3. Carlos Palomino vs José “Pipino” Cuevas
In the late 70’s, these two Hall-of-Famers were amongst Mexico’s best in the welterweight division. This was a superfight waiting to happen around 1978, when they were WBC and WBA champions. But it fell through after Palomino lost his world title in a controversial decision to Wilfred Benitez, followed by another close loss to Roberto Durán, after which he retired. He was never knocked out. Cuevas, on the other hand, lost his world title in 1980 to then-rising star Tommy Hearns.
Both superb fighters, I wouldn’t dare to make a prediction on this one. General consensus is that Palomino, the more technically gifted of the two, could have won in later rounds, as long as he avoided Pipino’s devastating left hook.
My father Toby Vigil Mexican lightweight, California State Champion, was a popular fan favorite at the famous Hollywood Legion Stadium. Known for his movie star good looks and flashy boxing style, Vigil had some epic fights during his career. Toby fought both popular Mexican fighters, Baby Arizmendi and Rodolfo Babyface Casanova. Matched against the popular Mexican Champion Casanova., the bout was held at the Stadium Nacional, in Mexico City. In 1938. The fight was a classic battle held in enemy territory with a boisterous, vociferous crowd. Casanova relentlessly pursued my father post to post attempting to land the big right hand he was known for, all the while eating punishing left/right combinations leaving Casanova’s face a bloody mess with both eyes swollen shut. At the end of ten rounds the referee awarded my dad a hard fought unanimous decision over the Mexican Champion. In 1941 at the Hollywood Legion Stadium, he fought Baby Arizmendi losing a closely contested decision. He said Arizmendi was a very fierce opponent, in which he had to use his left hand overtime, having broke his right hand on Arizmendi’s head in the first round.