In all seriousness, Luis Manuel Rodriguez is their greatest fighter. No, I'm not still trolling and yes I've been over this before. LMR. Then Gavilan. Then Napoles. Then Chocolate. In my opinion. The first 3 I'd all put in the 21-30 bracket.
Ah, well now, it just so happens that a while back I compiled a few records and some relevant Cuban ones were among them. All names listed are of fighters who were defeated, and the amount of times they were defeated is shown, and all opponents featured in the RING's end-of-year ratings at one point or another: Kid Gavilan Nick Moran Charley Williams Bee Bee Wright Tommy Bell Tony Pellone Al Priest Rocky Castellani Laurent Dauthuille Johnny Greco Tony Janiro (x2) Joe Miceli Paddy Young Eugene Hairston Aldo Minelli Johnny Bratton (x2) Walter Cartier Bobby Dykes Ralph Zannelli Gil Turner Eduardo Lausse Chuck Davey Ramon Fuentes Ralph Jones (x2) Ernie Durando Gaspar Ortega Ike Williams (x2) Beau Jack Billy Graham (x3) Carmen Basilio -- Kid Chocolate Johnny Green Chick Suggs Johnny Vacca Bushy Graham Gregorio Vidal Ignacio Fernandez Dominic Petrone (x3) Joey Scalfaro Lew Feldman (x4) Davey Abad Roger Bernard Johnny Farr (x4) Eddie Shea Pete Nebo (x3) Tommy Watson Joe Ghnouly Frankie Wallace (x2) Andy Martin Henry Hook Al Reid Fidel LaBarba (x2) Benny Bass -- Jose Napoles Angel Robinson Garcia Bunny Grant Tony Perez (x2) Baby Vasquez (x2) LC Morgan (x3) Alfredo Urbina (x2) Carlos Hernandez Adolph Pruitt (x2) Eugenio Espinoza Herbie Lee Leroy Roberts Eddie Pace Ernie Lopez (x2) Edwin Mack Manuel Gonzalez Billy Backus Jean Josselin Hedgemon Lewis (x2) Ralph Charles Roger Menetrey Clyde Gray Horacio Saldano Armando Muniz (x2) Eddie Perkins Curtis Cokes (x2) Emile Griffith -- I thought I had Rodriguez - unfortunately it appears not. Well, anyway, I'm familiar enough with his record to say he and Gavilan stack up fairly equally in terms of greatness, in my opinion, remembering that both men caught their fair share of bad decisions, or at least close ones that could have went either way. Rodriguez was a bit more fragile but the smarter technician, Gavilan was less consistent but a physical marvel with regards to his durability, speed and stamina combination. Napoles takes it for me I'm afraid. Although Gavilan and Rodriguez fought some wicked middleweights, Napoles himself is well known to have been a slightly inferior specimen size-wise at welterweight. His back-to-back schoolings of Cokes & Griffith really stand out to me, even if I subscribed to the notion that they were on the slide and weight drained, respectively, though after much deliberation it seems to me that both were still of championship class and ability on fight night, and that Napoles' success was so resounding and decisive that it wouldn't have mattered if both Griffith and Cokes tag-teamed him on the same night with baseball bats, they'd still have lost. Oh and just to add. As a junior welterweight, beating Eddie Perkins was about as good as it gets. The decision was close apparently, but still, he was like the Charley Burley of the division. He was Duilio Loi's equal and was robbed against Hernandez (another extremely sweet scalp for Napoles) the second time round. What does it for me is Napoles' period of dominance over such high quality opposition from as far back as 1960 until 1970, the odd losses in between being nothing much convincing. Hedgemon Lewis, Ernie Lopez and Armando Muniz, I would say, were roughly on the Ray Lampkin/Freddie Dawson/Lionel Rose level and were also very respectable opponents to be beating later on.
1. Jose Napoles 2. Luis Manuel Rodriguez 3. Kid Gavilan That's how it is for me, but like you say, Rodriguez has a strong case. They all have. In matters this close it always seems to come down to small preferences. I would like to see a vehement pro-Gavilan argument.
It's super close, but for me it's 1. Gavilan 2. Rodriguez 3. Napoles More than anything I think Kid's resilience stands out to me. Jose Napoles had that tender skin and Luis whilst having a very good chin, probably isn't on par with the other two in that regard... Skill wise perhaps Napoles and Rodriguez edge it, but Kid had athletic advantages in speed of hand and foot that probably compensates. That said, Rodriguez' higher skill level probably made him better suited to the higher weights than Kid. Napoles punched well above his weight too, being more a natural junior welter, all things considered. Gavilan is the superior welterweight though to either man. Resume wise I'd say Gavilan is on par or slightly ahead of Rodriguez (if we cut out all the robberies in both mens' ledgers) and has a clear edge on Napoles.
