Lionel Rose W15 Fighting Harada

Yeah, he was decked by Sakura, Medel and Castillo, though in winning performances. The medel and Sakurai kds weren't damaging, but Castillo seemed to hurt him, and some said that Chucho softened him up for Olivares.

 

I've felt that way sometimes too, when watching that fight. There was a lot talk of him being weight drained for the fight - but then, he was always reputed to pull a lot of weight for his fights, so who knows if he was really any different for this fight than in prior title defenses. I do believe Rose showed himself to be all-around quicker, busier, and a sharper puncher than Jofre, who used less movement and tended to load up on one shot at a time.

I think the Jofre-Harada-Rose matchups may have been a testament to styles. Harada's superior footwork, workrate, and smothering attack were troublesome for the normally patient and methodical Jofre, but against Rose, Harada found himself against an even quicker, busier opponent who could match anything Harada tried with him. Conversely, I think Jofre would've taken Rose, who seemed to be vulnerable to big KO punchers.

 

An interesting theory, and one that does coincide with how things played out after that fight.

Rose not only looked lackluster in his defense against Rudkin (in which it seemed that he just out-bluffed Rudkin in the early rounds, and then held on once Rudkin starting letting his hands fly) but after that he barely squeaked by clubfighter Ernie Cruz on a split decision, and was floored in that fight too. He certainly seemed to be showing quite a few ch!nks in his armor by the time Olivares got to him.

 

My impression is that Rose going into that anticipated defense against the undefeated tiger Olivares was like a Christian going to the lions...it was sensed by the boxing community..fans and writers alike, that Olivares was going to make short work of Rose. Those knockdowns revealed a vulnerability in that chin of his...and Olivares's rival Castillo almost capitalized on it. He (Castillo) bitterly disputed the decision, and claimed that he softened up Rose for the streaking Olivares...Maybe making the weight was too much for Rose.

 

:deal..Yes indeed..I thought the same thing..that Rose's style was tailored more so for Jofre..I thought Jofre would have taken Rose..also, I thought that weight making issues were the reason that Harada lost to Rose, as much as whatever Rose did to beat him.

 

The bantamweight division was especially fascinating to me from the time of Jofre all the way through to Zamora/Zarate..each successive title transition was ...again, fascinating to me...and was a reason for making me a boxing fan as much as anything else.

 

Harada should never have had any weight making issues at Bantam, he was just an undedicated fat ******* who shortened his career with his training habits.

Though still formidable Rose had definitely lost a lot of his legs and quickness by the end of his Bantam days , reminds me a lot of Kalule's fairly quick decline at 154 physically.

Plus he had no real punching power against world class Bantams, even without weight issues you really needed something to keep Olivares honest at that time and he didn't have it.

Even had he moved up earlier and avoided that beating, i think he would have struggled.He would likely have been completely featherfisted at 126 or 130 and with a dentable chin it would have been tough against fighters not simply content to box with him on the outside.Not many fighters would beat a sharp Rose by outboxing him however, i'll say that.