Excellent with plenty of substance to it. He was really a big lightweight .I haven't done a welter list for some time ,I would have to re-assess mine,some recent candidates for top ten honours to consider. I saw Napoles train for Ralph Charles,Napoles was a very economical accurate puncher. I rate him possibly above Gavilan.
Outstanding! He cleaned out the jr. welterweights as a contender but could not nail down a title shot. Moving into the welters as a small welter, he takes out an outstanding champ and proceeds to clean out the division. You can't get much better than that. If there was anything negative to say about it, I would say I didn't like the way the WBC protected him in that first Muniz fight, which he should have lost. Also, I didn't like the way Eddie Perkins was avoided. Other than that he cleaned house in a tough era.
Quite good. Cokes twice, Griffith, though by then Griffith had to boil himself down a bit to get to 147..........Lopez twice, Lewis......good names there.
I believe Mantequilla fought for 10 years before rising to WW where he distinguished himself with impressive wins as noted above. The list of his victims was indeed quite impressive at the time when the division was a who's who of distinguished pugilists. For the modern era he ranks around top 10. For all time, he would likely be just a tad lower, top 15 or so. Though he was not shy about landing a shot or two below the belt, and had Suleiman in his corner, his place in the HOF is well deserved.
Jose Napoles was a truly great fighter while in his prime years, but benefited from possibly the most outrageous robbery of the 1970s in his first bout with Armando Muniz due to a very odd action by the referee. Muniz should have gone home with the world welterweight title. - Chuck Johnston
