Jose Napoles Resumè

It's excellent, top 5 worthy. He got the title from a very good champ in Curtis Cokes, and made 13 defenses at the poundage against the best around, beating Emile Griffith, Ernie Lopez, Manuel Gonzalez, Hedgemon Lewis, Clyde Gray and more. In fact, out of all the opponents he defended the title against, only 2 never managed to become top 3 ranked in the division at one point or another in their careers.

Only Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard are clearly ahead of him at the poundage for me. Britton and Gavilan are the only other ones that could be argued to be greater, but Napoles may well be greater than both.

 

Napoles is the most skilled WW ever imo. Supremely smooth.

 

Agree about Trinidad, but then we should also consider that he probably lost to Quartey, could have lost to past prime Whitaker and definitely lost to Mosley.

 

Nah. Whitaker, Chavez and Camacho were way past their best when Oscar beat them, and he arguably didn't even beat Whitaker, they weren't better wins than Griffith or Cokes. All he has left are Quartey and the loss turned win to Trinidad, it's nowhere near enough to compensate given Napoles' top wins and depth.

 

I wouldn't say Pernell Whitaker was "way past his prime" he was the Welterweight champion and P4P number 3 or 4 at that time. Yes Whitaker had shown signs of slowing down in prior fights vs Hurtado, Rivera, but Whitaker was a still a capable fighter at that time and it was ODLH's first fight at Welterweight.

Chavez i agree was more past it than Whitaker but again he was still Jr Welterweight champion and had decent wins vs Lopez, Taylor 2, coming into ODLH fight.

I totally agree that Camacho was completely finished though his best weight was Super Featherweight/Lightweight, and he had no business at Welterweight plus he'd already been dominated years ago by Trinidad, Chavez, and i think Camacho only got a fight vs ODLH for beating a ghost version of Sugar Ray Leonard.

I do agree though that Napoles beat better versions of Griffith, Cokes, than ODLH did of the opponents above.

 

It's not just Hurtado fight he got a gift decision vs Rivera in their 1st fight, and wasn't overly convincing in the rematch either despite winning it more comfortably the 2nd time around.

Getting dropped twice by Hurtado and being behind on points was a bit of a shocker aswell, although to be fair Hurtado dropped Tszyu twice and swelled up his eye bad.

 

Hi Vic.
I am not big on " resumes" as I am not fan of " under/overrated " there will always be posters who disagree with one posters thoughts and ratings, always, seen it a hundred times on the forum, so with that in mind, when I am asked to delve into a fighters resume, I furrow my brow, except when the fighter happens to be Napoles, who is my all time fav, pretty sure a few posters are aware of this.
So, I am ( with your permission ) going skirt over that, and just reminisce about the fighter himself, from the first time I saw him, which was on World of Sport, one Saturday afternoon, defending against Lewis, first fight, so a 15 round points win for Napoles, I was hooked, everything about him was class, little ticks like squatting just after the bell for each round, the letters M and N on the legs of his shorts, even the Reyes boxing gloves looked better when he was wearing them, his socks were just at the perfect height, showing off a sturdy calf, the way he held his guard, fists at half mast, around chest to shoulder, poised and ready to strike, no rushing, not many wasted punches, each shot was timed to perfection, not J Jackson power granted, but they stunned and bruised, you were not worried in the early going, but as his pace increased so did his hurtfulness, like all greats, he knew he was the better fighter, he knew no matter how stiff the resistance, later rather than sooner they will succumb to his fists, were there better WWs , of course, not many mind, but for me Jose Napoles can do without me outlining his resume, or argue about his place in the annals of his division, there are demonstrably better posters on here than me, I will leave that to them, as long as they leave me ,with my teenage memories of a special fighter .
Stay safe Vic, chat soon buddy.

 

Well Emile Griffith went on to beat names like Dick Tiger and challenge Carlos Monzon for Middleweight title, so he was still competing at a very high level.

I definitely think Griffith was in better form than Whitaker when he fought ODLH, i've defended ODLH's win over Whitaker to some extent. But the fact is Whitaker had shown signs of declining in 3 prior fights to ODLH fight, and then didn't looked impressive in his next fight after losing to ODLH in which got banned for using Cocaine.

Curtis Cokes was the number 1 man at that time, i think he was rated number 1 Welterweight for a good 4 or 5 year period. The fact that Napoles totally shut him out twice definitely elevates the win over ODLH getting a very controversial decision over a faded Whitaker.

 

Whitaker would lose all his fights afterwards, and Chavez would never beat anyone worth of note again. You could argue that their absolute peaks where a full decade prior. Griffith had recently beaten Benvenuti and Tiger, and would later put a good showing against Monzon. There's a vast difference between that Griffith and those versions of Whitaker and Chavez.