How good was John Stracey?

Jose looks all of his 35 years in that one.

Hard to say with John..The only other fight Ive seen in full of him was against a peaking Palomino.

Certainly world class...I dont see him going the distance against a prime Napoles.

 

Ive seen the full version of that one, in the early rounds Napoles looks like Napoles, ten all of a sudden he doesnt. Not an excuse for Napoles, but he really did lose that oe as a result of his aging. Stracey must be given credit though, looked very strong with the backing his guy up.

 

john h was in the right place at the right time and was well matched to his advantage.

 

Vey true, Mickey Duff in his excellent auto biography tells how he went to Napoles' earlier title fights to see how much Jose had slipped ,being satisfied it was enough he rang Terrry Lawless and told him they should go for the title.Stracey was exactly as you say, in the right place ,at the right time.Duff said he was a "good on top fighter".

 

hedgemon lewis was also past it but matching stracey with palomino was a bollock dropped.have you ever seen a more blatant head-butt than boy green on stracey.

 

He should have been called Crude Boy Green ,with his "muckspreader "punch and his overarm swings, he beat Conteh for "headwork".

 

it'd take some doing.remember the cut that chris finnegan had.
people were outraged at the time and saying he was as dirty as marciano ,what they really meant was that conteh was a winner

 

i like stracey a good fighter

he beat Napoles and i dont care how old he is that is an achievement Napoles is one of teh best welters ever

i have saw the fight but cant really remember it i think its a KO ending and isnt Napoles comes out with a mask or a plaster on at the end of one of teh rounds cant remember much though

 

did you know jim watt knocked john h out in the aba's.there was a bit of bad blood stirred up by the trainers.

 

Not to mention crafty and resourceful, as O'Grady found out.

As for Stracey, he was a very solid contender in the 70s, who managed to win the European Championship and World Championship against the hometown hero (Napoles, although born in Cuba, was very much considered a Mexican).

Sure it was 1975, but going in Napoles had not lost a fight at 147 for anything other cuts since the early 60s. And not many 147lbers, even in 1975, would of managed to turn around that fight, like John H did.

 

thank you!
i don't know what sean O'grady's people thought of watt but they got a shock.on fight night i couln't believe how big O'grady was, he looked like a welter compared to watt.some of o'grady's early career was a bit sketchy to say the least and his management pulled some dubious stunts.watt looked like a choir boy but a bloody nasty one when it came down to it.he was supposed to lose to howard davis too but hadn't read the script.
the rapport he struck up with reg gutteridge was pure class

 

It's a stoppage when Jose can't answer back with any punches. A good performance all-aorund I think, despite the obvious wear that Napoles was showing. Still, John's fight with Lewis really was a sound perforamce of high-pressure. Hedgemon couldn't get off because he never found the time or space, Stracey was on him like a rash throughout the fight.

 

I did, i've seen the pic of it too. Good call mate.