I feel it would be a mixture of Watson`s two fights with Eubank, if you look at the Duran v Barkley they were often fighting on the outside like the first Watson v Eubank fight Barkley would pump the jab as would Duran but Duran could get inside and counter whereas Watson struggled to do the same v Eubank, however Barkley was easier to hit than Eubank so Watson could land more counters, but I expect Iran would over-power Watson who didn`t have Duran`s head movement, Iran would not punch himself out by swinging at Watson`s high guard the way a green Benn did.
Tough one but I'd have to go with Barkley by late tko. He's become underrated over the years. He was far from a perfect fighter but he was a dangerous swarmer with an iron chin and great gas tank
I think Watson gets a bit too much credit for the Benn victory. He spent large parts of the fight pinned on the ropes landing little flurries. Benn punched himself out that night and if there's one thing Barkley can do, it's swarm for a full fight. I don't think he gasses, I don't think he punches himself out against Watson. And the damage Watson takes on the ropes accumulates, culminating in a tko win for The Blade.
Watson would out-maneuver Barkley in a gruelling, gruesome fight. He was quality, bringing his gloves up fast to cup his forehead, timing when to do so or when to keep one up and one punching/countering. He bobbed, weaved and changed angles of attack by turning a shoulder in - Barkley didn't use intelligent body movement, he just pumped out punches or blocked with his face. I think Watson beats him on cuts, and out-works him by using more body movement and punch variety, while glove blocking between. So Watson is winning on points at the time of the cuts stoppage.
No. That performance against Benn was as close to perfect as you could wish for. Benn's showing against Watson was like nothing you ever saw - I have never seen a fighter tee off with combinations quite like that at such a berserk pace, putting everything into every punch and throwing from all angles like that; the power, speed and ferocity was off the page, those natural punching leverages of Benn something to behold. (On the strength of the performance Bob Arum signed Nigel the next day, the fight was live on NBC in America and they were desperate to see more of him!) You'd have to be Stevie Wonder not to see this. And Watson put in a near-perfect, if not perfect, performance. I didn't see him put a foot wrong. He opened his gloves to wrap his fingers around either side of forehead which blocked EVERYTHING, even the body shots because his elbows were automatically lower. He timed his own shots between Benn's combinations and power shots as Benn was resetting, never throwing a punch more than he had to or giving Benn quite enough room to get total force. Study the 2nd round of the fight closely, and, offensively, you see an almost flawless exhibition of boxing from Watson. He is literally punch-****ing-perfect - along with Benn's fists swirling round his guard, we see Watson hit him with every shot in the book in this round. (This was still only the 2nd round!) Not just jabs, though plenty of them; lead straight right hands, lead right uppercuts and baby Barrera-style left hook/uppercuts, uppercut-jab 1-2's, lead right-left hook 1-2's, digging body shots, the absolute works... in his quite methodical way Watson hits him with the kitchen sink. Benn lands maybe twice cleanly in the whole round.
When you say crisp none of Watson`s shots were ever as crisp as the shot Barkley knocked Hearns out with.
Hearns fought how Watson did v Benn in his rematch v Barkley with a high guard but it didn`t work, you`re right.