I am always seeing him on P4P lists at around 30-40 mark yet know little despite him being a champ at 147 who lost to King Carlos. What was his resume like? Do you feel his wins and the way he won deserved such a high ranking? Was the 1970's welterweight era anything special at all? Thanks
The 70's at Welterweight was solid, if unspectacular IMO. But also, Napoles got some serious work done in the 60's also, beating the likes of Emile Griffith, Curtis Cokes, and Eddie Perkins to name a few. Napoles was a world class fighter throughout the 60's and was pretty much ducked at Lightweight. I would be more upset at seeing Napoles lower than 30-40 than I would be at seeing him higher. I think a prime for prime matchup between Duran and Napoles at Lightweight is nearly a tossup (I'd give the slightest edge to Duran). So yes, he was a great, great fighter. Watch this footage at Lightweight against a very capable fighter: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5oVr4jN7Ek[/ame]
In terms of skills and ability, he was up there with the real elite of history like Whitaker, Duran, SRL, SRR, Pep, etc.
He was the uncrowned 140 champ aswell people tend to overlook...beating Perkins and Hernandez just after and just before they won the crown respectively. [grammer sic] Edit..Actually I meant Perkins had just lost the title.
Napoles beat a very canny and solid champion in Cokes...Mantequilla is an alltime great...truly of the elite.