How should history remember Esteban De Jesus?

He wasn't. Duran was the number one contender for Ken's title.

 

Hmmm this does sound a bit like he's trying to be a bit too cool

 

Not so much cool as wildly innaccurate (surprisingly for Mantiquilla). Buchanan at the time was regarded as a man destined for all-time greatness and the heir apparent to Napoles' mythical Pound-for-Pound title. That's why he was voted Boxing Writers' fighter of the year in 1970 and some of his performances were compared with the best pure boxing of all-time by the likes of Johnny Ort. He was pencilled in for a very long reign, until dominated and usurped by Duran. Gonzalez was rated higher than Kenny by Tijuana cab drivers, winos and the owner of Pedro's Enchiladas food chain (Pedro, himself, in fact) that's about it.

 

I may well be wrong, this is going way back. Certainly more plausible than Mayweather beating him :tong

 

Didn't know Buchanan was rated that high at the time - interesting, MdwC.

 

I think that's why some these days say "Oh Buchanan is really overrated" and basing it on overall achievement. Which is valid in its own way, but at the time when he was active, he was very highly rated as amongt the best in all of boxing. Of course, there were one or two others rated as the best pfp after Napoles during Kenny's tenure as champ, most notably Oliveras and, by the end of 1972, Monzon. But Ken was well in the mix until he lost to Duran.

 

It's always interesting to find out how fighter was rated at the time he fought - there are some surprises.

Like the time when you posted BI P4P 1977 rating with Zarate being number 1.

 

Yep, I'm very interested in contemporary viewpoints to back up what I have seen in the first place. People looking at a list/boxrec years later and saying "oh, he was brilliant" because a fighter defended a portion of a junior-thingamajig title in his hometown every fight, whereas in reality, he wanted to avoid the other alphabet title holder as it was obvious he'd be twatted, doesn't wash with me.

 

Does anyone know anything about Ken's loss to Velazquez? It was the same year as his Laguna 1 win. But he was facing a Spaniard on his home turf. Buchannan would go onto stop Pudu who beat Velazquez. Velazquez would go onto win a DQ for the WBC title against Muangsurin (again in Spain) who won the title in his third fight but get stopped by Muangsurin in his first defence. I'd expect maybe Fleaman may know some details about the Thai

 

i wasn't being serious with that post.That was back in my Buchanan trolling days when i'd occasionally post something just to wind up the many fans he had on here at the time.You can probably find a good handful of anti-buchanan posts from that account around that time.McGrain will remember:yep

Then i got a grip and stopped it.

Gonzalez was definitely not the recognised number 1 Lightweight.Buchanan was the champ and highest rated.Gonzalez had been badly managed and only just got into the picture recently, he had been seen mainly just by the West Coast American fans.

That said, i do rate him highly and probably have mentioned in the past i'd give him a good shot at beating the young Duran the time the fight was potentially going to be made over a non-title ten rounds.similar approach to Dejesus with more power, strength and great bodypunching.

With the caveat i'm not at all sure how good his jaw really was, he'd been at lightweight a long time and was probably much more comfortable at 140 by then as the Cervantes fight seems to indicate.IF his punch resistance had always been similar to the level he showed against Suzuki when really struggling to make weight he would need to fight a helluva bout to avoid being suddenly or repeatedly hurt and finished off.

 

Damn!

Was the fight ever in discussion or Gonzalez was rated as an unimportant belt holder at the time?

 

Velasquez was getting dropped left, right and centre in both bouts with Muangsurin. First fight, The Thai hit him after the bell, but it looks to have been borderline and that he was looking for a way out and the ref' had no choice to disqualify Saensak. but the Spaniard dropped in a heap. Second time he got destroyed inside a couple of rounds.

 

He probably shouldn't be in anyone's top 100 or so, simply because his resume is a little too weak.

Had he beaten Cervantes, I would probably say he'd have a good case for being a top 100 fighter, but getting badly beat up as he did, I don't see much justification myself.

Still, he was really talented and ability wise at least a level above the Castillos, Rosarios, Casamayors, Mancinis and Corraleses of the lightweight world.

I really like DeJesus against boxer types like Buchanan, Laguna, Ross etc. Think he'd probably struggle against the more aggressive, strong, stamina guys though like Chavez, Beau Jack, Armstrong, Angott.

Still, he'd give a lot of great lightweights all they could handle.