Fighting Harada Discussion

Kid, there was huge discussion about this a while back.

Half the tards in the General had no idea about him and just assumed Manny was the greatest ever Asian fighter simply because they know little of the sport outside of him.
Im of the opinion Pac has a solid argument over him now for the greatest Asian fighter of all time with his win over Hatton..A win over Cotto leaves no doubt in my mind. Even though in the scheme of things those two guys arent all that great, I thought what Pac had done previous had him pretty close anyway.

Im not so sure if Jofre was shot for those fights..but from the sounds of it he was likely having a hard time with the weight.
Harada was a truly a great fighter in every sense of the word..Id love to see more of his stuff at flyweight.

Imagine him fighting in this era..he would have cleaned up from fly to feather..Been a 5 division champ. Thats why people have to put what modern guys are doing into context. Harada was an undisputed 2 division champ and was robbed of a 3rd.
Picking up 1/4 of the championship in an age where there are more divisions to dilute the talent pool of each of them doesnt sound so good in comparison.

 

The Jofre wins were indeed great, he was still very capable at that time and would continue to be but I dont know too much about these fights, they both seemed close could it be because they were both in Japan the judges leaned towards Harada. Can anyone clear that up?

 

absolutely amazing fighter, very underrated and one of my favourite jabs of all time (look at the jofre fights..just brilliant)

 

Thanks I'll put the Harada-Jofre fight on my long list of fights to watch. :yep

 

I agree, extremely underrated fighter.

Masahiko (Fighting) Harada was a human windmill who outfought and overwhelmed opponents with marauding and non stop attacks, he was a superb body puncher whose bobbing and weaving style made him difficult to hit cleanly.

At age 19 he won his first ever world title, by knocking out Flyweight champion Pone Kingpetch in 11 brutal rounds, Hardada's record stood 28-0

He lost the return fight with Pone on a MD. He then moved up to Bantamweight to beat Eder Jofre then considered one of if not the best P4P fighter in the world in a high pace battle.

He made 4 defences of his title including another win over Jofre. Before losing it to Lionel Rose, Harada had trouble making the Bantamweight limt.

He later challaged Johnny Famechon for the WBC Featherweight crown. He dropped Johnny 3 times only to be declared the loser by the sole judge who was none other than Willie Pep.(Pep initally scored the fight a draw)

He would battle Famechon in the rematch, only to be stopped in 14. He retired at the age of 27.

In retirement Harada became a successful actor before becoming a boxing trainer.

 

He beat Jofre more cleanly in the first fight, and looked better in it as well, IMO. I think the argument for Jofre winning the rematch can definitely be made, as I thought he looked better there than in the first fight. A bit of a switch up between the two fighter's performances. Both very cclose, competitive fights though.

Either way, Jofre was far from a shot fighter in either fight. He was having difficulties making the weight, and it clearly showed in their first fight IMO, as he just didn't seem as quick or sharp as he did in the footage of a prime Jofre against Jose Medel. However, he was still an elite operator and an outstanding technician, one that would go on to continued success after a rejuvenating move up to Featherweight. Harada switched up tactics beautifully in the first fight. At times he boxed beautifully, bouncing and moving on his toes behind a darting jab, while at others he swarmed Jofre from all angles like a disgruntled nest of bee's. That was Harada at his best.

In the rematch, it looked to me like Harada was just a tad sloppier, not quite as sharp and economical as he was in the first fight, whereas Jofre seemed to have kicked everything into the next gear. Still a very close fight, but I'll have to rewatch it to see if I do indeed believe Harada deserved that one.

 

Anyone else think Harada and Salvador Sanchez closely resemble each other stylisitically?

 

Not in the slightest. What similarities do you see?

 

The aggreesion and intensity when both become all out offensively.

I guess its just me then.

 

Didn't Pep change his mind after the (Aussie?) crowd start booing and changed his mind and made it a draw?.

 

As I understand it, he initially scored the fight a draw, then an error was discovered in his scorecard by the commission which really made the fight a win for Famechon.

 

The first Jofre win duels (and probably wins) with Pancho Villa's win over Jimmy Wilde for the distinction of best win by an Asian fighter ever. Great fighter, and I think he's underrated by the boxing community in general, but he gets his due on this classic forum for sure.