Resume - Melvin Paul Rafael Limon Jose Luis Ramirez Edwin Rosario Howard Davis Jr. Cornelius Boza Edwards Vinny Pazienza Greg Haugen Losses - Greg Haugen Julio Cesar Chavez Felix Trinidad Oscar De La Hoya (he was pretty past it by this time) I don't think he is an ATG. Not very close either.
I think he falls tantalizingly close to being an ATG....the critical event that stopped him from becoming one was the Rosario fight, which spooked him out of the running.
bang on! the rosario fight ruined him and kept him as a good (but scared) fighter rather than a great one. had him won thoroughly,with the style he used against ramirez, he could have been the 80s floyd mayweather and a potential top 40 atg
The ironic thing about him is that as he aged and then faced the likes of Chavez, DLH and Trinidad, he showed he was actually a tough cookie. He COULD take it. He lost all those fights decisively, and took man-sized beatings each time over the distance. To say that he was a ***** and somehow ran himself out of ATG contention out of fear (a stance I wouldn't argue with, by the way) is unfortunate for him, because he showed plenty of mettle once his chance at true greatness was over.
Yeah, he earned my respect for all time with the way he manned up and sucked up that beating from Chavez. He had balls AND a chin...and he really took it downstairs too.
It's weird because I rate him as an atg h2h but not p4p. I think he'd be a pretty tough matchup for almost every atg at SFW, LW or JWW. With that said, he simply doesn't have the resume to be on anyone's p4p list at any weight...
To be honest, I can't see that he's only a borderline HOFer. If I had a gun to my had about whether or not he's getting in, I'd be quite comfortable saying "Of course." As far as ATG, I think he's one of many arguable cases. Meaning, I can understand perfectly well if someone says he missed the cut and I can understand saying he is. I can't see him on any short list but if he cracks the top 100, if you're going by a number, that's fine with me.
Agreed 100%. The best fighters he beat were Ramirez and Rosario - and he just barely, controversially scraped by the latter, and altered his whole career just to avoid a rematch with him. On top of that, he choked badly against the genuine great fighters that he did fight (Chavez, Tito, Hoya). Hardly the stuff legends are made of. It's debatable whether he should even be considered just great, let alone an ATG.
