I've never watched any of his fights, but it seems like he accomplished a decent amount. No one talks about him like that, though. Should people talk about him more?
I don't think hes underrated after he beat Mancini, he was regarded as a top 5 P4P fighter. He may of even been rated higher as high as Hagler at one point. Maybe @Saintpat can help me regarding the history of rankings. But overall he was a solid physically strong fighter, who was one of the best switcher hitters I've ever seen. He looked impressive vs Crawley, Mancini, who just couldn't budge him. But when he faced Rosario who hit far harder than those 2 fighters, Bramble's bubble kind of got burst. And from that point on he seemed to turn into a journeyman type fighter. But overall I don't think Bramble is underrated, he had a very short prime then Rosario kind of derailed his career.
Some here used to **** on him regularly, but yes, I'd say he gets a bit underrated now. There was a time back around early '86 when KO Magazine ranked him #3 in the world pound for pound, behind only Hagler and Curry. This was on the strength of his two wins over Mancini (both excellent fights, you should check those out) and also his complete dismantling of the division's supposedly best pure boxer in Tryone Crawley, which showed him deconstruct two different styles very well; the brawler in Mancini and the pure boxer in Crawley. He only needed a pure puncher now to complete his own little trilogy. Ah yes, Rosario, he'll do. What could go wrong?
Thanks for the shoutout but I couldn’t tell you his exactly P4P rating at any time, but it seems reasonable he broke the top 10 in that mythical category after beating Mancini twice … and perhaps could have been as high as No. 5. Round that time you had Hagler, Michael Spinks, Thomas Hearns (at junior middle), Aaron Pryor, Larry Holmes (slightly post-peak but still the top heavyweight by a fair margin), Eusebio Pedroza and a few others (Don Curry, an ascending JC Chavez probably wasn’t quite there yet, Sot Chitalada, Carlos DeLeon … but cruisers weren’t held in high regard yet). So I could see it. Bramble was a shooting star who burned out pretty quickly after the Rosario bombing but was something at his peak. Very good defensively (not always recognized), he had an interesting technique that we studied and tried to apply a bit in our gym for a time — high guard and if you threw a left he’d block/deflect it with his right and shoot a right back quickly while your left was retreating to guard position; likewise the same with his right if you threw a left. It takes a lot of drilling to even come close to mastering … really good for points but not necessarily for power unless your guy just has natural pop because it’s more of a reflex counter than a set-up counter where you have time to shift weight. I think he was a bit hard to buy into as a force because there were questions about whether Mancini’s heart and head were into it after the Kim death and Bramble didn’t stick around at the top long enough for people to say, ‘Well I guess he’s proven it enough against others.’ But for a short time he was one of the better in the game.
He was extremely formidable for a short while. The wheels came off quickly. He did try to walk through a lot punishment earlier in his career and that perhaps led to his quick decay. I do feel that people forget how good he was in his prime.
Everything was going for Bramble until he tried the same tactics against Edwin Rosario. Standing in range and trying to counter Chapo was Russian roulette.
Yeah people want to dog Hector Camacho for not standing and trading with a guy with a loaded howitzer. But I will say this: one of my low-key favorite fighters, Jose Luis Ramirez, didn’t shy away from Rosario’s power and instead (in the rematch — the first fight was a very competitive decision for Rosario) took everything Edwin had (down twice and battered over the first two rounds) then turned the tables and overpowered him. Not only was it the 1984 Fight of the Year by Ring Magazine, I consider it one of the best single performances/wins (considering not only what JLR was up against but also what he had to go through to win it) of the 1980s.
They were way too fast to push Bramble up to the heights they did. Two wins over fan favorite Ray Mancini propelled him instantly into the overrated and a subsequent win over the speedy Crawley, who hadn't really done much, somehow cemented him there. I rate Mancini a very good fighter but two winds over him and a win over Crawley never in a thousand years should have found Bramble #3 P4P. For god's sake. Now having said that i do believe Bramble was an extremely good fighter for a short time. Certainly not #3 P4P but notable. To be fair Rosario blasted the peak clean out of Hector Camacho and it's fair to say he could well have done the same to Bramble. At any rate he wasn't as good as first thought regardless. If you have a look Mancini post Ramirez/Arguello had been feasting on a very very ordinary quality of fighter. It's also fair to speculate the death of Deuk Koo Kim may have taken the edge off him.
I think he gets underated by a lot of folks that simply look at his record and see a bunch of losses without understanding that most of those came late in his career. In his prime he was an absolute beast and was one of my favorites growing up. Iran Barkley has kind of the same problem. He had a period where he was running over top guys just like Bramble did but them fought too long and had tons of losses late in his career.
Back in the day, it looked like he might be a devastating force, but he just did not last long. I know back in 1986, he was even in the pound-for-pound rankings but looking back, if anything, I think he was overrated. I think fans and the experts rated him too high too fast back then. I even say this as a fan who followed his career and rooted for him, even trained at the same gym as him before the Mancini fights. He was a colorful character who played himself as the "bad guy", even though he is really great with fans and a nice fellow. Unfortunately, I think with him, he stopped improving as a fighter. He had a good height, good power, and excellent reach, (I think had the longest reach of any lightweight champ at one point), but I don't think he maximized those attributes. I view him as a colorful player in the 80s lightweight division who had his moment and became champ, but became a journeyman too quickly.
