I will go for McGuigan , Winstone was a wonderful boxer, but he liked guys who charged in ,so he could jab their face off ,Barry would be more measured and his left hooks would drain Winstone imo. Close fight but McGuigan takes a dec.
I actually think a guy like McGuigan, who was more measured in his attack, would be better suited for Winstone, who in my opinion didn't have the offensive artillery to out-box the best swarmers/pressure fighters. He fared well against Saldivar in charging up mode, which is basically what McGuigan would be attempting with him. It was only when Saldivar really opened up that he started to overwhelm Winstone. I think he wins a comfortable points decision over McGuigan.
Offensively it was Saldivar's all-time great straight left down the pipe that trumped Winstone, so hard to avoid consistently unless you are a defensive specialist, and a very heavy debilitating punch. Winstone had an excellent tight glove and arm defence against hooks though, and the left hook was McGuigan's key weapon.look at the way he consistently picked off the double and triple hooks the quick Baby Luis was throwing at him.In conjunction with Winstone turning him it would be tough for barry to get his usual good body/head attack going.And while he was defensively tidy on the front foot at his best, i don''t think he has the reflexes to consistently slip that jab(especially as the fight wears on) and stop it from dicatating large chunks of rounds. The fact Winstone likely wouldn't be able to hurt McGuigan with anything and his tendency to go to the ropes and try an bit of counterpunching, and more George Benton-esque defensive moves(not really his forte imo)would make for some competitive moments, but overall i tend to see Barry being turned at ring-centre and outpointed.
Agreed. Good post. The obvious thing outside of everything brought to the table by Saldivar, including the straight left, that really hurt Winstone in those matchups was the disfigurement of his right hand. He was arguably the best pure proponent of ring science ever to come from the UK and one of the great technicians of the featherweight division ability-wise, but his particular style of smooth, stand-up boxing would have gained even more from the natural punching power that he was partially denied by those missing fingertips. Winstone plus better natural punching power would have been a scary thought IMO. As long as he keeps the fight at ring-centre, I can see him taming Barry over the distance via clear(ish) decision in spite of the intelligent pressure McGuigan would be likely to bring. Spear him with jab, manoevre him and turn him, never letting him get fully set. I could probably see Winstone beating a lot of history's best counterpunchers in and around his weight class at some point, though the greatest swarmers and aggressive boxer-punchers might have likely gotten to him more often than not, as Saldivar did. I can remember posting something ages ago stating that on his best day he would have beaten Marquez, beaten Morales and maybe have beaten Barrera, though I got quite a bit of backlash for it.
The deciding factors in Winstones defeats to Saldivar were the fact that he was a southpaw ,and his naturally superior body strength. The south paw stance negated a lot of the effectiveness of Winstone's money punch ,his left jab. Watch their trio of fights,you will see Winstone throwing more hooks and crosses than usual, because he could not connect with enough of his jabs against the port sider. McGuigan was orthodox so would be met with more jabs comng in. I have no problem with anyone picking the Welshman,its one of those fights for which you can make a convincing case either way. ps McGuigan also had a very effective right cross .
Another bad match up for McGuigan. Sure the Clones Cyclone would be very competative, but Winstone would have that edge in Boxing ability that would see him though the storm to win the close decision or late cut eye stoppage. Winstone WU15
