Greater Fighter: Eduardo Lausse or Rodrigo Valdez

You haven't studied his career then. He had very many tough fights and it cannot be described as anything but a grueling career.

Wilf Greaves was to Lausse what Mayorga was to Trinidad- a fighter absolutely made to order for him. Both were face-first brawlers and it would have been a miracle for Lausse and Trinidad to not look good against them.

 

With relative comfort, yes. He lost 51 times on the Argentinian scene, including fights against novices. Ventures outside the local boxing scene did not fare very well for him, as evident by his 2nd round blowout at the hands of Bob Foster or the stoppage loss at the hands of the amazing Sugar Boy Nando or the 2nd round stoppage loss to Paulo Sacoma.

Picture of the fight against Lausse:

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Patchy early record which included a stoppage loss to Antonio Cuevas, local boxers Mario Diaz, Kid Cachetada, Amelio Picada.

Why rely on a report when there is footage? Valdez started fighting at 16 years of age but he was hardly a serious pro until coming to the United States. In that case Lausse's TKO loss to Cuevas wasn't during the early part of his career either. To give Lausse a pass for losing to Selpa, a local Argentinian boxer, Valdez must have been shot to bits when he fought Monzon, arguably the greatest Argentinian fighter of all time, after a 15 year boxing career considering his give and take style. Not only did he fight him but he did very well against Monzon.

 

I did not bring up his early record at all until you did so with Valdez. I never said his overall record was patchy which you seem to indicate in that first paragraph, his early record was as has been established. It is only fair to look at Lausse's struggles early on in his first 40 professional bouts if we are going to do so about a 23 year old Valdez who had only been a pro for 6-7 years because he started fighting as a teenager. In Monzon's case, all his losses took place during his first 20 pro bouts and his first year as a pro, so he is an even more extreme example.

As I've said, looking at their records between the ages 25 and 30 makes the most sense since both hit their stride then. During that period, Valdez only lost to Carlos Monzon and stayed competitive with him. Lausse had losses to Bobby Boyd, Andres Selpa and a draw with Savage.

No one is questioning that Lausse got better after 1952. In fact that was my point. I'd say that if Lausse "may have" beaten some of those men in rematches, Valdez too could have beaten Toro or Palladin considering that he likely deserved to win the decision anyway (again the footage is out there) and improved greatly after 1970 with Gil Clancy as his trainer.

 

I just have a hard time believing that he was somehow past his prime months after looking the best he ever was against Johnny Sullivan and Gene Fullmer. Boyd and even Savage (despite 33 losses) were just tough guys to beat. Boyd beat Fullmer after all.

 

Whereas Lausse may no doubt have been a harder puncher than Valdez, or anyone else middleweight for that matter, I'd put Valdez above him as a fighter, overall. He decked and extended the greateast middleweight champ of all time in Monzon, and was sensational in destroying Briscoe in '74. I think Valdez is horribly underrated by some in this forum.

 

Lausse would have done well against the Monzon that Valdez fought too though. It was hardly a Monzon at the peak of his powers.