Boxing What-ifs: Wilfred Benítez vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler

1980's boxing was the era of the great circle of fights, a rivalry between five champions: Sugar Ray Leonard, Wilfred Benítez, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. But of all the possible matchups in the round-robin with these five gladiators, only one didn't take place. That, of course, being the matchup that's subject of this post.

Wilfred Benítez got to fight Leonard, Durán and Hearns, but after his loss to Hearns, Benítez entered a downward spiral, both with his career and his life. He never won a championship title again, nor was he able to compete for one. By the turn of the decade, his health declined greatly, forcing him to retire in 1990 at the age of 32. Around the time things started going badly for Benítez, one Marvelous Marvin Hagler had started making a name for himself as the next top contender. Hagler would go on to defeat Durán and Hearns and would have his final fight with Leonard. But what if these two champions got to meet in the ring, thus completing this circle of fights? Who would win?

Hagler only ever competed at middleweight. Benítez is best known for being champion at light welterweight, welterweight and light middleweight but for the later half of his career, he did fight at middleweight, so this hypothetical bout will see these two fighting at middleweight. But we're going to be a little arbitrary and say Benítez was still fighting at his best at this weight class. Sorry, but if I don't do that, then I may as well not do this hypothetical fight at all and I'm not doing any catchweight bouts in this series!

Now then, let's get down to the analysis. Seven points, will be covered: fighting style, knockout power, foot speed, hand speed, defense, durability and endurance. Before, I combined foot and hand speed under "speed" and defense and durability together, but this will be the first post where they'll be made separate factors and probably will be from here on.


Benítez is best-known as a defensive fighter with exceptional defensive skills, but he could act as the aggressor whenever he needed to. One could say he was unique in that he operated out of a wide stance, rolling punches and his utilization of upper-body movement. Hagler was a boxer-puncher with a natural southpaw stance, though he could also switch to orthodox. He's considered a brawler by some, but he didn't start adopting this style until the later half of his career. If Hagler had been a straight brawler, I'd probably give the edge in style to Benítez, but because both had well-rounded styles, I'm going to say they're even.


Both fighters possessed great knockout power, though Benítez's knockout skill was best early in his career, particularly in his first three years of fighting when he was finishing most of his fights by knockout. Toward the midway point, he started seeing more of a mix of winning by decision and knockout. Hagler, on the other hand, was a knockout king! He won the vast majority of his fights by knockout, half of them early in the match. Out of his 62 wins, 52 of them were by KO. Compared to Benítez's winning 31 of his 53 victories by knockout? No dispute, Hagler holds the advantage in power.


Benítez was a well-known speedster - one of the fastest of his era, rivaled only Sugar Ray Leonard. Hagler had good mobility and footwork, but that's not what his specialty was. He was rather slow compared to Benítez. Most of the time, he didn't need to be fast with his feet considering he could stop a man dead in his tracks with his punching power. But against Benítez, he'd most definitely be at a disadvantage.


What Hagler lacked in mobility, he somewhat made up for in punching speed. He was an adept slugger, but he could deliver fast shots whenever he saw fit. Once again, however, his speed just doesn't compare well against Benítez's. Benítez was quick with his footwork and his punching, capable of delivering flurries of strikes with nearly unparalleled speed. Unfortunately for Hagler, he would be at a disadvantage in speed on both fronts.


When it came to defense, both fighters had a preference for dodging rather than blocking. Hagler utilized head and upper-body movement to duck, roll or step away from incoming shots. A quick gander at his defensive highlights ought to dispel anyone's misconceptions that Hagler was a brawler. Benítez was a defensive master! He was able to telegraph his opponents strikes to dodge at just the right time to avoid taking punishment. He got his very nickname "El Radar" (The Radar) from his defensive ability. His speed combined with defensive skills made him a slippery target even for the mighty Sugar Ray Leonard. Naturally, Benítez holds the edge in defense, but Hagler isn't wholly outclassed in this point as he is in speed.


Hagler had the better chin, hands down. Benítez was fairly solid himself and was able to withstand strikes from hard hitters like Roberto Durán and Carlos Palomino, but Hagler was a tank! He could endure massive strikes to the head and just shake them off. He was only ever taken to the mat one time, but even that is widely believed to be because of a slip rather than being rocked. Hagler was one of the most durable fighters in boxing history. The same cannot be said about Benítez.


Both fighters had ample stamina. Sure, Hagler finished most of his fights, but he could still go the distance and managed to win several times by decision. Benítez may not have had as good a chin as Hagler, but his gas tank served him well into the final fights of his career. For this point, I'm going to say these two were even.


Now that all factors have been considered, who would win this missing link in the '80s great circle of boxing matches?

In this hypothetical fight, I believe Benítez would prove to be a slippery opponent as always for the considerably slower Hagler. Hagler would try to close in, but Benítez would use his masterful defensive skills to avoid Hagler's punches while tagging him continuously with his own. But Hagler has fought faster opponents before and with his indestructible chin, he could take any shots Benítez hit him with and would never be taken down once. Benítez's superior speed and reflexes could keep him safe for most of the fight, but Hagler's shots would eventually connect. Benítez would only be to take so many before Hagler could land one that put Benítez down for good, winning by knockout in or after the 8th round of the match.


Benítez never quite got to fight a man like Hagler. As unfortunate as it is that this fight was never realized, it's probably just as good for Benítez that it didn't! No doubt Benítez could probably control the early rounds of the fight by utilizing his speed and defensive skills, but what would serve Hagler best is the two biggest advantages he has over Benítez: his superior strength and his granite chin. No matter what Benítez hit Hagler with, he'd never be able to take him down and Hagler had enough skill to where he'd able to get in his own shots against Benítez, which would eventually send him down for the count.

It should be noted that Hagler's final fight against Sugar Ray Robinson saw him at his slowest against the much faster Leonard. He threw more than a hundred more punches than Leonard did, but only landed a little over a third of them while nearly half of Leonard's hit their mark. In spite of this, Hagler was able to stick it out and keep up with Leonard, making for a very close fight. Leonard won controversially by split decision, but Hagler still fought his heart out and many fans will say he should have been given the decision (at least one judge agreed).

The overall point there is that even sluggish, out-of-his prime Hagler would be able to go the distance and very likely win against Wilfred Benítez. That's why I say the winner is Marvelous Marvin Hagler!

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As always, this is just one fan's opinion. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to say so in the comments.

Thanks for reading!