Just to get away from dear old James Jackson Jeffries , and Fearless , Jimmy Young for awhile. Does anyone think Curtis Cokes is a vastly underated ,unappreciated Champion? Or ,on the other hand does nobody give a ****? Answers on a post card to anorak boxing www.com. First three replies get ignored.
i like Curtis Cokes i feel he came around at the wrong time and gets eclipsed by Mantequilla. A solid champ but by no means great. He won the title then seemed to just be past his prime. Beat an ageing LMR for it though which was good. But if this posts going to be ignored i wont say anymore
I never really thought Cokes was a truly great fighter, but he does have the distinction of beating Luis Rodriguez 2 out of 3 (and being the first man ever to stop him), which can't be knocked. For the most part though, I felt he was just a good, solid fighter who slipped in during the window left open between the reigns of two ATG champions; similar to Chalky Wright at featherweight, perhaps.
I was a fan of Cokes when he was champion, and admired his tenacity, which was as instrumental to his success as much as his skills were. He really was unfortunate to have met up with Mantequilla Napoles, who put 2 back to back, almost identical whoopin's on him...check out pictures of both fights when at the end, he sat all beaten and eyes all puffed up..those were impressive performances by Napoles.