Willie, at his best, would never allow himself to be at the recieving end of Eddie's fire, yet he would, along with Eddie together, would make this a very tedious, uneventful affair, yet fascinating to purists who love the tactical side of the sport. The fight would greatly resemble the Johnson-Pastrano fight, with maybe the same result...a split nod for Willie.
I've said this before, but Eddie was his own worst enemy. "Never has so little been done with so much talent". I still think him a superior Lt. Heavy to Mike Spinks. So many tools: Big right, HOF left hook, boxing/slugging combo fighter, granite chin (could not be knocked out) and IMO pissed it all away with his work ethic/attitude... My $0.02
I think Eddie's passiveness would be his undoing in this matchup. Willie wouldn't press the pace on him and would instead resort to jabbing off the backfoot, using his shifty footwork to keep it to a mid-ring boxing match. He lacked the firepower to really deter Eddie to the point that he'd try to turn up the pace, and in a boxing match I think Pastrano would hold the edge. Very good, technical matchup, though.
Willie Pastrano's achilles heel was his occasional lack of dedication to training and his womanizing...other than that, he was in my opinion, vastly underrated and a beautiful boxer who was a major influence on Muhammad Ali.
Pastrano couldn't crack an egg, though. EMM was a disapointment in my eyes. The guy had the talent to be the top guy in the 80's , but he ****ed that up by trying to be a heavyweight. Spinks beat the crap out of him, but Eddie had nothing in that fight. Edddie could have been an ATG if he wanted to. I would choose a dedicated Eddie over Pastrano.
