Jose Stable, in the two fights I've seen him in, looked a serious talent. He held his own against Curtis Cokes (had their fight a draw) and Emile Griffith (had Emile by a point), which was especially impressive given that he was in effect really no bigger than a jr. welterweight. Griffith looked two weight classes bigger than him and gave him a pasting in the last third of their fight becuase of his greater strength, but Stable fired back and didn't allow himself to be totally overwhelmed. From the film I've seen of him I'd say he would beat the likes of Kostya Tszyu and everyone since that has campaigned at 140, but he was only ever really good for a short period of time....After the Griffith fight, it seemed that he fell apart. Why? What happened? Looking for info here from anyone that has an explanation for why he fell apart. The only thing I know is that he went to prison in the 80's for shooting a cop... which would suggest some mental issues which might have played a role even during his boxing career...
Napoles was campaigning as a lightweight around the few years Stable was a serious welterweight contender. That said, I'm sure a fight at 140 would have been no problem for either man. Would have been a great fight too.
I've never seen the Cokes fight, but Stable, as you say, gave a very good account of himself against Griffith. The punishment he sustained over the last few rounds might well have contributed in taking something from him permanently though, not an uncommon occurrence in boxing. Anyone know if any footage of his fights against Curvis and/or Charnley exists?
To my knowledge only the following fights of his exist: Jose Stable vs Curtis Cokes, Charley Scott, Gabe Terronez I, Stanley Hayward, Dick Turner, Vince Shomo and Emile Griffith. As for why the sudden decline well the Griffith fight had something to do with it as has already been mentioned, but it was also a case of Jose losing some of his dedication to the sport as well. From what I heard he trained very, very hard for the Griffith fight and wanted to win it at all cost, so when he lost the decision he never recovered psychologically and it was downhill from that point onward. Kinda like Ernie Lopez in that regard, he also never got over the two losses to Napoles and well we all know the story of what happened to him.
Cheers for the info mate :good Good to hear there's quite a bit of film available on him too. He doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Stable was a pain in the azz to fight,bob and weaves good and always brings the fight to the inside, he's also pretty bouncy.
