Anyone have any thoughts on him?.Not a name you see mentioned much at all. I was watching his first fight with Davila and domination of zaragoza earlier today.he had excellent technical skills; among the best of all the Bantamweights from a defense and countering point of view. stylistically he was a bit like a mixture of Zapata and Benitez.Lots of weird angles and exaggerated defensive moves, but could also get down to business in a more textbook manner as well.Unfortunately like a lot of the great defensive fighters he seemed enamoured with his skills in that area, often being very laid back offensively and more interested in making the opponent look foolish. This eventually saw him come undone against the freakishly tall and offensively talented Raul Perez, who soundly outworked him.Weight issues and perhaps fading dedication put an end to his Bantamweight prime after that. Overall, i don't think he had the big wins or the longevity to be compared to the usual suspects like Jofre, Olivares etc at the very top of the Bantamweight division, but he fits in nicely with Rose, Chandler, Pintor and others a notch down.Definitely one of the divisions best technical fighters.
Happy Lora was given a lot of hype for a non-American small guy. He had some good names on his resume as well, (Zaragoza; Vazquez), but the first time I saw him fight was against Perez, which was a big upset defeat. I was very disappointed with what I saw, but with hindsight, Raul Perez was a very good, underrated fighter, and Happy Lora, although perhaps not worth the hype he was given, was a still a fine fighter in his own right.
Perez was a very talented fighter as well.He squandered his career with his subsequent lack of dedication at a time when a unification with canizales would have been a great fight.
My most vivid memory of Lora is what happened when his long awaited and overdue fight with Gaby Canizales finally happened. That was reportedly the first time that both guys were ever down in their careers. That was a big comeback win for Gaby, who was just one loss away from obscurity at that time.
That was a great short fight, though both of them were well past their best unfortunately. I'd have favoured Lora to beat him clearly in the mid-eighties.
Happy was one of the better defensive fighters Ive seen, even though I have not seen an extensive catalogue of him...great mix of the unorthodox and orthodox as you said Mante.
Was just looking over his fight with Perez and I must say, I was really impressed with Happy's defensive abilities. He was basically fighting a featherweight that night, and still managed to do a heck of a lot of good defensive work with such height and reach disadvantages. That said, I think he took the wrong approach to that fight. He should never have tried to beat a guy with such a height and reach advantage from the outside. He should have fought him like Whitaker did against Roger Mayweather: on his chest, digging shots to the body, and not allowing Perez to use his reach and height advantages. Not sure what he was like as a body puncher, haven't seen enough of him, but that would have been a much easier task than trying to avoid the tarantula that was Perez from the outside.
That is the first and last time i have seen both fighters fight. But what a geat fight it was too. I didnt know they were both past their primes.
