Boom Boom Mancini vs Livingston Bramble

More likely that it's true Mancini overtrained for the first fight, and his punches had no snap.

 

In retrospect, Rosario was a much better fighter than Mancini and Crawley. When he was focused, Rosario was a nice combination of speed and power.

 

I have to disagree that he was any better than Mancini, really. If you think about it, he doesn't have any better a track record than Ray. Crawley was overrated, I definitely agree there.

 

Agreed a good swarmer like Mancini could swarm a boxer puncher like El Chapo that is generally the rule the only issue is he has to be within the power range. Mancini had a concrete chin that never failed until his legs fatigued late in the championship rounds see Arguello bouncing his power off his chin until late he took it.

The issue with Bramble and Mancini was styles and body types, Mancini was wide and hooked where Brambles body was narrow and he punched up the middle. If Bramble had a weak defense Mancini would have beat him up but as it was Bramble had a clam defense with beautiful punches inside Mancini's wide style and body type.

Like all fighters matchups are key, understanding how to match your fighter to keep him winning is what it is about. In this case he was failed by his management to study Brambles style it was a gamble that did not pay off and Brambles people thought they could exploit Rosario because of his chicken wing style and apparently thought his power was comparable to Mancinis left hook.

I don't think Rosario's people wanted to matchup up Rosario with Mancini because of his strength, frenetic style, pressure, chin and power. To fight Mancini you have to be willing to fight hard for a long time and expend alot of energy trying to maneuver him into your punch. Good matchup Rosario and Mancini too bad it never happened.

 

Good thoughts. I think, however, that Bramble was the #1 contender, and Mancini had to fight him. Agree about the stylistic aspect of it, though......

 

Edwin was nice, but was never the same after the Viruet fight.

 

I would argue Rosario beat a better quality of opposition than Mancini and had the better overall career.

Ray beat Ramirez to get his first title shot. That was the best win quality wise in his entire career. He was stopped by Arguello in a good but losing effort. He then beat one of the weakest lightweight champions in modern times in Art Frias. Defenses against a faded Espana, a mediocre Kim and obscure Romero followed. The win over Chacon looks good on paper, but Chacon was moving up and took hellacious punishment in his two wars with Limon and Boza-Edwards in his two previous fights. Then, he lost twice to Bramble.

Rosario beat Ramirez, albeit in a close fight. Stopped durable Roberto Elizondo in less than a round. He outpointed very talented legitimate contender Howard Davis, in another close fight. He go tkayod by Ramirez in a rematch, but dominated the early rounds, hurting the iron chinned Ramirez as badly as anyone did in Ramirez's prime. He, then outpointed Frankie Randall who was a legitimate top 10 guy. Then, he almost beat prime Camacho and hurt Camacho so badly he changed the course of Camacho's career. Then, he brutally stopped the same Bramble who twice beat Mancini. He lost his next big fight to JC Chavez, really no shame there. Chavez was probably at his absolute peak. Even after this, Rosario was still able to win a portion of a World Title twice more. The ko of Anthony Jones wasn't a great win in retorpect, but it was a one punch ko of a young, good fighter. Then, even when well past it, Rosario was able to completely destroy, and derail the career of a pretty good champion - Loretta Garza. Garza had recently won the title from a good champion in Juan Coggi.

Rosario beat higher level of opposition than did Mancini. He was also a better overall fighter.