The second one yes, the first however I have been unable to locate a copy of, and it wasn`t for a lack of effort either let me tell you.
What an exciting fighter Fernandez was. Any fight that he was in you could expect fireworks. What a dynamite puncher he was. I never wanted to miss any of his ring battles on TV back in the 60's. Rory Calhoun, Marcel Pigou, Joe DeNucci, Dick Tiger, Gene Fullmer, Joey Giambra etc. were all exciting contests. I don't know how a fight with Mugabi would have gone. I always thought that the Fullmer fight took alot out of both Florentino and Gene. I would favor the Fernandez who had yet to fight Fullmer to win against Mugabi. I would pick Mugabi to defeat Fernandez if they fought after the Fullmer fight. I am justifying this by what happened in the Tiger, Carter, Giambra, and some other battles that happened after 1961.
I think it was mostly because he was against better class opposition, atleast in Dick Tiger. He was yet to have his battles with Rocky Rivera and the upset over Jose Torres at that point.
Agreed. It was Fullmer who took most of the real punishment in their fight, despite winning. If anything took something out of Fernandez, I'd say it was the beating he took from Tiger.
I think the first fight is actually better than their 2nd. Ortega seemed more willing to stand and trade and I thought it was a lot closer than the 2nd fight. Great action fights, both of them.
I'll go with The Beast only coz my heart says too. Mugabi early or Fernandez late dont see it going 15. Pick 'em.