He was...a very unusual champ,or even as a boxer entirely. He could be a big snoozefest at times because he can't really punch with his technique,yet I think there's some beauty you can spot in that Temu Ali style of his. He broke many rules of the fundamentals,yet he was still skilled enough to hold his own in the inside,circle and box enemies,work the body etc,he was surprisingly versatile. He didn't have many standout attributes,but his lanky build and chin made his style work good.. Seriously,what do you think of Medina?
I thought he always quite entertaining when I see him fight. His fights vs Ingle, Dorsey, were FOTY candidates. I think he was a good fighter and a tad underrated he gave a prime Hamed a very tough fight, was robbed of a decision vs Tapia, beat the likes of Scott Harrison when he was an established champion. A bit below the very best fighters at his weightclass but could definitely give most notable fighters a tough nights work and sometimes spring the odd upset.
I really liked Medina, respected him immensely. He is a guy that turned pro very young with little, if any, amateur experience. He fought frequently and learned on the job. He developed his own style, a way of fighting that worked for him, he showed up in shape and always did his best. He beat many guys that he was supposed to lose to, was a champion more than once. A real fighter and a true professional.
Limited instruction a bit Walcott like in that he “invented” a bag of tricks he picked up by fighting a lot MM fought to survive in the beginning, started as a teenager with I believe no amateur experience so his style was pretty much entirely his own… very impressive, special fighter I love Manuel Medina and he fought till he was old as dirt by boxing standards. MM never sort of went away? He started in 85 and finished in 2008 he was ranked in 91 (still a teen I believe) and I don’t think he left being a top 10 ranked guy in at least one org till he retired lol his 91 “breakout” was a shut out over Dorsey who debatably beat Paez x2.
Being self-taught is part of what made him difficult. Medina often zigged when others expected him to zag. I actually recently watched a few rounds of Manuel vs Naz and it was like two guys having a ‘you think that was awkward, watch this’ contest. Each managed to make the other look even less conventional than usual.
I agree SP that was a gangly, terrible, terrible display but I loved it and it’s probably one of the Princes best wins if not it is? Supposed it’d depend how you rate MM. Have you seen MM vs Tapia? Robbery. I might watch MM’s career and take a gander at how his zigs developed in the years
Medina did it the right way there are many 213 fight amateur fighters with abysmal pro fight counts or guys who fight like they’re olympians with sparkling records and no feathers in there cap they’re usually unseasoned, uncreative and bland… like a boiled potato.
I remember seeing him several times. I always liked his name lol. Good fighter not on the level of great but definitely worth watching. Seems like if a really good trainer had gotten him he could've been much more.
Hamed looked BAD against him from memory. Though to be fair Naz was apparently struggling with flu or something. I watched it live and started doubting Hamed somewhat afterwards.
I dunno anything about Naz having the flu, but he was trying to one-shot and missed badly due to MM’s awkwardness and never quite being where Hamed expected/wanted him to be. Like Manuel would throw a long jab to the body and Prince would throw a hook expecting Medina to kind of come back upright off the jab and he hadn’t lifted his head and stayed in some kind of awkward crouch. The six inches in height and reach in MM’s favor played a big part, too, as Naz wasn’t programmed to work his way into range so was throwing these kind of leaping bombs as leads that invariably mostly missed, and Medina was able to often counter those — more to annoying than devastating effect, but they served to reset the distance between them and Hamed would go back to figuring out another long, leaping lead to try. It’s an interesting fight where neither is playing chess — more like one is playing Parcheesi and the other is playing Battleship.
I watched several of his fights back in the 90s \ early 2000s and he was a really tough, awkward customer. Not truly elite but hard as nails, a tryer and capable of beating some good names. You could never overlook him. And, regarding previous posters discussing Naz saying he had flu during the Medina fight, yes, he said in the post fight presser he was suffering with a bad cold but didn't want to pull out. Not saying anything about whether it affected his performance, just that that's what he said.
