When do you think it ended? Alexis never lost as a Lightweight, but was given very tough fights indeed against the likes of Ramirez, Mancini, and Ganigan. None of them are bad fighters, of course. Conventional wisdom indicates that Alexis Arguello was thought to be at his optimal performance as a Super Featherweight, so do you think he was past his best immediately after moving up, or was the style of Alexis always going to see him in tough fights with the likes of Mancini. Alexis got better as the fire wore on, that always seemed to be the case.
Watch him in his featherweight days he had the same style more or less but there was a hell of a lot of polishing to be done before he hit his peak. A whole lot of little things that added up....his body attack became more developed, his punch selection and pacing got better with experience and I also think his defense became more polished. I to think it all came together at 130.
I actually think he was as good as he ever got more or less, even by the time of the Marcel fight. i watch his featherweight fights around that time and any improvement at 130 seems quite marginal.:te featherweight\early 130 performances were him at his peak i'd say.
I thought Alexis got pretty tired towards the end of that fight and wasnt as calculating in his attacks. Thats a lot of the reason why I think he wasnt quite the finished product because a prime Arguello was one of the best clutch fighters Ive seen. I defintely think he learnt a lot from that bout and got better in the coming years. It must be said being that competitive and coming that close to stopping a guy the calibre of Marcel...you would have to be pretty close to your prime. I think on their own the improvements were marginal, even insignificant but I personally saw a collection of slight improvements that amounted to a noticeable change. Again its hard to see with a guy of Arguellos style, maybe Im seeing more then is actually there but I do feel the subtle improvements all added up by the time he reached his early fights at 130.
I'm going to say '75 thru '80. I think Arguello learned a lot in the Marcel and Olivares fights. I personally think a more experienced Arguello would've caught up to and stopped Marcel. This Arguello (against a very good fighter was devastating): [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbC19bUSgJE[/ame]
even at 130 watching him against fighters that gave him a lot of angles like Chacon and Castillo, i don't see much difference.No doubt he did learn and was more experienced, but i think he was slightly more dominant physically at feather to balance it out.
Actually, he lost to Vilomar Fernandez in an over-the-weight match while he was the jr. LW champ. That fight cost us a possible megafight showdown with Duran. As for the thread topic, I'd say Arguello started to come into his own in his fight with Olivares, which introduced his boxing/counterpunching skills; prior to that (ie: vs. Marcel) he'd mainly been just a raw, big puncher. I think Arguello continued to improve through his FW reign and reached his peak around the time he moved up to 130. 130 was his most ideal weight class IMO, and his best performance IMO was the first one with Escalera. As he moved up to 135 and then 140, the extra weight slowed him down a bit more each time. By the time he foughtt Pryor, he still had his punching power, but his foot movement and reflexes had deteriorated.
Personally, I pinpoint the Escalera rematch in San Remo. The Snake Man wanted that title back in the worst way. Arguello's loss to Fernandez and having to go 15 rounds with the tough as nails Arturo Leon (who nobody could then knock out), had served as a sharpening wake up call. Alexis called it his toughest fight, and only an ATG could have won the way he did in that situation. Over the next year and a half, he was able to stop future champions Limon, Chacon, Navarrete and Boza Edwards with relative ease after this war. He could be beaten at FW, as Marcel proved, while Fernandez and Ramirez exposed him as potentially vulnerable at 135 (albeit over ten rounds). But 130 pounds was his domain, with Escalera his best competition at the weight. He stopped three future champions within the division, including an HOFer, and twice stopped a future HOF former champion, as well as two undefeated challengers. Over the first ten years and 68 fights of his career, Ruben Castillo was only stopped by Arguello. El Flaco Explosivo won nine title fights within the division, against a variety of styles and in different ways. He starched Alcala in one, decisively beat Leon over 15 (during a broadcast where the announcer [Chris Schenkel or Keith Jackson] maintained interest by continually reminding viewers that Alexis had been defeated in his last fight), dealt with the elusive running tactics and attempts by Castillo and Chacon to outbox him, the southpaw slugging of Navarrete and the southpaw brawling of Limon. For me, Arguello's resume at 130 alone makes him an ATG, although his separate credentials at 126 and 135 would also qualify him for IBHOF status in and of themselves.
Really thought this through recently. And I agree with Lora mostly. I think he hit his 'prime' after he won the title from Olivares. However I do think his skills werent as sharpened as they later became, however as Lora noticed he had a massive physicality advantage. As he moved up to SFW he was still a physical beast for the weight and his skills sharpened up, I would say this was his absoloute peak. He was really superb at SFW. At Lightweight he didnt hold the edges in physicality but his skills were at their peak and he really did become a complete fighter.
I agree. But I think his prime ended w/ a savage loss on nov. 12th, 82. He was a great lightweight and had startling power.:hat
