As it happens, Jose is a friend of mine, and I was just curious as to what everybody in the Classic Forum thought of him. What are your impressions?
he gave a peak Tyson a very tough fight. I liked him because he was a contender who "gave best" had tools and wasnt afraid to fight. I actualy backed him against frank bruno since he was in good shape and bruno was coming off a layoff, but i remember He upset frank at the pres conference which was a bad move.
after a failed title atempt Bruno had a detached retina repaired. jose was the comeback opponent and jose said something like "im going to rip that eye out, he will be blind and wont box again after i finish with him" or something like that. no doubt he was just selling the fight but it spooked frank and he had a real grudge going into it. It was too much motivation, anyway I lost a stack..
Oh wow, I am gonna have to bug him about that. He totally doesn't strike me as the type that would talk trash like that, at least not now anyway, haha. Thanks for telling me that story.:good
Its true, but I think he just said to prove he was "live" and up for it ..but it just backfired. AS the away fighter the london press made jose a heavy underdog just beacse brunos comeback opponents were normaly carefuly selected fodder -which he was not. I always found it disrespectful that he wasnt given more of a chance by the London press, im sure thats what got jose's back up and made him say that. give him my regards, he would be a belt holder today.
Will do. Yeah, he definitely had what it takes to hold a belt in today's heavyweight division. He still keeps in damn good shape too. Better than a lot of the current heavyweights.
I gained a lot of respect for Ribalta from his courageous effort against the raging fury of Tyson in '86. He took tremendous punishment, while demonstrating great heart & durability as he fought back like a true warrior. I felt sorry for Jose in round 10 when it was stopped by the ref, as he could have made it the distance. I think most have only viewed Tyson-Ribalta in poor quality, so here it is in nice quality: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpz74xDdEk[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omIui0OFsb8&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXT03VO0c4&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ABsApbxrig&feature=related[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI9yo3Mycfg&feature=related[/ame]
By 1992 and 1993, Jose Ribalta was reduced to a gatekeeper guy who had a name, but little else left in the tank... I have his losses to "Tyson, Dokes and Holmes" on tape... I've never seen Ribalta win a fight... TRUTH! MR.BILL
@Charles White: Have you see these photos before? This content is protected This content is protected Also, has Jose ever commented on who was the hardest puncher he ever faced?
Good fighter. I'm not positive but I think I recall the ref asking him if he wanted to quit against Tyson and he said something like "no way". I'll have to re-watch it. We usually talk about the very best of the best on this site, but by common standards Ribalta made it to great heights. How many people can claim to have not been blown away by a near prime Tyson. He stood in there like a man. Tell him he's well remembered.
I think Jose Ribalta also partook and lost out in that shyster 1993 PPV from Mississippi in which a tournament of shot and old farts duked-it-out and the winner was suppose to clear "1" million bucks, but some backer backed out at the last minute so Tony Tubbs ended up winning $125,000 G's only... That's a huge reduction... MR.BILL
I remember that! I never saw it though, was it any good? If i remember rightly bones smith also featured in it.