Fulgencio Obelmejias and Hagler?

Hagler seemed to be fighting a light-heavyweight here. Luckily for him, he's the greatest middleweight of all time.

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Hagler couldn't believe that this guy wanted to get back in the ring with him again.

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Honestly, yeah. In both fights. He actually took the first couple of rounds from Hagler in the rematch, and that's something that better regarded contenders like Sibson and Hamsho weren't able to do. Kind of a shame that he never fought one of those guys because I think he'd have acquitted himself quite well against them.

 

And yet, he was a world champion only 3 years before....

 

After the Hagler fights, he went from Fully Obel to Semi Able (sorry).

 

I have posted on this topic before but I'll summarize again

in the 1980s the WBA and WBC were highly corrupt organizations that favored latin american based fighters and certain Asians who had the right connection - especially Koreans. The WBA was based in Panama. The WBC was based in Mexico. Fully Obel was a glaring example of favoritism. He beat nobody of note really to get his first shot, then beat Chong Pal Park to get his second shot. Park was rated but may have been the weakest top 10 contender. Years later Obel got a second fight with Park and was able to garner the WBC 168 lb title

Obel was actually a decent fighter. Tall with good power. Not much defense

He may have been as good as some of Hagler's other challengers but he should have had to prove himself more to get two title shots. Haglers other challengers, with the glaring exception of Caveman Lee , did so.

Davison, Fletcher and Parker were all highly ratet but never got title shots because they faced quality opposition before getting derailed. The men who beat them got shots.

Sibson beat Davison to get a title shot. Hamsho beat Parker twice and Sypion beat Fletcher.

Obel beat nobody relevant and then Park who was unknown outside of the Orient at the time

 

I can understand why Marvin was frustrated. Mega fights with Leonard and Hearns had fallen through. He had just been forced to defend against the totallly undeserving Caveman Lee and had to face Obel in his very next fight. He was yearning for big paydays. He had to wait a year for that.

 

Not necessarily. There were a number of good Middleweights and that time

 

IBF, and that doesn't mean Park wasn't good. Specially in that, less globalized era, a boxer could be really good but unknown internationally.

 

Brutal, Jel, but very apt.

 

Fully was a WBA favorite. Having the right connections meant multiple title shots, regardless. For example, Ernesto Espana, or even Harold Volbrecht. Fully also was physically imposing, which made him look like a serious opponent even if he wasn't. He would have benefited from SMW becoming a recognized weight class earlier.

 

Fully Obel was his ‘stage name’ used for his boxing career. He signed contracts using his first initial and legal last name:

N. Ept

 

Venezuela's law is interesting in that I think it's unique around the world. Obviously, they look out for boxer safety. But, as George Foreman proved, I guess that if you give your brain time to rest-and as Archie Moore, Bernard Hopkins and others have proven, if you are a superbly, clean living athlete, then you are not at risk at that age, or at least as much at risk as when, let's say you get into a car, there is always a minimum risk of getting into a crash, but not that much, really.

One thing is the WBA and WBC were founded to give boxers worldwide chances at titles. Like some said already, many countries, possibly government officials etc, paid them money to rank boxers from those countries. The WBA favored Panamanians, Venezuelans, Japanese, etc. The WBC favored Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, South Koreans, British, etc. The IBF heavily favored Americans, Filipino and some others at first, and the WBO Puerto Ricans and Brits. It was what it was.

But that doesn't mean these guys couldn't fight. Most did. Take Orlando Maldonado of Puerto Rico for example. He fought Rafael Orono of Venezuela for the WBC world Super Fly title in 1983. We Puerto Ricans had high hopes in this bout. I for one had seen him in person on a fight that does not appear on box rec when he knocked out Juan Bruno in one round for the vacant Puerto Rican national flyweight title that same year. Well, Maldonado got knocked out in five rounds by Orono. Maldonado did not have any significant wins in his record. In fact, his one significant fight was with hall of famer and all-time great Miguel Canto, a six rounds disqualification loss in Mexico. Does that mean he could not fight? Well, Maldonado did win the bronze medal at flyweight at the 1976 summer Olympics, so I think he could fight!

 

Good post. The WBA and WBC are responsible for some bad mis-matches some of in the 1980's. In the upper weights this won't fly or be as dangerous because the mismatched opponent is typically out of there in short amount of time. But in the lower weights at guys can get hit a lot. Over and over and the problem is ever greater because people weight drain and a higher percentage of fluids per body weight. The referee needs to really watch out for these type of matches. There should be a rule about re-hydrating a certain amount of weight within 48 hours.

The problem is not so bad at middle wight and above. But in the lower weights you really need to be mindful of this type of stuff.