Jose Napoles; Kid Rapidez's love letter to Kid Chocolate.

I'll have a full read in the next day or so George. I've had a skim. My thoughts will be a long way under the likes of you and TR obviously but i'll see if i can find something to contribute.

 

That was a proper good read Georgie, good lad. Really well observed.

 

My current thought Johnny is that I need a sh*t, so you might need to up your game.

 

Outstanding post.

What a great morsel to chew on today.

 

So yeah the resemblance is there for sure. Rapidez would have been pretty close in age to Chocolate you'd think and he certainly would have had a big influence on him. His name is all over the place, Alfred vs Alfredo, Cruz vs Chavez vs Cruz Chavez etc. He also trained Bazooka Limon tho it's hard to pin down how long. He provided him some foundations during a short amateur career and was about at least until he was turning pro but not sure thereafter.

Lots of similarities with Napoles more refined. Both liked to square up at times in both attack and defence which opens up avenues for them. Part of Napoles refinement is noticeably tighter footwork and punching. Chocolate loved getting those feet wide and really using them hard to invest heavily in his punches while Napoles was a whole lot more economical and precise. Chocolates footwork works well and he is lightning fast to turn when need be.

Napoles has some of the greatest footwork of anyone, ever. It's so precise, economical, functional.....and his slips and blocks are the same. There's no exaggerated head or glove movement as he demonstrates the goldilocks principle to a tee. Of course this is part of what makes him such a great counterpuncher but i find his anticipation uncanny as well. At his peak he virtually took away your right hand due to those debilitating right hand counters above the heart and few have brought down the opponents hands with body blows as effectively as he. It would be terrible fighting him as he just gives you nothing while taking (away) almost everything.

 

Hi John.
My word, your last paragraph on Napoles, and his all round fighting ability, are Shakespearean in prowse, I have read a forest on him over the last 50 years, him being my fav of all time, but your description is laser like in its accurateness, bravo !
As for the fighter himself, he was always ( even in the 70s ) seen as a exceptional champ, and a shoe in for an ATG, not unlike Lennox Lewis in a similar perspective, he status has grown, beware the poster that has not included him in his top 5 WW dito Lewis, Napoles just looked and boxed like a dream, you pointed out many of his finer points, also for me it was the anomaly's, for instance he always had his head slightly looking at canvas, or maybe it was his opponents feet, it was so Napoles, the gloves looked innocuous in a way, or the way he carried them, at half mast it looked at times, they did not appear menacing, and when thrown they sometimes appeared slow, on screen anyway, but as the rounds slipped by the opponents features would bruise and bulge, lumps would come out of nowhere, how was this happening, the shots didn't look that hard, they were not launched with frenzy, but like the poison of the black mamba, they were slowly taking effect, if you lasted the distance, you would need cold compresses and sunglasses for the rest of the week.
Jose Napoles, just the name.....
stay safe amigo, chat soon.

 

Enjoyed reading this. Great post as usual George!

I've always thought that Jose Napoles reminded me somewhat of Sugar Ray Robinson with the way threw his combinations with such spite. It's no secret that Sugar Ray Robison himself was inspired by Kid Chocolate and his style was influenced by him. But after reading this I can definitely see the correlation with all three of them.

 

Thanks Mike you are too kind mate!!!!

Everything you say rings true too buddy. He punished guys and punished them until they were no more. He was just as happy to make you pay for your mistakes in round 1 as he was in round 11 and could fight at any range.