So, where do you rank him among the the champions at 130lbs? How do you think that he'd fare against, say the Fab Four of Navarette, Boza, Chacon, and Limon? Maybe against some of the greats like Nelson, Arguello, et al? . [yt]mIx2msv8boE[/yt] Here's his one round, one punch decimation of Kuniaki Shibata... [yt]Bl33YzndTuQ[/yt] And here's what he did to future 130lb titleholder Yasutune Uehara. He comes across as maybe a little slow, but he obviously hits damned hard, and looks like he'd be damned tough to face inside the ring. Thoughts?
Rugged two time southpaw champion with championship round stamina who was never stopped. I'm not comfortable predicting stoppage wins in any fantasy match against somebody who never got taken out. (Was he ever even dropped?) Arguello would decision him fairly easily. Alexis had underrated quickness, and Ben's southpaw stance is no kind of advantage with Arguello. I think Chacon's right hand lead also gets him through to a decision, although he'd likely get dropped along the way. Navarrete and Limon and Boza Edwards are not quite in the same class as Ben. I don't see Navarrete and Boza Edwards getting to the final bell with Villaflor. Neither of them quite had the chin to stand up to Ben's firepower for 15 rounds. Boza Edwards had the skill to box his way to a decision, but his nasty tendency to turn his fights into wars, a la Saad Muhammad, would cost him dearly here. If Limon got stopped, cuts would likely be the cause. Whether it happened on cuts or over the distance, Ben's superior power would carry him to the win here. Nelson? I wouldn't put money on it, but my best guess is that Villaflor stops him late as Sanchez did (and may need to for the win). Ben had proven stamina, and carried more firepower than Sal. Azumah wasn't terribly proven against world class southpaw opposition, and this could also play a factor in the outcome.
Villaflor had his chin tested severely by Argentina's Victor Etchegaray in Ben's first defense aftyer beating Marcano,..it took the difference of a knockdown scored by Villaflor to salvage that draw..Victor was another one of those ultra tough Argentines..I think right after that fight came Serrano (?)
Actually, that was in his first reign. He didn't fight Serrano til several years later. Funny, I always remember being more impressed with his non-title opposition than his title opponents. Outside of Shibata and Serrano, there wasn't too much of a chance of him losing the title with some of his foes. Scartissue
Absolute monstrous puncher. Correctly went for it and laid out Shibata before he got in a rhythm, where he was actually quite hard to get. However, he was prone to being outworked, out positioned, and consequently looking janky, as the first Shibata bout showed.
