Two young talents who overcame a couple of early Novice pro hic-cups to work their way into title shots against excellent champs, being Paul "Hoko" Hodkinson and Kevin Kelly and they beat the odds and both won in superb fashion, Vargas producing a matador masterclass to defuse and then destroy the rumbustious "Hoko" Hodkinson...on his UK home turf in 1993, and Gonzalez hunting down and beating kelly in a 1995 fight of the year candidate, Both young champs seemed set for long exciting reigns, but they both fell away from titleholder status quite quickly, albeit Gregorio had enough left 10 years and quite a few pounds Later to beat Aggressive young trier Gary Balletto.. So who would win if matched on their better title fight winning nights, - would Gregorio be able to cope with the Gonzalez aggression, Left hooks and long right hands..? or would Gregorio's superb counterpunching ability prove too much. two short stay featherweight champs who missed each other by a couple of years, Alejandro or Gregorio ???
Hi Drew101 - the problem for me with these two is that i do not recall them ever looking better than in their respective title challenges, they were two talented fired-up young men against very good champions, i'm not sure why they couldnt maintain that form against lesser lights, Same old story perhaps too much too soon ? REgards Area53
My initial thought is Gonzalez, because i remember more about him. A good friend of mine saw him fight Soto in Juarez and told me about him. I watched him work out for the Espinoza fight and saw that fight. i thought he was pretty good and was suprised when he lost to Luisito Espinosa, whom he had previously beaten. (Note that Espinoza and Espinosa are two different fighters). His explanation of that loss was classic. He was stopped in 4 after having kod Espinosa in2. He said that he was looking for Luisito to make the same mistake again, and he did. But when he went to take advantage of it, Espinosa was ready for him.
greynotsoold - many thanks for the recollections, Re Espinosa - Is that whats called "Second Guessing the Guesser " ?? I was a Paul "Hoko" Hodkinson fan, and having chewed up the shell of Stevie Cruz it looked like "Hoko" was headed for some major Stateside Action as i recall Kelly and Jorge Paez were being mentioned ( i think they had learned the big lesson of Daytime Texas Heat by then !!) it was only a small matter of dealing with this Vargas feller first, and "Hoko" set off like a fierce man possessed looking to over-run Gregorio with his bristling left-hooking aggression....Vargas surfed this aggression beautifully, then in the mid rounds exploded and took "Hoko" out...one of the most impressive title winning performances, against a prime champ, that i can recall I tip my hat to both . Regards Area53
