What do Classic posters think of his overall skill set, and how high does he rank at super featherweight (one of the divisions that slipped through the cracks of Rumsfeld's All-Time Ranking threads dedicated to the Original Eight)? Other than his chin, there aren't too many facets of his game that require an enormous deal of tweaking IMO. His defense was not all that poor, really (poor enough to get him knocked out but that has a lot more to do with his ability to withstand heavy hands). Offensively he was very gifted. He was capable of great accuracy, routinely finding even moving targets - and would keep his knuckles in almost constant contact with those targets, which was a manner of defense in itself. His unflagging activity and sharpness - preserved into the late going - may have been his biggest strengths.
I have always loved to watch Shibata fights. Never in a boring fight. He had punching power and a suspect chin, so you never knew what would happen. Stopping the "unbetable" Vicente Saldivar in Mexico is a great result. Not in the absolute top of a all time ranking, but something to 7 - 10 on the list Woller
I have not seen a great deal of him, but yes he looks a good all-round fighter. I thought Marcel dominated him though. He sort of reminds me of Saldivar in a way. He uses pressure and steps inside with mid-range attacks, but he is slightly quicker and less accurate and durable IMO.
Shibata fought his career best fight vs Saldivar, who was perhaps ready at that time to be taken, but the Japanese deserved credit for rising to the occasion. He beat Vincente though effective hand speed and volume punching..and he had a kamekaze "never say die" attitude for that fight and never let Saldivar off the hook. He had good solid skills but his chin let him down often....the spectacular ko punch thrown by the Mexican "Ingo" Clemente Sanchez comes to mind, though that shot could have taken out anybody...BTW, I posted a brief vid of that 3rd round moment recently on this forum.
Unless you were a fabulous boxer in your own right (like Marcel) you weren't going to outpoint Shibata. His high workrate, sharp punching, and quick fists weren't going to allow that to happen. That meant you had to knock him out, and do it early, because once he got into his rhythm he was extremely difficult to overcome.
As an addendum: He definitely ranks as one of the better super-lightweights and featherweights of the 70's. But in terms of an all time ranking, his quick stoppage losses kind of hurt him, and it's tough for me to rate him as one of the ten best all time at jr lightweight.
A fine fighter.Good balance, fast hands, top-notch combinations and punch variety with decent power.Pretty good upper body movement, though with his soft chin he was vulnerable to being laid clean out early on before he had a chance to get used to an opponent's style and rhythm. On the other hand his jab wasn't very good, and it was a punch he could have been doing with in his arsenal..Also reminds me of the immortal glass jaw Chong-pal Park who also had a lot of good tools, but often fought cautiously and within himself because he knew he could be hurt easily.Shibata was the same and thus not often dominant even against mediocre to average opposition.Not really a versatile fighter despite having the skills and footwork to be one. Overall, less than the sum of the parts.
Good all-around fighter whose one glaring weakness (and occasionally his undoing) was his vulnerability to early-round KOs. Aside from that, he was a good, tough, and exciting fighter who could box and brawl. He basically out-Saldivared Saldivar, which is impressive; and while Saldivar was showing wear and tear by that time, he still had been good enough to beat Famechon and Legra. I'd say he might rank in the top 25 at FW.
I think Saldivar used up a lot of what he had left in those bouts with Fammo and Legra though. That's probably the main knock on saldivar actually...his prime was quite brief imo.
Seems like a boxer who fought lesser than his actual talent, due to the glaring faults. Movement, speed and accuracy are all ridiculously high in comparison to anyone in history IMO. He also had some absolutely brilliant (maybe ATG) movement IMO. Seriously great co ordination with his head and feet. His suspect chin, however, limited him sometimes (Echegaray) when he could be dominant. Very hard for me to rank in a fantasy H2H match up. He could dominate you or get clocked cold. He also seemed to have a possibly suspect ring IQ, though maybe it was just being too conservative. He seemed to have one momentum as well, though he could box and brawl. I shudder to think what he could've done with a Hagler type chin instead.
The suspect chin was one of the reasons I always liked Shibata. I suppose the same reason I liked Roger Mayweather too. I like fighters with a glaring weakness that overcome the issue with talent. Shibata got KO'd by the big bangers like Villaflor, Sanchez, Hawkins and Escalera. But he was also able to handle some big sluggers like Villaflor (in their first fight), Saldivar and Arredondo by being that extra wary and fighting a smart fight. Shibata was one good fighter.
Bump. An awesome fighter that needs more attention. Very skilled offensively with some fast hands and great combos but his chin really did let him down. Much similar to guys like Terry Norris, Roger Mayweather, Amir Khan, Jorge Linares. One can imagine how much successful he would have been with a granite chin.
His fight with Marcel is class, Marcel obviously won IMO but it was competitive - I’ve never seen the Salvaidar (spelling?) bout however.
