I actually referenced this fight not too long ago here. Amazing that Paez, in the midst of his fw reign, weighed as high as 135 for this fight & still had to lose 2lb on the day of the weigh-in just to make that weight. I've always felt he deprived himself of what should've been his prime by sucking down below what was really his natural weight for far too long.
I think he was best at feather and 130 would have been his ceiling. Against natural 135-pounders at the top end of the ranking tree, he just wasn’t big enough and didn’t have enough power to make a dent. Biggest flaw was that he fought in spurts, often resulting in difficult-to-score fights and coin-toss verdicts. His antics, funny haircuts and entrances detracted from the fact that Maromero was just a rugged guy who liked to stand in the pocket and fight. Gritty. I think the declining years of his career showed he just liked to fight — didn’t much matter to him where are against whom as long as there was someone in front of him to go to town with. Gotta give the guy his due. A true fighter head to toe.
