What an excellent idea. Maybe smashing the pint glass is going too far. But, I agree with your ****ysis and definitely pick Dejesus over Mancini.
I think it's hilarious that he said Mancini would "overwhelm" DeJesus. In none of their 3 fights did Duran ever "overwhelm" DeJesus, and Cervantes beat the Holy Hell outta him yet didnt stop him. Yet Ray Mancini destroys him? Ummmm, yeaaa...... no. Only one of these guys was dominated in their primes by a non-great fighter, it was Mancini when Bramble dismantled him. And how did Bramble dismantle him? With good, quick counterpunching. There's not a damn thing that Bramble did better than DeJesus.
I didn't post that to make him look "bad," I posted it because it was his title-winning effort. (Which I stated in the post.) That's him winning his alphabet belt. Sorry, that guy in that video doesn't beat Mancini or really any of the top fighters in the 80s. And if we were in a bar, you'd agree with me.
In his long career, Cervantes beat about as many names as Mancini did in his very short career ... not many. Cervantes lost to a 17-year-old Benitez and got knocked out in four rounds by Pryor. Cervantes racked up a lot of defenses against guys you couldn't pick out of a lineup, and lost to nearly every "real" name he faced. In that regard, Cervantes is Virgil Hill. You'd take him against most ordinary challengers, but he's going to lose to the names and he's not near the top of anyone's all-time list. Had Mancini challenged Cervantes in 81/82, he'd have overwhelmed and stopped him like Pryor did.
Mancini is highly overrated on this board. Yes, the Ramirez win was nice, but Jose presented no slickness whatsoever and that win would have no bearing on this matchup. That pre-title Ramirez is Mancini's best win shows how protected and well managed he was to win a title and have several defenses.
DeJesus KO 8 as he systematcially tears Mancini apart. Dejesus was a very, very skilled and talented fighter with tons of natural talent.
Cervantes made 17 successful title defenses over two reigns. Thirteen of those 17 successful defenses came against Joshua Marquez, Carlos Giminez, Lion Furuyama, Lee Chang-Kil, Peppermint Frazer, Shinichi Kodata, Adriano Morrero, Tongta Kiatvayupakdi, Norman Sekgapane, Kim Kwang-Min, Miguel Montilla (twice) and Victor Ortiz (not as good as the welter who beat Berto). Hell, Danny Garcia could make thirteen successful defenses against that lot Cervantes faced. Talk about padding a record. And then Cervantes lost to a 17-year-old (a junior in high school) and he got blown out by Pryor. Virgil Hill fought his fair share of Mike Peak's in title defenses, and got smacked when he faced an old Hearns and broken in two when he faced Roy Jones. But, overall, Hill beat better contenders than Cervantes did. Cervantes fought in an incredibly weak era. Had he fought when Chavez, Taylor, Whitaker, Tszyu and Hatton were around, he wouldn't have lasted very long as champ at all. My apologies to Virgil Hill.
I think so too. He was lucky a couple of times, but that's kind of balanced against the fact that he cut some of his best scalps on the road, in Europe. Hill gets unnecessarily low-balled IMO. Having said that, I personally think Cervantes is a better boxer p4p and all that.
* Peppermint Frazier was a solid titleholder who likely would have reigned a lot longer had Cervantes not been around. Just because you hadn't heard of him doesn't mean he couldn't fight. Montilla, Furuyama, Gimenez, et al weren't spectacular, but they were solid, serviceable contenders. Plus there were non-title wins over Mamby, Kazama, and Adigue. You're underrating Pambele's work at the weight.
You had to ruin that dubble by adding Hatton to your list. I think both Hill and Cervantes had a lot of mediocre\average challengers.As did Chavez and Tszyu incidentally. Cervantes has the better top end wins against Locche and Dejesus(even though he was undersized and looked a midget next to Antonio) though.
I see this as a pretty straightforward win for DeJesus. He was simply a better fighter than Mancini and no amount of heart is going to make up for that essential difference in skill level.
