Jose Napoles

I'll need to check of more Napoles myself. He certainly meets my criteria for taste from what I have seen so far. If your a fan of Whitaker, Pep, Hopkins, Robinson, etc, then you'll more than likely be a Napoles fan.

I have him against Stracey. He was past his prime in that one, but his technique was good and overall the way he went about his business was appealing even though he was beaten.

 

One of the greatest ever. Definitely in the mix. I'd rate him somewhere between 2-7 in an all-time list.

 

Peak Jose Napoles was a complete master with an aptly descriptive nickname "Mantequilla" if there ever was one. His two fights against Ernie Red Lopez are wort digging up for review. In the rematch, he devastates Lopez with an unbelievable right uppercut that not only put Ernie down for the count, but tore his eyeball out of it's socket. I was a bit amazed by that when I read about it. It seems to be a bit forgotten, insofar as single punch ko's are concerned, and seemed to have a Joe Louis-like aura of painful destruction about it, comparing it to Louis-Uzcudun. Napoles twice reduced Curtis Cokes to being almost unrecognizeable with his face battered and swollen, almost as if he had been worked over with a billy-club or something. Napoles-Griffith is also a forgotten gem, and quite a tactical masterpiece for Napoles, as he neatly and cleanly outboxed, and outclassed Griffith over 15 rounds. He refused to 'get in the trenches" with the stronger Griffith, instead outboxing him, and suckered him all night long with a feint with the left, causing Emile to counter with a right, which Napoles slipped EVERY TIME, and would counter in return successfully. A fluke loss on cuts to Billy Backus came late in 1970, but Jose would regain the crown the next year with a one sided battering of Backus, stopping him in 8. Napoles was like a buzz saw in beating up and tko'ing in3 Adolph Pruitt in '72, when Pruitt looked like the real thing and couldn't miss becoming welterweight champ. Napoles beat Hedgemon Lewis in '72 also and beat a couple of European champs later on either in '72 or '73. I think Napoles began to decline following his humbing 6 round tko loss to Carlos Monzon in February of '74. With Monzon having a bullet still lodged in his arm or shoulder from a domestic incident with his wife, and looking relatively subpar in his last few outings in '73, Napoles and many others though that he was a good bet to destroy (that was the word back then) Monzon and become Middleweight champ. It was, of course, a big mistake, and Naploes returned to the welterweight division to once again defeat Lewis, this time by tko in 9, and have two wars with Armando Muniz, before eventually being stopped by John Stracey, a guy who wouldn't have had a chance against Mantequilla a few years earlier. Napoles had it all for a while, and was one of the alltime greats at welter in my opinion, breathing the same air as Sugar Ray Robinson, and that modern day Sugar Ray, as well.

 

Last time I checked he was number 6 on my welterweight list although him and (5) Gavilan always swoop every now and then. There aren't many at welterweight I would favour against and I would regard him as having a fair chance against Robinson like 55-45 in Ray's favour.

 

Napoles is one of my favourites and a genuine all-time great by any criteria. He was a master at timing his opponents and he also had very underrated defensive reflexes. If one looks closely at his fights it becomes apparent that he rarely ever blocked or parried a punch, instead he would use a subtle slip of his head and then counter his opponent.

He lost a lot of his speed and reflexive movement very quickly into his title reign and for my money that speaks volumes about his timing and mastery of the fundamentals of boxing that he was able to stay on top for so long even when on the decline. Lets not forget that Napoles was already past his peak by the time he won the welterweight crown, and that his reall peak was in his years spent fighting as a lightweight where he couldn`t get a shot at the title.

I have his one round destruction of Alfredo Urbina in their rematch on film which shows him at his absolute best, and that version of Jose may well have gone on to become one of THE dominant lightweight champions of all-time and one who I would have favoured to defeat both Carlos Ortiz and Ismael Laguna had they given him a shot at the title. Urbina was no slouch and yet Jose disposed of him with relative ease, quite an accomplishment.

Another thing I`d like to add when disscussing Napoles is his all-time great chin, which was demonstrated in the Monzon fight. He took one helluva pounding from Carlos in that 6th round yet never went down, remarkable really. In summation I don`t see many fighters being able to defeat Napoles at his best, with the exceptions being Luis Rodriguez, Ray Robinson/Leonard, Carmen Basilio, Roberto Duran and Kid Gavilan all of whom I would slightly favour to defeat Jose. Hearns gets stopped in my opinion, and so does the likes of Curry and Benitez among others.

 

Napoles looked very good early on in the Monzon fight. Monzon was always a slow starter and ultimately pulverised Napoles but still, the aging welterweight flaunted his skills for a time and caught Monzon with some very nice shots.

RB - I can't see Basilio beating Napoles, and I know Basilio very well. How do you think he would do it?

 

Excellent thread, all around. Mantequilla is not somebody who can be properly appreciated with just a casual view. Like the finest of spirits, his artistry needs careful and repeated scrutiny to tease out the subtle nuances of his craft. Every one of you who has posted on Napoles here has demonstrated why the Classic forum is the premium octane at ESB.

Sweet Pea, you've clearly revealed that you understand how to study boxing in this particular instance. Many who would be watching him for the first time might fail to see anything special about his boxing. As you expressed, Jose really does become more impressive each time he's observed, much like the individual intricacies of a fine jazz instrumental can be newly discerned with each listening.

As for who would beat him, it is well known that he was something of a bleeder at times. Reyes gloves, with that nasty seam stitched in, could wreak havok with his facial skin. Put Reyes gloves on Napoles and Arguello at lightweight, and Alexis might turn peak Mantequilla into a bloody mess. With or without any cuts though, Napoles/Arguello at 135 would have been a boxing connoisseur's dream.

 

i always wondered if napoles would be a ideal "sugar" because like leonard and roboinson, he had a incredable amature career and was very fluent with his movements.


i would have love to see a dream match between napoles and shane mosley

i think that fight would be incredably even.