Ray Mancini was a great fighter but he has brain damage at this point. You're only as good as your last fight? Well, Kelly's last fight was a win. And if you're talking about the quality of opposition, then you could say this about Muhammad Ali too, who fought a few tomato cans even during his reign as HW champion. Everyone has fought tomato cans. Pavlik's last opponent was actually a good fighter, not a tomato can at all. People need to respect Pavlik and stop coming to the aid of Bob Arum and these other promoters. Millionaires don't need your help.
Nah. He was very entertaining but not great. He was like that days Gatti, on the level of guys like Pazienza ,always coming up short against the best guys but still a damn fun fighter to watch.
I recently re-watched a couple of old Pavlik & Mancini fights so I decided to revisit this thread. Pavlik was a fun fighter to watch and it is unfortunate that his career and life went off the rails. He was absolutely full of it though with his comments denigrating Mancini's career. On the way up, a very young Mancini soundly beat Jose Luis Ramirez, who is a better fighter than Pavlik ever beat. I recommend watching Arguello-Mancini to people who haven't seen it. It was a good fight between a good, tough fighter an an ATG of the sport. Mancini fought well and was reasonably competitive, but Arguello was just too good. Pavlik was bashing Mancini for losing to Arguello, but Pavlik won maybe one round against ole' man Hopkins. Bramble was a better fighter than Sergio Martinez. Mancini hadn't fight in about 4 years when he faced the incredibly talented underachiever Hector Camacho. And almost won.
Kind of like that, but he was a better fighter. Gatti would not be competitive with Arguello, and would probably not beat Ramirez. Ramirez was a very good fighter, he arguably defeated Edwin Rosario twice. Gatti probably would not have been as competitive with the likes of Bramble & Camacho either.