If it's the well trained Rios that stopped Acosta then I could see him wearing down Haugen. The weight drained Rios that fought Murray and Abril definitely loses to Haugen.
I think Haugen would be too smart for Rios. He sure proved himself at a higher quality level than has Rios at this stage.
haugen was a cute fighter, and you don't see that any more. Haugen wasn't much of a puncher, but he could hit you pretty hard. He wasn't a slick boxer, but he played some pretty smart games with distance and his counter-punching. None of this worked against Chavez, but it worked pretty well against dumb guys like mancini and pazienza, and i think Rios is dumber than either one of them. He would find haugen always just a little bit further away than he thought he was and get beat up.
Haugen was hard to figure. Sometimes he lost easily when you think he would not, and he would win win when you thought he wouldn't . Hector Camacho or Jimmy Paul. I think he is a level above Rios and would stop him. Haugen had a good left hook. When he moved up in competition you never heard about it anymore, but when he fought on ESPN the talk was look out for this left hook.
I don't either....but I bet he's already being considered a classic all time great by the denizens of the general forum. They have the attention span of a fruit fly.
The performances of Haugen vs Pazienza (II) and Jimmy Paul tell me that he's a notch or two above this Rios. What bull****..Haugen would have won an easy decision...jabbing him silly all night. Seamus is right about Greg being underrated...and he would have been too smart for Mancini at any time. Haugen got his ass royally and sadistically beaten by Chavez and he would have never come close to beating JCC, but I'm sure that at his best he would have done better than he did when he was slaughtered in that Mexican bull ring.
Funny you mentioned that. I was at that fight. Reno Nevada in April of 1992. That is when I almost fell 2 rows shaking Al Bernsteins hand. Bramble was there, got his autograph and Mills Lane was the ref. I think. Mancini wore out with stamina in that fight and the right hand just finished him. But Haugen liked to sometimes back up as he countered so he would not walk into a punch, so the left hook was a nice punch so he could back up and counter. I remember a name Charlie Brown which Haugen fought, but I could be wrong. in the 1980s before he fought Jimmy Paul in late 1986. I think he stopped Brown with a left hook.