Talk about your right hands.
Hope was the WBC junior middleweight champion in this fight, with a 30-3-1 record and 24 knockouts. The Antiguan-born pugilist had held the strap for about two years when he faced Benitez (41-1-1), not a particularly big KO artist and best known as a skilled boxer and defensive practicioner. Benitez retired in 1990 with a final record of 53-8-1, with 31 KOs. This win gave him his third world championship, having already won titles at 140 and 147.
At the time he won his first world title, he was just 17 years and six months old, making him the youngest recognized world title holder in boxing history. After a long career that saw him as a world-ranked boxer by age 15, and fights against the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, and Carlos Palomino, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996.