Rose by a UD. He's the greater skilled fighter. Would be cagey in the beginning before Rose finds his rhythm.
Cut and paste from a thread by Xplosive earlier this year because I'm an idle c#nt. Very close fight, I'd wager. Lora had better defensive reflexes and was the slightly better punch slipper, albeit against slightly lesser opposition. Probably the harder puncher too. Rose quicker of hand and foot, stronger and the better ring general., possibly sharper at getting off first. Both were huge at the weight with it having a detrimental effect eventually on them both. Rose gassed against the late rounds strength of Rudkin but otherwise proved himself repeatedly over 15 against elite opponents whereas Happy had trouble over 12 at times; I suspect he'd be the likely one to tire more over 15. My other worry for him is his occasional tendency, like many defensive wizards, to fall too much into a defensive routine and admire his own work a shade too much just for the sake of it. Rose was such a quick accurate puncher that I reckon he'd beat Happy to the punch a bit too often in that scenario when his speed disadvantage might already be what separates them even if he let his hands go more frequently. That said, we never saw Rose against a defensive stylist of Lora's calibre, but I'd probably still fancy Lionel to edge it over 15. I think he was the slightly better fighter at his best but you have to think that Lora could at least come close to doing what Rudkin, Castillo and Sakurai did.
Yeah, I was about to say - I proposed this matchup a couple months ago. Glad Tin Ribs remembered. Great chessmatch, but Rose was better than Lora, and would win a clear decision.
