Now, taking into account the only footage we have of Jose at Lightweight is against Urbina, we have to have the wherewithal to acknowledge that he didn't just learn how to box as smoothly as he did when he moved up. Therefore, we have a multi-faceted fighter; a bullishly strong Lightweight with a cast iron chin and serious power, the ability to adapt, and a punch picker as accurate as Alexis but with the capabilities in movement to stop Arguello setting his feet and getting his bombs off too often, and also the pop to slow Arguello down as well as racking up the rounds. Napoles will be too mobile, and Arguellos ponderous feet will see it hard for him to get much going offensively when Napoles is skirting in and out of range and popping his jab off. When Napoles steps in, well he always hooked so well, but at 135 he looks truly monsterous, so Arguello throwing back with his accurate bombs would've been a true spectacle. Whilst Napoles was a sometimes spectacular hitter (Lopez II for instance) and really knew how to maximise his power with pinpoint precision and timing, but still, I'll give Arguello the credit he deserves for his own durability and say he gets badly marked up but lasts the duration. Pretty bad stylistic clash for Arguello IMO, who will have very few moments in this one, bar cutting Napoles to shreds, which I tend to avoid when discussing Mantequilla in hypothetical matchups. Therefore, Napoles W15 Arguello
Good analysis although I'd personally go with the what Pryor can do Napoles can do better, different styles ofcourse but I think Napoles gets the stopage
Napoles is a great fight but a bit of an unknown quantity in terms of greatness at 135. Alexis is one of the greatest feather-lightweight fighters to ever live. Only a handful have ruled these two divisions as Alexis did and arguably none did it better. I'm going arguello in a hard fought decision.
I can't see Napoles being much different to be honest, just less undersized than he was at Welter (though Arguello was obviously tall himself). Looks a beast at the weight [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5oVr4jN7Ek[/ame] I'm saying it' a competitive fight by all means, I just can't really make a case for Alexis on styles :good
I dunno, napoles is on ofe the greatest WW's in the sports history but alexis is right up there from feather-Lightweight. I'd love to see it happen and I'm kinda pissed off now that I never will
I'm not disputing that at all, but this is a hypothetical matchup, not 'who is greater' (they're very close in my ATG list, very much in the same bracket IMO) All I'm saying is, put Welterweight Napoles in that 135lb body (not much difference IMO) and I can't really see a case for Arguello winning.
yeah sorry my wording was off then, I meant in terms of H2H. Napoles cutting 12 pounds against a monster at the weights. very hard to call imo. Alexis destroyed a lot of good guys at the weight. Had Marcel carried on I think alexis might have overturned that but we'll never know. Razor close, I give alexis the edge however :good
The only reason he moved up to WW was because he couldn't get the title fights at LW/LWW but weighed 137 as a 28yo a year before he won his WW title, what many people don't know is Napoles is a natural LW and started his career as a FW. Previously he's completely dominated Perkins at 140 who had just lost his LWW titles on an SD. He dominated numerous contender types, Urbina for example would later go the distance with Laguana and draw with an ex champ and Napoles stopped him in 1 and 3 rounds
I'm happy with my pick, just not happy i'm the only one making it! come on people, back me up here. war alexis
Massive gulf in class here even in P4P terms, shouts for Arguello are plain loopy. Napoles batters him before the half-way point.
I would say styleswise yes, Napoles has a clear edge. In terms of 'greatness' I can't see how they are far off each other. Half-way point?! Surely that's loopy!
I think it's you making the loopy claim here en contraire! most people say they'd expect a competitive fight even when the picks disagree!
Typically, I don't like to project an outcome based on cuts, but Arguello was so effective at drawing blood, while Napoles had such susceptible skin to bleeding, that I see Alexis turning him into a bloody mess and stopping him late by the intervention of a nauseous referee, especially if Reyes gloves are used. Even a physician-referee like James Jen Kin might get queasy presiding over this one. Arguello is just about the last ATG I'd want to be in there with if I was a bleeder.