Honestly, I'm surprised these never actually fought. Two of the best BWs to never win the title. So, who wins? Say its for a vacant belt over fifteen with supplemental scoring, so one of them has to be crowned champ.
I think when Rudkin’s career was entering the world class phase, Medel was passing his peak. He may have just gone beyond his peak in the Pimentel effort although he did perform well in the Harada rematch and even shook him up a few times. His career has been long and hard. I think in that 1966-1968 era I would give the edge to Rudkin as he was the fresher fighter then. The Medel of a few years earlier in his absolute peak probably is favored but it’s possible it takes two or three fights to separate them. You’d be hard pressed to find many better fighters in the last 40-50 years that didn’t win a title at their primes. I personally felt Rudkin beat Rose and was very close with Harada and that is after he started very slowly in both fights. Medel was a fighter who was content to sit back and wait for the fight to come to him which could lead to a slow fight over six or seven rounds but then these two would create high quality action. Both had great championship records in an era where the Mexican title, British title, European title, North American title etc; meant more than the world title trinkets today. I’m not into mythical matches but this is a refreshing one as its fighters that haven’t been beaten to death in discussions or mythicals besides they actually fought at the same time.
There was talk of them fighting in England shortly after me dad fought Harada. Just looking, they shared 9 common opponents
The highlights are too short to form that opinion but it must surely be up there given Medel’s form prior to and after that fight. Jofre was also in fine form against Caraballo given that he had been out for 18 months, was at altitude in Colombia and against a totally prime top opponent with a difficult style. Reports would suggest Jofre looked unbeatable the night he fought Medel in São Paulo and that was right in his prime as he was still fighting with regularity and was 26 years old.
Medel was a very dangerous fighter to punch with, looking at McGowan and Harada but Jofre did punch with him when he was in his prime and came through. I'd love to see the whole fight. I'd love to see the Saldivar fight even more.
I think Medel probably wins a close decision. Rudkin was great, and still gets extremely underrated when talking about the best of that era, but I can't help feeling that Medel's firepower is the difference. Rudkin would definitely get caught with something massive and fight-changing if he decides to get aggressive and mix things up. I think the change it'd make to the fight, is to make Rudkin way more cautious and let's Medel control things. I can certainly see Rudkin going on offense and winning rounds, doing well etc, but if he does that for the whole fight, I think he'd get KOed. I can see Rudkin sticking to his fundamentals, and trying to out-box Medel at range, but I think that'd lead to a less entertaining, more tactical match. Either guy could win that sorta thing. Medel's power might be the difference again there.
Blimey ! Poor old Rudkin can't even get an easy fight on here ! This is a seriously good match up between two terrific little technicians who both had buckets of courage. The key ingredients here are Medel's edge in power and Rudkin's tremendous engine. Oh, and I have disagree with George here. The peak Rudkin was only ever knocked out by Ruben Olivares. To cut to the chase, I'm going to hand Alan a close decision here because he deserved to be on the right end of a hometowner.
I'll go along with that one as well. Just to dispel something. Me dad wasn't knocked out by Ruben. John Thomas called it off as he was getting up. His other stoppage was a badly cut eye in his second fight. His corner pulled him out of that one to protect his future career.
I remembered I'd posted something about Dad and Medel before so I thought I'd throw it in here. It was actually about Jesus Pimentel but Medel was mentioned Just watched Pimentel Medel and Pimentel Olivares. I'm sure if Jesus has a son he'll probably disagree but i think dad would outpoint him. He's a very dangerous puncher and tough but I really think dad had too many dimensions for him. He'd box behind the jab and wouldn't go looking for the KO. He'd box, stay off the ropes, hold the middle of the ring and I think as the fight goes on step up the pressure himself with the body shots. The most dangerous part would be the early rounds. I don't think on the whole, Jesus fought the same quality of fighter as dad. Medel was patient but I think sometimes Joe could be too patient, maybe that's why he's got quite a few losses on his ledger. Joe had that great equalizer though, his punch and he was a real trap setter the way he'd go back to the ropes and lure you in. They were the tactics that done for Harada and McGowan. Dad wasn't a puncher like Joe but was patient like him though more dynamic and probably a better punch picker and body puncher. I think Medel would be a tougher fight for dad than Pimentel. But hey, like I said, Jesus's lads would probably disagree
I’d agree with that pick (Pimentel). Jesus would have a punchers chance as he would with just about everyone but think your Dad had the tools to outpoint him. Pimentel’s best big fight opponent potential win is actually Harada I think. But that would likely need to be the Harada before Medel because he learned from that fight. It’s possible Pimentel was in the Zarate/Zamora league of puncher.
