Jose Napoles

I used to watch Ruben Navarro on NBC's Boxing From The Forum in 1971 and 1972. He appeared on fight cards along with another famed fighter, Schoolboy Bobby Chacon.

 

An absolutely amazing fighter and beautiful to see him operate in the ring, not only that he was also very exciting too and had plenty of great performances.

 

Hi Richard.
Talking of Navarro ( nice tidy fighter ) our man Buchanan schooled him good and proper, thinking Ken would have reigned for a while had not Stone Fists come along, says a lot for Buchanan that Duran would not grant him a immediate rematch, so he went on the road and notched up some useful wins, Malave, Otero, etc, when their is talk of a pure boxer, Ken has to be at the top. stay safe buddy.

 

I love how learned his left hand was. The mark of a truly well-schooled fighter. His right he used mainly as punctuation at the end of long, beautiful sentences, but that left was perhaps the best I've seen at any weight class.

 

In my opinion Napoles doesn't beat Robinson, Leonard, or Hearns .
He is one of the top ten-twenty-five fighters in the history of the
sport.
If a trainer had a student that had only one fighter to learn from
on film. He wouldn't go wrong if Napoles was exhibit A.

 

Great post, stay safe as well my friend.

 

Jose Mantequilla Napoles was truly a great fighter and champion who sadly stayed too long for his own good. He never needed the Glamour and Glitz like champions afterward needed, he did his job, preparing for all of his bouts. He had a beauty of a left hook to the body, was as his nickname indicates, smooth as butter. He was not favored against champion Curtis Cokes on April 18 1969, but came away with a TKO 13 and the title. He showed bravery when he was stopped by Billy Backus on cuts, thus losing his title. But regained his title in the rematch, stopping Backus on June 4 1971. Napoles defended his title against the likes of Adolph Pruitt, Hedegemon Lewis, Ernie Red Lopez, Clyde Gray, Roger Menetrey, Ralph Charles, Emile Griffith, and Armando Muniz. Later in his career which began in 1958 when he left homeland Cuba before the Communist takeover, Napoles decided to take on World Middleweight Champion Carlos Monzon in Paris, France on Feb 9 1974, in a highly anticipated bout. While it was competitive early, Napoles could not match the size, weight, and strength of Monzon, who began to batter Naploes until the bout was stopped before the beginning of round 7 by cornerman Angelo Dundee as Jose also had suffered a bad laceration over the eye, something that appeared to plague Napoles throughout his career. After a return to Welterweight, he encountered two tough bouts against Muniz, then suffered the loss of his 147 lb title, a TKO 6 stoppage to John H. Stracey on Dec 6 1975.

 

He was as smooth as butter but he also cut as easily as butter too.

 

He was one of the very greatest fighters...one of the greatest champions of all of boxing history.

 

Yeah, he was alright, I guess.

 

I saw Jose Mantequilla Napoles fight as World Welterweight Champion. He was as the boxing experts say, slick as butter with a deadly left hook to the body. I saw him fight Hedgemon Lewis (twice) Roger Menetray, Ralph Charles, and Clyde Gray. Later I saw his unsuccessful bid for the World Middleweight title against champion Carlos Monzon on Feb 9 1974 in Paris, France. I did see his Welterweight title loss to John H. Stracey on Dec 6 1975.

 

Lol.

 

Much as it pains me he dismantled Griffith. Emile would probably be king in nearly any era of boxing from 147lbs-160lbs. More often of course just at WW but always competitive with the best middleweights. Jose just cruised through him.

 

Jose would give the original Sugar ray a run for his money but I wonder how he would deal with someone like the Hitman

Someone that tall and offense minded could very well stop him on cuts