RCM Historical Boxing: Wilfredo ‘Radar’ Benitez versus Davey Moore. What Happened?
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
On July 14, 1984, at Stade Louis II, Monte Carlo, two former world champions, Wilfredo ‘Radar’ Benitez, now 62, and Davey Moore (who died in 1988 at 28) met in then a critical middleweight crossroads bout to decide their boxing futures. Neither fighter would regain their previous glories after this bout. However, the fall of Benitez was notable, and why.
In historical analysis, Benitez had retained his World Boxing Council World Middleweight title by 15 round decision over Robert Duran, while Duran had stopped Davey Moore in 1982 in Madison Square Garden to win the World Boxing Association World Super Welterweight title. Benitez lost his WBC title by split decision 15 to Thomas Hearns. Duran got stopped in the second round against Hearns who defended that title. The odds overall seemed to favor Benitez, who had lost a 12 round decision to number one middleweight contender Mustafa Hamsho when he tried to move up in weight class to middleweight. Benitez weighed 152, Moore 156 for the Monte Carlo crossroads battle. This is odd, because Benitez at 152 pounds was still a junior middleweight, while Moore at 156 pounds would most certainly enter the ring as a more powerful super middleweight bulk up. The weight disparity, allowed by Monte Carlo, not noticed by the Benitez corner, proved a critical edge, due to the difference in weight classes. Benitez, never looked good above junior middleweight, unlike Duran. The difference in power is obvious.
Benitez, from the start of the bout, was not moving well. In the first round, Benitez got caught in front of Moore near a corner, and got hit with a well-timed overhand right at close range. Benitez got up. He had been down before in his career. A detailed analysis of the fight footage revealed he went down in a bad way on his right leg, twisted it, and broke his right ankle. He did not know it at the time. When Benitez got up, he could not get out of the corner where he arose. He ducked the punches of Moore phenomenally to get out of the round, but the handwriting was on the wall. He couldn’t move on the broken right ankle.
Benitez retreated to the same corner when round two began. He could not maneuver on one leg. Benitez, motionless, lost his radar. Moore wailed away with headshots. Benitez, unable to run or defend himself due to the broken ankle, was doomed until he got stopped, basically defenseless. Even Hearns, in a later bout, ran into a twisted ankle early against Uriah Grant. Benitez went into a bout with middleweight Matthew Hilton in Montreal in 1986, and got knocked out in the ninth. Benitez, overweight at middleweight, lost 10 round decisions in 1990 to Pat Lawlor and Scott Papasodora. His career ended at 53-8-1. As Moore noted postfight, Benitez, who went pro at 15, looked an old shot spent fighter at 25.
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