Fighting Harada

Panama Al Brown or Manuel Ortiz would be my choices.....
Edit- Thinking about it now, I would favor Harada against Ortiz....

 

Khaokor Galaxy.













I'd favour Masahiko though

 

Olivares concievably, although he may accidently stop him.

Obviously Rose. Anyone else think Herrera or Chucho Castillo would have a chance?

 

Yes to all the above. Especially the bit I've highlighted

Borkhorsor could keep Harada at range, and had a persistent jab as well as damaging power punches. He was a smart ring general, and would damage Masahiko extensively without stopping him but still pushing him out of both his swarming and his boxing. Harada was full of heart, extremely tough and brave and very hard to dissuade, but how co-ordinated would he be if he suffered the same facial damage as some of the Thai's opponents (Herrera for example), and would he have the same wind when faced with Borkhorsors body punches, which forced legendary tough guy Betulio Gonzalez to quit?

The same applies for both men, Borkhorsor would have a hard job keeping composed if Harada rushed him I imagine, and I have no clue who would actually win a mid-range battle between the two. Interesting fight that, at Fly or Bantam. Taking into consideration that Harada beat a dynamic southpaw in Ebihara, and came through big punchers in Medel (1-1) and Jofre, as well as getting off the deck against Caraballo, I reckon he'd be fine.

 

Rose beat Harada by at least 4 or 5 points imo.Albeit i don't think Harada was quite at his sharpest, probably expecting a safe gimme defence in front of the homecrowd.

The best of the big punching boxer-punchers could all conceivably win a clear decision via knockdowns and holding the edge by rocking him in otherwise close rounds etc. By no means an easy task though.

Of fighters without excellent power.Obviously Rose with his excellent outside technical skills, movement and the size, skill and strength to infight equally would always be very tough task.

Lora with his super relaxed punch slipping and ability to infight along the ropes(where most other boxers find a spiders web)could do a lot better than you might think.


Well balanced complete textbook stylists with good but not great power, like chucho Castillo, Herrera etc would likely fair similarly to Rudkin.

Jibaro Perez and jeff Chandler with their size advantage and combinations could be tough stylistically, but i wouldn't make them favourites.

Maybe Fenech could use his likely superior strength and similar workrate to his advantage, but he was slower and less fluid with his punches.Also green looking at times at this weight.

 

I always thought Harada was struggling at the weight by that point though. Why do I think this? El Bujia thinks I'm wrong :good

 

I don't think any of them would beat Harada...he was that good.

 

Jofre and Harada are the two top bantams of all time IMO.

 

He wasn't thought that highly of in his time. In fact, Kingpetch only took the defence against him because Harada was not that well-regarded.

He made the wrong choice ;-)

Of course, in his prime he was extremely difficult to beat, especially under the parameters of this thread.

But the way he thought, I'd pick a few punchers to catch him and take him out, regardless of how tough he was. Olivares, who could box and punch as well as any 118lber that ever lived, would be the best choice IMO.

 

Im sure AlFrancis said his Dad thought Harada would give Olivares fits though.

 

Now there's a fighter who nearly beat Harada without knocking him out.

 

Thinking in that vein, how about Davila? Not too dissimilar to Rudkin probably slightly faster and more defensivly sound.

 

harada's weight issues were related to lazy training habits.He had them throughout his career.

It was the first Kingpetch win that started to earn him a reputation.Kingpetch, like Harada against Rose, wouldn't likely have been expecting a fighter of that talent in the other corner.

You don't see many of those kind of upsets anymore because of the way matchmaking is done so cautiously now.That late 60s early 70s period has some classics...Rose vs Olivares, Buchanan vs Duran

 

I really like Davila as you know, a tidy operator. But like Rudkin, I think he would lose a decision.