Jose Napoles the best ever?

Guys like Napoles and Gavilan could actually defend themselves well if they wanted to, but they really didn't give a **** about getting hit because they were so tough.

The self assured attitude they possessed is great to behold, and intimidating as anything for an opponent.

 

Napoles vs Duran at 140 and Napoles vs Whitaker at 140 would be incredible to watch I think. True h2h match-ups to savour, which is safe to assume despite Duran and Whitaker's relative lack of interest in that division during their careers.

 

I reckon prime Benitez could give him what for at the weight.

 

I have little doubt that he was among the best ever at 140 lbs, even though he never had an extensive record at the weight. As far as head-to-head contests go, you'd have to dig up fighters like Ray Robinson, Barney Ross, Roberto Duran and others who could have competed 140 to possibly best him. The likes of Cervantes, Tszyu, Pryor and Locche wouldn't have beaten him.

 

Benitez wasn't really prime at 140, Robinson would give him a good scrap though

 

What do you consider his best performance then? I still think he never topped his domination of Cervantes. I'm assuming you're nominating the Duran or Palomino efforts then? I simply think he was at his most athletic and motivated there.

 

It's the way he is so relaxed yet masterful. Balancing head movement and angles and working off them to create openings. He looks better at mid/close rang but can effortlessly box at range. A master at pressuring using counter punching, 1 of the most demoralising things is throwing a punch being made to miss and be countered, Napoles would then follow the counter with combinations. He's making little to no mistakes himself and capitalises on every error and he doesn't let his opponent have rests. Obviously you can't discount his bodypunching, or how fluid and short his combinations were.

 

Duran, Palermino or even Leonard. He looked so good against Cervantes because Cervantes was built to order for him. Even if he didn't improve technically (I think he did), it's undeniable that he grew into a man from 147-154

EDIT: have you heard the rumours Benitez really weighed 147 for Cervantes?

 

I have to say Napoles impressed me the second I saw the first piece of footage on him, which happened to be his first fight with Cokes. I have not seen a boxer effectively put pressure on his opponent while slipping the punches quite as effortlessly as he did. There have been others who could pull off the feat of course, but few with Napoles's chilling calmness. Even when he got hit, his expression would barely change.

This would wear down his opponents mentally and physically as nothing they did seemed to faze the man. Ernie 'Red' Lopez was left particularly broken after his losses to Napoles, earlier he had been the one to laugh off his opponents punches while wearing them down. One counter uppercut, and he went down and out.

 

hatton would have dropped him, leave your chin hanging like that your asking for problems

 

Made to order? Maybe in a loose style sense. He stopped Locche, another radar type defensive wizard in a rematch shortly after taking the title. Ten title defenses before he ran into a 17year old Benitez. After that he won ten more straight before he got dismantled by Pryor including wins over slick Saoul Mamby. I don't really see how he was made to order in any sense.

As for later efforts, Benitez grew older but not better- he became lazy by the admission of his own father and later in his own words. More experienced, perhaps. But not necessarily better.

Weight rumors? I dunno, lol.

I've shown that same highlight to my roommates and they immediately thought he was awesome, napoles was externally more impressive, mesmerising than you might think.

 

To be honest I don't think Cervantes dealt with defensive fighters all too well. Locche shut him down in their first fight, did decent enough in the rematch despite a bad cut and Saoul Mamby always insisted that he had been robbed against Cervantes in Venezuela. Don't know if there's any truth to the latter though.