At or around the light flyweight weight? I'm a big fan of Chang, and for my money, at his peak, he is one of the best 'little men' I've seen in boxing. However, to those posters more knowledgeable, who do you think would effectively deal with Chang dynamic skills in order to beat him?
Good question and Wilde above is a solid pick! I am hard pressed to pick someone off of the top of my head...and some are already guys he fought. Hilario Zapata perhaps? I do feel Chang deserved the decision against him in their first fight but Zapata was perhaps past prime and not himself either. Chitalada? They fought twice but kind of overlapped with prime Chang fighting pre prime Chitalada and in the 2nd prime Chitalada fighting past prime Chang ( although I felt Chang won that fight as well)... Myung Woo Yuh would have been great to see and a shame that their contracts wouldn’t really ever allow them to meet....perhaps he? Ricardo Lopez???? My dark horse underdog....one of the things I noticed watching Chang is he struggled with a good jabber (lol who doesn’t right), and his rushes would get mite wild the better he was timed coming in, and he would get reckless or sometimes hold back on the pressure coming in as he tried to figure it out. I think Joey Olivo has one of the best jabs (even if lacking in power) I saw at this weight. I wouldn’t pick Joey but style wise he would present all sorts of trouble.
I also read somewhere here on the forum that Chang had an injured foot several weeks before the first zapata bout, but Im not totally sure. I guess if we include flyweights as well, then we would have more options, like Yuri Arbackhov. But then we would have to think of a hypothetical Chang who is still peak at a higher weight.
I think he could run into something from a power punching sharpshooter like Carbajal. I could just as easily see Carbajal overwhelmed by Chang's workrate though.
I think he’d beat most flyweights to be honest. A really precise and powerful counter puncher such as Nonito Donaire would smash him to pieces, but then Nonito wouldn’t make 112 in the early 80’s anyway. Wilde’s an interesting one. I’ve seen a lot of him, I think he could well outbox Chang. But Chang would make it really hard on him, I’m not so certain Wilde would thrive under sustained pressure and someone who’s as capable feinting and popping off quick shots as he was. Wilde is seen as some massive power puncher but he’s more a fast, accurate pure boxer who tired his man out and THEN rained blows down. Bear in mind I have over an hours worth of footage of him and have researched him extensively. Not that there’s any footage of him at fly, but from what we have and what we know I presume Fidel Labarba would beat Chang. Chang would be a bad matchup for Ricardo Lopez IMO. Even though the far less technically robust Isidro Lopez made Chang look horrendous and arguably beat him, you have to consider that Chang simply wasn’t at his best for that fight. Fighting Harada would paste him at flyweight. Would he incredible though. Someone like Ebihara might have the accuracy, chin and wherewithal to time Chang more consistently than others might. Chang would drown Canto, it wouldn’t even be competitive IMO
I had that closer than most do, although it’s obvious Chang’s legs are gone, and therefore, he has little to no defence. In his prime I reckon he’d have beaten Chiquita.
Styles make fights. That's why I love the lower weightclasses. So many greats who could beat each other, and they usually fought. Wilde was a master of distance control, would be great to see against the likes of Chang. I also agree with you about a match with Ricardo Lopez. Chang was much better than Rosendo Alvarez.
