Pure Boxer vs Boxer-Puncher. Who do you see winning in this interesting clash of styles? Would Lora's quickness and defense nullify Sahaprom's hard jab?
Really good match up, Flo. Never pondered this one, despite it involving one of my favourites, and them both being highly entertaining and on a similar level. This is the type of unexploded (by me, of course) which makes me appreciate the depth of the bantamweight and featherweight divisions. First of all, would you class Happy as a pure boxer? I wouldn't. I've always thought he was more of a boxer-brawler but in a similar vein to a Eleoncio Mercedes or Katsunari Takayama (obviously much better), more than a Kennedy McKinney. He was just extremely eager to trade with his opponents, which made fights with Zaragoza, Vasquez & Davila. I do appreciate that all of those are better than most - if not all - of Veeraphol's wins, but that isn't the point here. The point is that Lora's style and temperament made fights he could have won clearly, very difficult, despite his speed advantage over all of them. So while my immediate reaction was one the same as Xplosive's - that Lora was better, and would win a clear (116-112?) decision - a few minutes thought on the way home from the shop has led me over to the side of Sahaprom. Veeraphol's right hand was like a laser, and the set up for it with his feints and lead hand is brilliant. His closing-off-the-ring, angular footwork was extremely good. I don't think Nishioka was any less than Lora when it comes to speed and agility, and all in all, Sahaprom handled him quite well. Obviously Nish did tie with him twice, and IMO won one of their four fights (losing the other three), but he fought very differently to Lora. I'm just comparing the speed. So, combine Sahaprom's ability to deal with the speed with Lora's tendancy to trade, and I think Sahaprom is very capable of winning. Like I said, I favour him. My biggest worry when picking Sahaprom, is his rhythm. It was very basic, and often on one-beat. Hozumi was happy to use his feet to L-step and pivot around Deathmask, keeping him turning, and set up his timing to land clean on Deathmask during the half beat. While strategically that worked for Hozumi, I only thought he won that fight based on his workrate, which was higher than Lora's and Sahaprom's handspeed and workrate of his own had been on the decline for a good few years. I also don't know whether Lora's style and sense of rhythm was good enough to exploit this weakness. I think it's a close, split-decision either way. I'm going Sahaprom, but I don't mind either pick.
Excellent post and analysis as always George! I guess we both see Happy differently. For me I do class Lora as more of a pure boxer type in the same mold as someone like Whitaker, where he was more of a boxer-mover first but will fight up close when he wants to. He does tend to let his hands go on occasion when he feels like he can hurt an opponent or wants to prove a point that he can trade. But more often he preferred to dance around, evade, and counterpunch. Sahaprom’s rythm can be, like you said, one note at times which I can see Lora full advantage of. Sahaprom was an accurate puncher but he never had one punch KO that someone like Gaby Canizales had when he stopped Lora. Lora was hard to hit but could be open to be hit when he chose to be aggressive and trade punches. Like many defensive wizards Lora did have problems admiring his own work and focused too much on not getting hit and he was prone to showboat. Jibaro Perez was able to use his workrate to tame Lora, but he also had size and length to his advantage, which Sahaprom did not have. Lora was definitely the more talented fighter of the two while Sahaprom was more cagey and methodical. I do think that at his best Lora would have been able to outbox Sahaprom to a 8-4, 9-3 type of fight.
Was hoping more would chime in. It’s an interesting clash of styles. One guy had a brief prime but was fantastic while the other guy was more consistent.
Tbh, I don't think this fight would be that exciting after the begining, though it is a very interesting style clash as Flo said. I can see Sahaphrom getting a close but clear decision, after Lora slows down in the mid and later rounds, with Sahaphrom gaining points from well sniped right hands. Lora's tendency to admire his own work would only make it worse IMO. If Lora wroks enough and uses his strength as an advantage also, he wins. In his very short prime he was a phenom,
I don’t see much Lora could do to lose, even if he opted to trade or clown. Sahaprom wasn’t the type to give him major problems regardless of what kind of bravado he felt like bringing.
A mix of what Bujia, X and Flo said. Lora was just more talented and elusive than Sahaprom and at least as skilled, well schooled and refined. Sahaprom in some respects was a pared down, box-punching version of Happy, more focused but more one paced as well. Not with the sort of styles edge required to really cut the gap enough imo, and I really rate Sahaprom highly in terms of ability. Just that I feel that the great outliers in various styles are well suited to beating him despite his balanced approach ie he's capable of beating very good swarmers, very good defensive fighters but the great defensive fighters and swarmers are probably just going to outstrip him in terms of pure ability.
