Lupe Pintor - Pintor's title reign always seemed to be semi-tainted by the fact that he won his title on such a hotly disputed decision. What got lost in that criticism is that Pintor is the only fighter ever to go the full 15 rounds with Zarate, and he gave him the closest, toughest fight by far of his bantamweight title reign. He was not only tough and relentless but also an underrated technician. He showed himself to be a very good champion, successfully defending against a string of respectable contenders - Albert Davila, Elijiro Murita, Johnny Owen, Alberto Sandoval, etc. Then he moved up to jr. feather, and like against Zarate, fought one of the very best ever in that division and gave him his single toughest fight at the weight ever. When he was supposedly past his prime, he came back to finally win the jr. feather title by beating a respectable champion in Juan Meza. He didn't hold the title for long, which brings me to the next entry on my "underrated" list... ...Samart Payakaroon - The Meldrick Taylor of the jr. feather division. He is barely talked about today (outside of Thailand that is), but in his day he looked to be a surefire great in the making. He was a lightning quick southpaw with a killer fight-ending punch. He was a great amateur and his talent was so phenomenal that he was matched with a former champion in his pro debut! :yikes -and he won! yikes After only about 10 fights, he challenged two-division champion Pintor for his jr. feather title. Payakaroon toyed with Pintor easily through 4 rounds, then flattened him with a single "out of nowhere" left cross. Payakaroon then accepted the challenge of another former champion, Juan Meza, and beat him too. It looked like the sky was the limit for Payakaroon - but then the sky fell! An equally talented, unbeaten phenom named Jeff Fenech moved up to jr. feather to challenge Payakaroon. What was expected to be a very evenly matched fight turned into a slaughter, as Fenech, giving the greatest performance of his career, easily cut off the ring and blasted Payakaroon into a 4th round knockout. The KO was a brutal one, leaving Payakaroon on the canvas for 10 minutes and nearly choking on his own tongue. Payakaroon was only semi-active after that, but in the early '90s he got his act together and made one last go for a title. On memory alone, he got himself ranked and earned at shot at featherweight champ Eloy Rojas, but he was stopped and never fought again. Oh, what could have been! Damn you, Fenech!! :twisted: What are some of your thoughts/memories of these fighters? And do you have any fighters of your own you'd like to espouse about?
Apparently Payakaroon was enjoying the celebrity status in Thailand a bit too much by the time he fought Fenech.A truly incompetent display, even considering the ability of Fenech. He did have some great tools and beatiful movement.
Payakaroon's KO of Pintor was unebelievable, to put such a tough and durable fighter out of there like that. I remember someone saying the fight was delayed which put Pintor off, on top of other "tricks" being employed to try and give Payakaroon some kind of advantage. No idea, personally.
I don't know either, but I know that Pintor had trouble making weight and ultimately failed to make weight, which meant he would've forfeited the title if he had won. That became a moot point once he got flattened. Pintor was definitely past his prime then IMO, but "age" alone can't excuse the way he was totally outclassed. It was still a very impressive and unexpected display by Payakaroon.
Payakaroon is an alltime great muay thai kickboxer...probably p4p one of the best ever. An extremely excellent fighting talent but Fenech showed him that boxing was Jeff's domain and not his...That was a pretty unexpectedly one-sided fight all things considered , apparently it is still talked about over in Thailand, whenever an Aussie speaks to a thai about boxing, Fenech-Samarat comes up.
Sorry guys........ Samart made a mess of himself prior to the fight with Fenech. Being a flambouyant playboy in Thailand was his main claim, prior to the battering from Fenech. He is an underestimated... yet, could not help himself. .. The bloke had a career in Muay Thai and Pro. boxing. After the Fenech demolision, he returned to Thailand, a shamed figure, went into self-exile.. becoming a monk.. (lucky to be left with out a bullet in the skull from reports), and then returned to modern life. A pop idol and social butterfly, he does, as WhAROCK suggests, retain a heroic stature in Thailand. His name is well enshrined in Thai folk law, or conversation..... this, personally, I can vouch for. Bill Mordey laughed at the ridiculous behaviour of the Payakarun team, in the weeks leading up to the Fenech bout.. the alcohol flowed, the women were frequent, the lifestyle was hardly a training camp and the outcome was well placed. Pity though... Samart was on par with with a many others who managed duel/triple title claims....
Another one you could add is Holman Williams his resume is excellent was denied a title shot and fought and beat many great fighter many of whom most rate higher then him probably due to the lack of footage available on him. Also some of his opponents like Burley get extra attention due to books written about them or accounts of greats like Robinson avoiding a possible match. It is a shame really I rate both Burley and Williams very close they have similar resumes (I believe Holman's is slightly better) and went 3-3-1 with each other although the number don't tell the whole story. Yet many have Charley top 30 p4p and rightly so yet Holman rarely breaks into the top 50. He also has wins over Marshall went 2-1 with him as well as Archie Moore, Chase, Satterfeild, Booker, Lytell, Wade and Cocoa Kid (although the Kid regularly got the better of Holman.) Even when he was far past his best he gave a prime LaMotta a very tough fight a decision some felt could have gone his way.
