For the world middleweight crown in the mid-1960s with Papp in his late 30s but still unbeaten and a fantastic amateur triple gold pedigree. Who takes it?
Papp was past it once he got to the pro level. Definitely one of the greatest amateur boxers of all time and I like his style but he was too old and didnt have the professional experience Joey G had. Giardello UD
As we know Giardello was inconsistent, sometimes he simply wasn’t up for fights and lost fights he shouldn’t have. However when he was “on“ he was sublime. I don’t see anything in Papp’s professional resume to make me think he could beat a motivated Giardello. Against the lesser version he could scrape out a UD.
We don't have much to go on here. Papp was four years older than Giardello and had much less professional experience than Joey. He had faced no one of top contender status during his professional career. Guys like Tiger Jones, Randy Sandy, and Charley Cotton were well past it when they fought Papp. Luis Folledo had a great record on paper, but he himself had not faced world-class competition. As far as I know (and I admit I may be wrong here and if I am, please let me know so I can track the film down), we have only short clips of his ring action. Giving him a real chance against Giardello is really a stretch based entirely on speculation.
Papp's professional resume is pathetically thin for the attention he has gotten over the years. As Kasimir pointed out the only world class names he fought were completely shot when he beat them. The regional talents he fought in their prime gave him a rough way to go. He might have given an old, often hot and cold Giardello a fight but Joey should have been a heavy favorite. His experience and guile would have posed a huge problem for Papp. Ignore the delusions of Ghul.
I think that Joey Giardello would have beeb too slick for Lazlo Papp, I see Giardello winning this contest by a comfortable points win.
