Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Lorenzo Aragón, July 31st 1996

...Are they Bulgarian?

 

You don't see any Cubans on here spouting off that Aragón was shafted. :bart (and not to belabor the point, but he performed better against Mayweather than Todorov)

Actually...as strange as it is you don't see him mentioned all that much, period, when the recent great Cuban amateurs are discussed. :conf

Skills, power, and impeccable pedigree - and SO close to rejecting a future ATG from a medal berth. You'd think he would get more shouts...and that a lot more footage of him was available.

 

Dating back to his loss to Augie Sanchez (avenged twofold) in an Olympic prelim qualifier, Mayweather should in all likelihood be riding a 51-0 streak...unless you would have favored Kamsing over him.

The closest anyone has come to genuinely beating him since Augie Sanchez are Sanchez himself in one of their rematches, Aragon, Castillo, and De La Hoya. After that, I suppose Cotto.

 

Same as Cotto, I think. 116-112. Difference is, DLH had a chance of doing better if he'd kept the jab flowing and not checked out mentally. Cotto fought his guts out and couldn't have really done any more than he did.

 

atsch I spoke too soon.

There is an alternate upload of Mayweather vs. Aragon online, and the first comment is in Spanish and translates to "There were thirty (!!!) uncredited punches by Aragón; I thought he won it..."

It's unclear from the phrasing whether this person thought Aragón deserved the 2nd round, or the match. (moot point, as the former directly implies the latter).

I can see arguing a case for Aragón if you leave out a couple of Mayweather's more borderline scoring strikes or dismiss them as not quite clean enough to deem worthy of awarding...and obviously I'm a lot more liberal with handing out points than AIBA judges are, due to my higher sensitivity to jabs and body work - but no ****ing way in hell did either man land thirty blows in a single round. (or hell, in the match!!) 30 uncounted? That would be absolute madness if that somehow went overlooked.

 

Yeah, it wasn't like Mayweather had his lights turned out or anything; just a cautionary tale regarding blind charges when an opponent has their back against the proverbial wall.

He certainly never made that mistake again. :yep

 

May as well go all-in...

Besides the Mayweather and Thompson bouts already posted, this is the only complete Aragón match currently available online. It's his second decision (third overall meeting) over Sherzod Husanov.

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Husanov is seven inches taller than Aragón. The disparity may have been less in 2003 when he was in his early twenties as they don't look quite that far apart in the video above, but male height actually continues to increase until age 25 so it's possible he underwent a spurt to reach his currently reported stature of 5'11". He did hulk over 5'8" Jhon Berrio. I do more or less trust Aragón being listed by multiple sources at 5'4" since he was a head shorter than a 19 year old Mayweather who ultimately capped off at 5'8". :conf

Sher is currently 16-0-1 with eight knockouts, and has been ranked as high as #7 by the WBO in the top 20 by the WBC. He was twice an Olympian, but never obtained a medal.

I've seen him a few times and been somewhat impressed. Upper echelon Euro level potential.

His vicious knockout of fellow unbeaten prospect Maxim Chemezov stole the show on the Maskaev vs. Beck undercard.

He beat hard-banging Colombian trial horse Jhon Berrio in his American TV debut on FNF. It wasn't the tidiest performance but he got it done (very wide on my card, and Teddy Atlas', and the most experienced of the assigned judges in Glenn Hamada). Similar type fighter to Shumenov.

He was robbed in his draw with 12-0 Timur Nergadze, but avenged it with a UD a few months later. (strangely, two cards reflecting the near shutout but one having it close)

He's by no means sure to acquire a world title at any point, but he's a solid competitor...and physically MASSIVE compared to Aragón. Yet El Barbaro on the downward slope of his career stopped him once and widely outpointed him twice. :good

He still moved like a damn flyweight even getting up in age with half his life spent in the ring against world class opposition...and he showed little respect for Husanov's power, taking it with aplomb on the few occasions Sher was able to find him.