How much credit do you give fighters for beating an inexperienced fighter before they became great

Sounds about right, and I am not sure about this but I believe Pipino may have been around 16 when he debuted.

 

Actually, he had not yet turned 14.

 

Seems like I read that once

 

Wow! was born in 1957 and his debut fight was in 1971. Doesn't seem anyone was looking out for him .

 

That is simply amazing. Thanks for the info, Scartissue.

 

Listen you agenda motivated fraud, you haven't seen the fight, you merely looked at boxrec. Hopkins won pretty much every minute of Mercado 1 versus the knock downs.

Hopkins knew he couldn't beat Jones. It's why he didn't take the rematch after Trinidad.

Go and lick some windows, that's your level

 

I disagree with you on this one. Styles make fights Hearns in my opinion blows out Duran at welterweight. All of Hearns strength matched up with all of Duran's weaknesses.
Hearns vs Leonard at super welterweight if it was a 12 rd fight Hearns wins, if it 15, Leonard probably wins. Just as it was when they met at Super Middleweight. It's just the way the fighters matched up.
We didn't see much of Leonard at Jr.Middle, but I believe he would've been just as dominant at the weight as Hearns was. He certainly had the ability and size.

 

Actually, this is quite common down Mexico way. Rodolfo Gonzalez too, was almost 14 for his first undraping. Efren Torres was 15, Battling Torres was 16 and I'm sure if we looked, we would find another 1/2 dozen fairly quickly. It's all about putting food on the table.

 

Again I am probably wrong but I believe Chava was 16 in his debut.

 

I remember one of the mags saying, before he lost to Hearns, "If Cuevas is this good now, imagine how great he'll be when he fully matures and gets into his mid-twenties."

 

Fair enough, Flash. I agree about Ray at 154lbs. He could easily have been as dominant as Tommy was; Ray was a brilliant fighter. But I'm still standing by the view that Hearns at 22 years of age was still a work in progress; that night of The Showdown probably helped make him the more complete fighter he went on to be.

I don't see Hearns blowing Duran away at 147lbs as easily, though. I think that Hearns actually got faster with the added weight as well as stronger and he was mentally more mature, too. Similarly Duran was moving away from his optimum weight and age as he entered the 154 lb division. Not saying Tommy doesn't win at welter but I don't believe Duran would have ended the fight face down on the floor in the second.

 

Lol. Wow

 

Except he'd been a pro since he was about 14. That's a lot of wear and tear on a 22 year old.

@salsanchezfan made a great point that, although Sanchez died at 23, he may have already hit his peak and seen his best days having been a pro since the age of 15. The fighter who destroyed Gomez, if he was still developing as most 23 year olds do, should not have gone life and death with a 13 fight novice who'd only ever fought outside Africa once, even if that novice was Azumah Nelson. That's not the performance of someone developing towards another stratosphere as they head towards the maturity of their mid 20s

Cuevas was another Mexican man-child. Like Sanchez, he looked a lot older than 22. We saw how Wilfred Benitez hit a wall at a fairly young age. All that fighting from an early age which seems more commonplace in Latin countries probably brings the 'best before' date forward and the trade off for the early success is that they mature and consequently hit, and then pass, their peak at much younger ages.

 

Depends where exactly both fighters were at. Can't really have a general answer for this question.

 

As a general rule of thumb, I tend not to hold a defeat against a fighter if they're a teenager, avenged it or clearly past their best.