When most think of Oba Carr they think of him as the welterweight gatekeeper of the 90's which is true but he fought in a era with two hall of famers(oscar & tito) and a borderline HOF'er in Ike Quartey. Recently the Quartey vs Carr fight has been posted on youtube and I forgot how talented Oba Carr was, he had a nice all around boxing pedigree obviously defense was'nt one of them but getting back to the question who do you think Oba Carr would beat in todays red hot 147 pound division?
Carr gets his championship ... I think the fact that he came up in that era really hurt his chances of obtaining that elite level status. I think that he would definitely be a top 5 top 10 WW and wouldve had a title...
So your trying to imply that had he not fought Tito that he would have beaten Ike and Oscar?.....If you are implying that I would have to disagree.
He wouldn't have had that KO loss on his mind ... I can't say that he wouldve beaten those guys ... I can say that he wouldve did much better. This guy had skill -- He thought he was the type of fighter that could get guys out of there instead of outboxing guys ... using his speed, agility, and boxing skills.
He was a cut below the top guys, it's that simple. He was a slick, talented kid, but remember that even a shopworn Livingstone Bramble knocked him down twice, beat him, but was robbed in Detroit. I don't think he'd really beat any of top welters of today. His best chances would be against Quintana and Cintron, as he could use his speed to outbox them. PBF, Cotto, Williams, Margo, and even Mosley are better than a prime Oba Carr.
How is he going to get inside Williams's reach? I think Williams would befuddle Carr, who was basically a mover, and take a wide UD.
Carr was actually a natural 140 lber fighting above his natural weight for most of his later career. If he didn't go for the money in a Trinidad fight and stayed at 140 he could have picked up a belt of two.
Quintana is a mover and got inside Williams reach and Margarito towards the later rounds of his bout with Williams started to connect.
Tito didnt ruin Carr. livingstone Bramble had carr in more trouble and did more damage to carr in the early parts of that fight then Tito did to him. Carr was just not an elite fighter. He was the closest thing to elite without being elite. He was never blown out of a fight until late in his career. He was doing well vs all the elite fighters that he faced but just came up short.
I remember that fight. Bramble got robbed. Oba was very arrogant back at 140 with the kissing of his glove and then he would hit you. What really hurt his career was the fallout with Manny Steward. There was talks of Oba against Camacho, but due to the fallout, it did not happen. I heard it was pretty ugly as far as the fallout. What followed was inactivity and then Oba moved up to WW. I agree with you EA. Oba was just a slight cut under the big dogs. If he had any chance to become a champion, it would have been with Ike, but he failed. He fought everybody. I don't think he fell as one of the fighters that Tito destroyed. Oba was already getting shot. If he would have been managed better, who knows, he would have had at least one title. Too bad, I really liked his style.
I remember Carr fighting on Tuesday Night Fights on USA. I don't remember too well about the fall-out with Steward, but anyone who works with Panama Lewis, then I'm happy that he didn't succeed at the highest level. I hope Panama fails at every aspect of life and ends up rotting in a decrepid prison cell where he belongs.