Greater fighter: Eder Jofre or Fighting Harada?

Jofre.

Harada got the nod h2h but Jofre did a lot more than Harada before the series and Jofre did more afterwards. Harada did get jobbed against Famechon and probably deserved to keep his flyweight title but also both Jofre-Harada fights were very close to the point it’s not enough to truly influence their all-time rankings.

Also in their primes Harada lost by KO to Medel and won a close one which he was hurt late in a re-match. Jofre blasted a better version (than Medel in the Harada re-match) of Medel twice and same for Caraballo. Jofre’s career consistency was staggering too as was his longevity whereas he had no other losses and cleared up the blemishes (the South American “draws”) Harada had a number of other losses. Jofre coming out of retirement and beating a style and size nightmare of an opponent at Legra and retiring 10 years after his last defeat whilst 40 years old and performing excellently is staggering.

As a fighter both were great but Jofre was more complete and supreme and had the greater career.

 

Jofre so underrated it's almost a crime.
Harada was a beast though a real two fisted machine but Jofre was a complete package

 

Jofre, by a million miles.000000

 

Jofre for me.

 

Jofre, by virtue of his greater longevity and consistency. Harada was out of the game by the age of 26, lest we forget, albeit he packed a staggering amount in to such a (relatively) short career.

I do think Jofre gets off a little easy in some quarters for the losses to Harada, though. I think those defeats are a real dent in his claim to be the greatest Bantam of all-time. Not necessarily a fatal dent, but Harada was the best Bantam he faced, and while I can cut him some slack for being a little past his peak by then, it does underline the fact that Jofre's championship reign was built on names which were generally good, but not all that special. Difficult for me to place him in an all-time top ten, pound for pound, or thereabouts as many people do when his best wins tend to be a lot less remarkable than most of the other guys I'd consider putting in that bracket. That first Harada fight was no robbery as some Jofre fanatics like to claim.

Jofre was deemed underrated for a long time (rightly so), but that's probably started to properly correct itself now. If anything, it's Harada who is underrated these days. He has a few more losses on his record than Jofre, but there's a distinct air of bad luck about at least a couple of them (Kingpetch II, Famechon I) and he bested Jofre over two fights. Would have been the first man ever to complete the Fly, Bantam and Feather treble if Pep hadn't shafted him. Great value-for-money fighter as well. I'm happy to put Jofre ahead overall, but Harada would be in that next kind of bracket for me.

 

Everyone has this one right

 

controversial opinion, I rank Harada higher p4p

 

Excellent post. Both are legendary fighters but Harada was the best bantamweight that Eder fought and the Japanese fighter did win both fights in my opinion.

Despite that its hard not to love Jofre's wonderful technique and what he did at featherweight as an old man. The guy fought professionally for 19 years which is unbelievable for a bantamweight.

Cheers All.

 

Two great fighters as the thread title suggests, but Jofre edges it overall (but just not h2h).

 

There's no right or wrong answer, splitting hairs really. Harada definitely has a good argument to rank higher, as nearly everyone has said Jofre so far. Jofre had greater longevity and dominance no doubt where Harada was a bit inconsistent and lacking in dedication to the eventual end of a couple of near prime upset defeats. He was robbed in the Kingpetch rematch but allowed Kingpetch to make it closer than it should've been by turning up over-confident and not in the best condition. That said, Kingpetch put in a Herculean effort and was trying like a avatars, completely unfazed by what had happened in the first fight. That's one of the greatest lower weight performances of all time for me, an 18 year old battering and knocking out a genuinely excellent champion in one-sided fashion.

Outside of the actual wins over Jofre, Harada beat Ebihara, Kingpetch (twice really), Asis, Aoki, Medel, Rudkin, Hawkins and Famechon the first time if we're being honest. He was really a natural fly who struggled to keep his weight down because of too much rice wine and too many pies, not a huge bantamweight at all unlike Jofre who was primed to make the jump to feather and had first rate ko power that he carried up. Harada had a far lesser punch and a spare tyre round his waist but still managed to put forth a great final effort against an outstanding opponent even if with a slight style advantage and having been shown too much respect by the larger man. That fight stacks up more than fine against Jofres own great win over Legra though Jofre did get the official verdict where Harada didn't, the irony being that Harada probably deserved to beat Fammo by a wider margin than Jofre did Legra.

Jofre did beat Medel more convincingly over two fights than Harada; the second one especially was a brutal win over a near-great opponent. Medel gave him a gruelling fight first time out though and wasn't far from stopping him. Jofres nose was broken in that fight and he was only just in front when he spun the tables on Jose and knocked him out. He beat Caraballo more convincingly too but struggled early on against the dangerous and skilled but fragile Aoki, who Harada blew through with little trouble.

On a slight sidenote, Medel blasting out Harada possibly indirectly affected Jofre in a negative way. Harada really tempered his approach and utilized his full range of skills after that loss, really seemed to learn from it, and I don't think he'd have gotten by Jofre either time without it. Jofre had him on ***** street a few times over both fights and the Harada of the Kingpetch and Medel fights would have been stopped imo. But he got on his toes instead and boxed behind his jab to ride out the storms.

 

Jofre is rightfully the Fighter of the Decade - 1960's.

Perhaps if Ali wasn't exiled and continued to box he would've won that decade.

Top 6. 1960's boxers.

1. Jofre
2. Ali
3. Fighting Harada
4. Griffith (controversial LMR series + Dodgy 160lbs title win but kept fighting avoided fighters such as Gypsy Joe Harris/Ortega/Heilman)
5. D1ck Tiger (constantly giving up height/reach and also weight at 175lbs + fought throughout his 30's)
6. Carlos Ortiz

 

Great ****ing post. Cheers man