This. Not only is he too big, he's got the skills and the style to prevent being outboxed. Wright didn't do a whole lot wrong at his peak at #2 p4p. Airtight D, perfect, and I do mean perfect jab, and a high workrate. Just SO hard to beat h2h. I take the Wright from the Tito fight to give any 154er hell. Ever.
Surprised that this is so one-sided so far, especially considering the nature of the second Mosley fight, where Shane at least made it competitive. Mosley is probably more physically strong than Napoles, but he's about half as skilful.... Wright got run close on a few occasions at 154 (Vargas, Simon), I think if Napoles can keep a highish workrate going, he's in with a chance.
I think Winky could even stop Napoles. Wright was bullying his opponents when he could and he would do so with Napoles. Jose was immense but Wright was much bigger and stronger, combined with his workrate I can see Wright stopping an exhausted Napoles late.
I don't think the second fight was particularly close and Napoles is quite allot smaller than Mosley. Like you said Napoles is plenty more skilled and Quartey pushed Wright too. But Wright is the same size as Monzon, with the same quality of jab and maybe harder to hit clean with his peekaboo and he'd likely push Napoles around. Vargas and Simon were basically MWs themselves. Napoles was a lightweight moving up to welterweight and a smaller man than Duran
he certainly was not smaller than Duran, power.napoles was a physical force at 135\140 and though small, comfortable and tough as hell at 147.I'd say they are a good comparison size-wise. I don't like Wright much against technically gifted boxer-punchers, i think he's a bit overestimated for his defence on here.He doesn't give nearly enough angles with the full guard and uses it more as a launchpad for his great jab and counters....in fact i rate him much higher as a jabber and counterpuncher than i do a defensive specialist.It takes a lot of timing and accuracy to consistently counter out of a full closed up high guard as well as he does. But he tended to get hit with a decent amount of shots threaded between and around the guard when he fought fighters with capable straight punches or who went to the body ie Vargas..enough to make numerous fights with less skilled fighters debatably close.More sophisticated boxer-punchers that can punchpick at a very high level would thread in punches that would get through the static guard, even if 2 for every 3 get blocked when they really open up. Winky imo is more suited to matadoring aggressive sluggers, swarmers, methodical stalking punchers etc.. and fighters who can be frustrated and knocked off kilter by steady application of some great basics, even if they have more flashy athleticism or standout tools than him.I think he'd be hell for Mosley even with the very best Slugger shane in there. A guy like Napoles doesn't fit that bill for me though.Technically i think he's hell for Winky with his top-notch head slips, much more intricate footwork and offensive variety as well as the sheer fact he's a thinker in there, maybe not as far as being super versatile like a Robinson-he's much more of a rhythm and precision fighter than that-but just in being able to adapt well technically, try different punches and angles out etc.. That said i don't think he was up to much physically against middleweights.Wright would be a very strenous fight for him as he's unlikely to hurt him too much and is going to get caught more as the fight wears on and his headmovement slows a bit.Can't really take things inside either here.Wright can certainly win if it's the inconsistent latter reign Napoles i think most are probably envisioning here.I'd probably stick money on Winky if that was the case.....but Napoles fighting Wright circa the Cokes bouts, i'd bet on Jose. WRight is not the kind of fighter to punish you too much for being smaller, he's light hitting and very politely technical, he'll just do his thing in there regardless of being the bigger man.
Starling>>>Winky And I bet no one would pick Starling to beat Mantequilla. Typical modern elitist posts here.
Dimension wise they're identical but when he was in shape look at how well Duran held the weight at 154 and 160 and compare it to Napoles against Monzon I do agree stylistically Napoles could give problems but the size he's giving up would be too much for him to make an indentation. Napoles punches won't be too bothersome for a man 2-3 weight classes of natural size on him. Wright's jab or shoves would push him back when it lands and the workrate would be high keeping Napoles backed up and taking away his leverage. Wright is light hitting, he was allot faster earlier in his career, started as a slickster [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZF9juiESKA[/ame]
Now I fully appreciate Wright's skills - and size - but no way is he dominating Napoles in his prime. We shouldn't be thinking of a boxer from 1974 here, a cagey welterweight king of ageing legs and will, but an electrifying challenger who snatched the title from a welterweight king himself; 1969. Napoles was small even for a welterweight back then, and these days most of us seem to be aware that there is a strong argument for him being the best 140lbs fighter ever, but nevertheless his class was in 'that' category in which Robinson, Pep, Whitaker, Duran and very few others reside. You know a fighter is good when he starts to make it look much more gentle than it really is. On those old tapes he's catching them with punches from nowhere, double lead rights, triple hooks, double jabs, and any combination of those as a counter attack, interspersed with uppercuts, and those opponents just unravel in front of him. Sometimes Napoles looked like he wasn't even trying. I think a bit later on, smelling of alcohol or whatever, he probably lapsed in the ring so as to really not be trying, but they still fought to his rhythm and were exposed when he broke it suddenly. At his best, Napoles was sharper than we typically envisage with footage from the Monzon, Stracey or Muniz fights. Monzon himself suffers from this misperception also, as he was also slightly quicker and more active in his earlier days. Am I being too romantic? I don't believe so, as Napoles' average standard of opposition was high, and he looked very smooth in beating them on those fairly poor films we have (compared to modern tapes where damaging punches are loud and clear) of him at his best. I don't necessarily think Napoles beats Wright as although I would definitely say Napoles had a more masterful approach to his game, Wright was a formidable operator in his own right, and as someone else mentioned, his tight defence and homing jab together wielded a mountain obstacle to overcome, perhaps even for the combination punches of Napoles. It does come down to the size though. A fighter like Wright at 140lbs would have been decisioned much more comfortably, but the decision could go against Napoles at 154 seeing as he would probably go into the fight at a puffy 148, if that.
