I think he may impress me more defensively than pretty much any other fighter outside of maybe Locche. His masterclass performance against a prime Daniel Zaragoza (who he makes to appear mediocre) is up on Youtube for any who'd like to view. This guy was as technically and intuitively sound defensively and in the art of counter-punching as pretty much anyone I've ever seen.
Truly great. Could be unhittable at times. His brief back-and-forth battle with Canizales is like the bantamweight Hagler-Hearns. :good [yt]cxDii11l83M[/yt] [yt]mon7COBv37w[/yt] Great defense, better offense...and a perfect example of timing beating speed.
I was sucked in and fell for the Lora hype, he turned to be a real disappointment. I always had a bit of a soft spot for his countryman Fidel Bassa though.
Hardly a prime Lora there, though. I would never venture to say that Gaby had a better offense than a prime Lora had defense, unless you're insinuating that Gaby had one of the best offensive onslaughts of all time. He allowed himself to get caught up in a slug-fest after hurting his opponent and paid for it. I doubt it would ever happen again in any number of rematches. Certainly not with the version of Lora that schooled guys like Davila and Zaragoza.
That's pretty much the equivalent of me starting a Sumbu Kalambay appreciation thread only for someone to attempt to de-rail it by posting the Nunn fight.
I don't think Lora was a disappointment per se...he was a genuine master craftsman..far beyond what someone like Floyd has been giving us for years now. But he did have a short prime, and mae a bad decision to hang around at Bantam when he was getting older and struggling to make weight.The Canizales fight was a classic case of a rusty, aging fighter getting overconfident and moving right in for the kill after some early success without having given himself time to get his timing back, he had looked totally out of sorts in the first round.All credit to Gaby though, as he was past it himself. In hindsight, Lora should have quickly rematched Perez then moved up.
Wasn't attempting to derail anything, it's a great action fight. Lora for his part looked very good (and was no less prime than Gaby himself there) and yeah, he got caught with a well-timed counter, but so what? Just because it's a loss his work in the first round and a half can't be appreciated? :conf
He was pretty unlucky to come across Raul Perez, who is a stylistic nightmare for a mid-low output defensive fighter. At least he had the balls to face him though. Floyd wouldn't go near a Paul Williams (who is bellow the caliber of Raul Perez btw).
OK, since posting a great performance in a losing effort can be misconstrued as a slight (I'd sure post clips or the entirety of the McCallum fight in a Curry celebration/retrospective :conf ) here's a great performance in a great win. :good [yt]YtPhLjLEEbM[/yt] [yt]sBTQP09sDes[/yt] [yt]MVsFD-MpZbo[/yt] [yt]YkPdix5vOrA[/yt] [yt]zN7j9VbmjhQ[/yt] The guy really brought counterpunching to a new level. He'd coil his body around your outstretched arm, almost like a vine around a branch, and leather would just appear in your face.
Man, watching those early fights of his, it's amazing how much Zaragoza regressed technically as his career went on.
