Great Fighters With No Signature Win?

Already mentionned Canizales and Lopez, also Mark Johnson, Stevie Johnston.

 

Harry Wills.

 

Zarate has Zamora, his counterpart at bantam in the 70's.
Golovkin currently doesn't have a signature win, though that might change.

 

That's an interesting take bud. I just can't see how either will be. Canelo could be, but with his recent issues and his past skeptical decisions, I think his stock will go down over the years unless he turns stuff around. He's really gotten a lot of iffy decisions, and those will be viewed with even more skepticism in the future than now.

Oscar could never be his marquee name considering what we already know about Oscar's state at that time. He was well past his best by that point. Neither of those strike me as career defining wins. If I had to pick one, it would be Corrales

 

I agree on Corrales, as that is who I would've picked, but I was wondering what others thought. Still though, is Corrales, a career defining type of win? That's borderline imo. I have an issue with Castillo being that, simply because I didn't score their first fight for Mayweather. So I certainly can't say something is a career defining fight if they lose. Hatton is the next closest after Diego imo, but again, it's sketchy to call Hatton a career defining fight.

 

I hear you. But they were both big marquee names (especially Oscar) and much bigger men than Floyd (especially Canelo). I think that moving up in weight and beating them does more for his legacy than dominating an A-minus level 130-lber. And while Canelo's had some iffy decisions, nobody's come close to dominating him the way the 36-yo former junior lightweight Mayweather did.

BTW, I think the way he outboxed, out-thought, and utterly dominated Juan Manuel Marquez after two years away from the ring may be his most underrated performance, though I guess it merits some kind of an asterisk for the weight shenanigans.

 

Great call! He never fought Carbajal or Gonzalez - either of those would have been signature wins. I guess the Alvarez win was his biggest but not one I would call a signature victory.

 

Dominating the decade without a lost. Best performance include Pulev, Byrd II, Brewster II, Chagaev and Peter.

Biggest single win, likely Povektin, who he floored 3 times and fought in Russia.

 

It seems fans and historians alike prefer to see a fighter lose or struggle in victory to define their signature win.
While the quality of competition can vary in championship fights, a prime vs. prime matchup is usually rare.

Is a win over a past his prime great, better than say a win over a prime contender ranked in the top 3? Not in a difficulty sense.

 

Question on your end-
Who would you say is a career defining win for: Ray Robinson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and or Rocky Marciano?
No right or wrong to me...just curious.

See, I'm not sure if the question is based on our era of fighters who pick and choose as opposed to a 'universal' question.
I could be wrong as hell, but I think olden era -greatness was based on the career. Today its based on a signature win. That says to me...Damn can we find one person on his resume worth a damn?!

 

Pacquiao or Oscar

 

Vitali doesn't have one. He has an event win.

Trinidad doesn't. He stunk it out against Oscar so it's hard to count that. He lost to Hopkins in what was lined up to be his signature win.

Cotto...Martinez had knee problems and Margarito was past it in the rematch.

I don't feel like Mark Johnson has one. Possibly Fernando Montiel.

 

The welters & lighter weight fighters of the late 60's were overshadowed by Ali's presence. Curtis Cokes who has a very laid back personality, had been World WW champ for almost 3 years and had cleaned up the WW Division when Napoles moved up from Lightweight / Jr. welterweight. Doug Lord, Coke's Mgr, along with the LA Boxing Promoter, created at that time in 1969, a fight Gate of $195,480 (new California indoor record, surpassing the $193,000 from the Lionel Rose-Chucho Castillo card). Napoles wasn't well known in the USA, except to the LA / West Coast Hispanic fans. Except for 2 fights at the LA Forum as an under-card bout, all of Napoles fights had been in Mexico or Cuba.

Napoles, after the Coke's rematch, defended against Emile Griffith, who was moving down from being MW champion 18 months before, and Griffith seemed to be slightly "shop-worn" going into the Napoles fight.
Plus, Griffith was a "quiet" individual himself.

Napoles then defended against British Champion Ralph Charles (39-3) in Wembley England. Napoles was
in his prime ....knocking out Charles in 7 rounds (Charles last fight)
Little seen Napoles vs Charles fight film:

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