. I say he earned the respect of his peers, so who are we to say he doesn't belong in the group?
You could make an argument for Carlos Palomino or (the pre-weight problem) Donald Curry replacing the Mexican warrior.
Given Cuevas' power (Harold Weston considered him a harder one-shot hitter than Hearns), he would have a chance - albeit a slight one - to take out natural lightweight Duran or the chinny Benitez.
In the 1980s, the top five welterweights in the world were
Sugar Ray Leonard
Thomas Hearns
Roberto Duran
Wilfred Benitez
Pipino Cuevas
Does Cuevas belong in this group?
Is there another welterweight who could replace him?
What are his chances of defeating any of the fighters on this list?
