José Napoles vs Tony Canzoneri?

Absolutely...the answer is indeed Napoles.

 

Lol, I knew there was another reasonable poster out there somewhere on this forum!

 

Does this matter?

 

Canzoneri is one of the earliest boxers, who looks (to me, anyway) really, REALLY impressive.

Could he beat LW Napoles? Hmm... very hard to say. Even at 135 the Cuban was very good. Can't really make up my mind - so I think I'll chicken out on this one, and call it a draw!

 

Yes! Its what separates the very elite from the great.

 

What do you think of Midget Wolgast and Jimmy Wilde?

 

Both were very good… especially Wilde, who looks ahead of his time.

Wolgast was fast and unorthodox - but, though it can look spectacular, I'm not a big fan of when he punches with both feet off the ground!

 

I would add Pancho Villa IMO as well, since he seemed to use the cross guard very effectively and cut off aggressively. Definitely rooted in filipino Martial arts.
It's also a shame we have only two bits of footage on Wolgast, and he's past prime in both of them.

Also, bump. Surprised this match up isn't more popular

 

Tony wins this one by decision, Mantequilla is a natural welterweight, loss of power at lightweight. Both are all time greats.

 

Disagree, Napoles was definitely too small for WW imo

 

I agree that he was small, but his fame was at welterweight, World Welterweight Champion, from 1969-1971, 1971-1975, the man he won it from was a tall Curtis Cokes, on April 18 1969, TKO 13. He was too small for World Middleweight Champion Carlos Monzon, by TKO 7, Feb 9 1974. If he was a lightweight, he would have fought World Lightweight Champion Roberto Duran in 1974.

 

I would say he is more a natural jr welter. He is in top 3 all time there for me and might be #1 .. And he was fighting there already 5 or 6 years into it ,, But at 135, I would go with Canzeneri

 

I'd say 140 may have been Napoles' absolute sweetspot, weight wise. He was a small welterweight but a fighter great enough to still be one of the very best of all time there. While fighting at 135 and under Napoles was certainly pre-prime. This version isn't beating an ATG lightweight and actually had losses against much lesser fighters - because he was still a fledgling.

You'd have to take a leap of faith and assume Napoles could make 135 somewhere around 68-69. This has got to drain him somewhat and against a fellow ATG these things are going to matter, one would think.

At 135 it's definitely Tony for me. At 140, well there's a fight. Prime Napoles would have a much better chance of making the weight and losing little to nothing. I think he could. Napoles would hold all the advantages then and it would be mighty hard to go against him.