Jose Napoles

No, he liked to drink and party and he sometimes neglected his preparation.

 

And that uppercut, if you look at the You Tube vid of it, was nearly invisible. Look also at how it was thrown...a more perfect, compact and deadly an uppercut as has ever been thrown. Poor Red Lopez didn't know what hit him...and he was as much in agony at the damage done to his eye socket, as he was unconscious. Must have been a hellish end to the fight for Indian Red.

 

Mantequilla Napoles was, in my estimation, one of the greatest

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fighters in all of boxing history.

 

D, you may want to watch some of his available fights such as the first fight with Hedgemon Lewis, the second fight with Adolph Pruitt and his bout with Clyde Gray. Although he was in his 30s for these fights, he fought beautifully with such a relaxed style. There is also a 1st round KO out there also over Alfredo Urbina. Urbina had beaten him previously and it was a fired up Napoles this night.

Re: the first Muniz fight, oh, man, you had to get me started. Muniz is my favorite fighter of all time so this really sticks in my craw. To begin, Napoles was supposed to meet Angel Espada by WBA edict but refused (which caused the WBA to strip Napoles and award the title to the winner of Espada v Clyde Gray) and offered Armando Muniz (who was training for a rematch with Ernie Lopez) the shot. Muniz accepted but was forced by the Calif commission to make restitution with the Forum, who was staging Muniz-Lopez II. With that taken care of the fight was on but Muniz was against more than Napoles. The WBC and Mexican commission were not going to let their idol go up in smoke. Muniz' hard inside style was kryptonite to Napoles at this stage of the game, but Napoles was winning on my card as he was still countering Muniz nicely. The inside work of both fighters caused some clunking of heads and both fighters were cut, but nobody made a big deal out of it and there were no warnings. The fighters just got on with it. But around the 9th, Muniz changed his style slightly and started jabbing his way in and those cuts started opening wide. In the waning seconds of the 10th round, Muniz almost had Napoles. He was hurt and was a mess with blood. In the 11th, the referee Ramon Berumen should have hung his head in shame. One could count anywhere between 9 and 11 full-blooded low blows from Napoles while the referee just watched. It was so bad Muniz was actually raising his leg to protect the twins as Napoles came in. Muniz said when asked why he didn't retaliate, that Berumen was just waiting for him to do so, so he could DQ him. In the 12th when Napoles couldn't see and the doctor finally acknowledged the severity of the cuts, Berumen conspired with the Acapulco commission and Jose Sualaiman and they actually said, since there were head butts in the 3rd and 5th round, the fight has to go to the scorecards. And they awarded Napoles the fight on a tech. decision. Muniz was robbed blind. Of course he got a rematch and again did severe damage to Napoles eye, but Napoles came in with a good battle plan this time and won a correct decision. But nothing can make amends for stealing the title the first time. That fight is out there too, so I hope it's one you'll watch on your Napoles-fest.

 

Armando Muniz was my mother's favorite fighter, and one of mine as well.

 

I told Ruben Navarro, who sparred a bunch of rounds with Duran and Napoles, I don’t know who’s have won. He said he does. “Napoles easy!” That should give some kind of idea. A lightweight/average size Junior welterweight who dominated welterweight as undisputed champion for more than half a decade. Better than his all-time greatness perhaps, but still high on all the mythical lists. #1 Cuba, #3 Latino, #3 welter, top 30 p4p ever for me.

 

Interesting to hear that about Navarro. Whilst I don’t agree that Napoles would have ‘won easy’, a fight between him and Duran at lightweight or light welterweight would have been amazing. Of course, they were about a decade removed from each other in terms of their lightweight careers but I’d lean towards Duran at 135, although 140 is a very difficult pick. Napoles might have been the best there ever was at that weight.

 

Muniz faced both Napoles and Sugar Ray Leonard (albeit past his prime in the latter case) and said in a 2010 interview that Napoles was the best fighter he ever faced, and that he was "very confident" that Napoles would have beaten Leonard.

Only one man's opinion, of course, but it's a hugely qualified opinion and worth thinking about.

 

Is that him in your avatar, Jel

 

Enjoy yourself, old chap.

 

Sure is!

 

I think that round may have won the round 3 poll on the 15 best rounds of boxing that was done a couple of years back. Great round.