...he had better management? His career record after 24 fights was 12-12, yet Freddie stated he was screwed over in most of these by his management team. For example, Freddie knocked Anthony Fletcher down five times in the 5th round, yet the fight was not stopped and Freddie lost a unanimous decision, even when the fight was only 8 rounds. After a change of management, he started racking up more wins than losses and got some good wins on his resume, including Roger Mayweather, Tony Lopez and Sammy Fuentes. He also won the world title, but soon lost it in his 2nd defence against Rafael Ruelas, where suspicious refereeing could have cost him his title (Top Rank at the time felt Ruelas vs De La Hoya was the more attractive fight...) when only two of four knockdowns Freddie scored were credited in the bout. Although not every loss was wrapped with controversy (for example, Pernell Whitaker did a convincing job on Freddie and Freddie himself admits that Jimmy Paul was the better man on the night), yet with better management, surely he would have finished with a much better record than he finished with and looked at in a much higher regard than he is, other than one of those trivial fighters that are used when looking for world champions with a sub-standard win-loss ratio for a world champion? Thoughts please :good
One of the most deceiving records of any fighter I have ever seen. Its a crack up watching people talk about him who obviously have not seen him in action..They just take one look at his record, more then likely just the numbers and assume he wasnt much chop. Like an Emmanuel Augustus of his time but actually a potential world beater...and at times was.
People really should watch him as well - his fights against Lopez and Tyson are very good indeed :yep
I think My2Sense...or maybe Russ.. One (or probably both) Really loved the Lopez-Pendleton fight and posted it up here not long ago. Probably one of my favorite shootouts aswell.
Some guys have bad management and fade off after records like he started with and never get a chance at the title. I think Don King helped him alot and kept him in the mix to win a title. He was a good fighter, but he got his chances towards the end of his career and proved how good he was. Not sure it would be much different other than less losses on his record.
Decent assessment. Freddie won the IBF title before he hooked up with Don though, it was his change of manager (Al Bonnani), not promoter, which prompted the biggest turnaround in his career. Although Don certainly added longevity to his career :good
I remember when he fought Randall the second time and got a draw.He rocked Randall really bad and I thought he had won. He gave Jimmy Paul fits and even stunned Paul on one occasion. Hell when he was champ De La Hoya didn't want any part of him-too high a risk without the big name.Freddie in my opinion was robbed of his title vs Ruelas. Funny because years latter and a couple of weightclasss north Freddie fought James Page and almost decked Page-Page had to resort to tackling him to buy time.
It's a shame how he's remembered, or forgotten more like. He actually had a whole lot of ability. When he was on, he was on. He had some pretty devastating power and offensive capabilities, but I don't think he ever really had the boxing brain to consistently put on the kind of peak performances we saw against the likes of Lopez and Mayweather. Be that as it may, the guy was a handful for pretty much any LW on his day, and even managed to give a prime Whitaker one of his best scraps at LW.
The fight I would have liked to see is Pendleton vs. Camacho, around 87-88. That right hand would have had Hector running for his dear life, I'm sure of it.
