Azumah Nelson vs The '00s Mexican Trio?

Nelson 3-0, with JMM the (only) one with the best chance of pulling the upset.

edit: 4-0 beats Manny too

 

I think Manny beats him, but he beats Morales and Marquez, whom I've never favored for some reason. Not sure about Barrera but I think I see Azumah being more of a boxer in that one, trying to outwork and hustle past him.

 

Best thing I've read all day.

 

Goes 4-0 with Manny being the only the only one with a shot.

 

This is a very tough one.
At the moment I lean towards Pac and JMM but it's not in concrete

 

Call me crazy ...but I see a little bit of Salvador Sanchez in Juan Manuel Marquez....I like his chances

 

At 126 i'd favour Nelson over them all.

 

Yea it's a tuff call. I seem to hold Marquez in higher esteem than alot of posters on here.

 

I’ll go with the consensus and favour Azumah against all 3 here as well.

Morales could box well enough to be very competitive but he just loved a tear up too much and against a vicious two handed puncher like Nelson that could see him getting badly hurt. Nelson was also brilliant at picking holes through an opponent’s defence so I think he clearly wins this by UD or late stoppage.

Marquez was a very good all round fighter who’s style was poison to Pacquiao but lacked the dynamics to beat Nelson. Nelson could go from a seek and destroy puncher to a very, very capable boxer who could control a fight with his jab alone. Against a top counter puncher like Marquez I think Azumah would box behind his great jab and deny Marquez the opportunities to do his best work. Nelson UD.

Barrera IMO was the best of the three Mexicans at his peak but had a glaring weakness that the others didn’t. He was open to straight punches down the pike and slow to adapt to fighters who exploited this during a fight. I remember Junior Jones couldn’t miss MAB’s chin in fight 1 and Manny’s left hand did the same thing in their fight 1. Barrera adjusted in the rematches against both men and did better but in the first clashes he was open the whole fight. An extremely cerebral fighter like Azumah would spot this flaw and land that dynamite big right hand as JJ’s did. Nelson would bust up, drop and eventually stop Barrera in 7-8 rounds imo during a very competitive fight that sees MAB grinded down round by round.

Azumah vs Pac-Man? Wow that’s a great fight! I’m leaning towards the Professor here but Manny was a relentless whirlwind at Featherweight and his aggression and amazing work rate could’ve been too much for Azumah. Then again his aggression might also play right into a master like Nelson’s hands and see him getting dismantled. Both plausible scenarios in my view.

Great thread @George Crowcroft.

 

He was a fantastic fighter Bob and I rate him very highly as well. I put him a rung below Nelson at 126 but I have Nelson in the highest echelon at Featherweight do there’s no shame in that.

I’d have given my back teeth to have seen Marquez fight Hamed for example. With his counter punching ability, pin point accuracy and great control of range I think he’d have made him look more silly than Barrera did.