Rose was a guy who was a bit quicker, a bit craftier, a bit slicker, a bit smoother, a bit bigger and just a better all-round stylist. He'd outpoint him via virtue of these merits, imo.
Rose at his best was a cut above Davila, especially in the quickness department. It'd be a beautiful technical fight to watch, but Rose wins clearly.
2 beautiful stylistic pure boxers that I admire greatly. As great of a technician as Davila was he had his limitations and he always fell short against the more physically talented fighters. Rose was quicker on his feet, faster hands, slicker, and versatile. It would be a great chess match in the beginning until Rose starts to find his rhythm and outpoints Davila clearly.
It is hard for me to think of a fighter who had a more beautiful boxing style than Alberto Davila during the last fifty years. But there were better fighters than Davila in the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions at the time that he was active. - Chuck Johnston
Davila was roughly on a similar level to Rudkin imo, though I'd rate Alan as the slightly better fighter at his peak, he and Chucho were maybe the closest comparisons to Davila who Rose fought. Especially in that he and Rudkin were both excellent world class fighters despite lacking any truly exceptional physical/athletic ability. I could see this being a similar fight to Rose-Rudkin with Lionel quick out of the traps settling straight into a rhythm and establishing a lead but maybe flagging late because of weight-draining and letting Davila into the fight, albeit too late to win. That said, I'd be taking Rose not in the form of the Harada fight on that basis, which is slightly unfair. Davila did well against Zarate until the latter's size and power took over, I thought, and Rose had nowhere near that level of power, although he was very strong and able to physically bully a smaller but great man like Harada. Davila was a faster starter than Rudkin and a cuter technician, but Rudkin was stronger and more robust imo, a bit more adaptable and very capable of fighting 15 at a lick and coming on strong down the stretch like he did. Might actually be that Tweety has more in common with Chucho tbh, and if the latter couldn't achieve more than an either way type result with Rose, I don't see Davila doing it.
Rose at his best has an edge but I think Davila has a bigger window than Rose (ie his elite days lasted a lot longer). It would be a very close, fast and technical fight all the way and maybe would need 2-3 fights to separate them.
I don't really know who these other guys are, but just wanted to say I really like Davila. I didn't see many of his fights, as soon as I saw him fight, I was a fan. Beautiful style.
