General consensus is that Mantequilla has his rightful place as one of the top 5 welters of all time. He was, however, IMO a natural lightweight/light-welter who beat several contenders down at lightweight but moved up to get a title shot as you will all most likely know (though I don't know if he was having trouble making the weight?). Imagine him at lightweight or lightwelter vs the likes of Ortiz, Loi, Locche, Laguna, Buchanan, De Jesus or even Duran: How would he have fared? IMO he would've been a massive force for even Duran to contend with. Not sure I could pick a winner between the two of them. Any thoughts?
Sorry, criminal offence there leaving Benitez out. Or even Gans for that matter. Anyway, I reckon he may have been at lightweight what Robinson was at welter, though that may be somewhat overstating it seeing as he was beaten at the weight early in his career.
He was essentially the uncrowned champ at 140, as he beat both Perkins and Hernandez who were champs around the time but they just werent holding the belts when he fought them. Locche talked of fighting him, after the Henrique fight I think. I have no idea what prevented that fight from happening but its a shame it didnt. But seeing as though Jose was well and truly at welterweight by that stage, maybe Locche was reluctant to move up. Though I havent seen much film of Jose below welter, if he was that off the hook at 147 then surely his ability at the weight he was more naturally suited to would have been even greater. Most have not seen much of SRR at welter but it does not stop them from considering him near unbeatable at welterweight by extrapolating from his earlier middleweight form. This is why I would pick very few over a prime Napoles as he was a truly amazing package. The man could seriously hit, his skills were amazing and it all flowed together so smoothly hence the moniker. The main issue with Napoles is that for an elite fighter his skin was so paper thin. So much so that whenever discussing a mythical matchup with Napoles in it, loss via cuts is always a big possibility. Thats why I think a high paced guy like Duran who could whack and was highly skilled technician with excellent accuracy, would more then likely be able to seriously damage the face of Jose. This being despite the fact that stylistically Jose would possibly cause some problems for Duran IMO, not to mention not much would seperate them in overall ability. In general few guys could outbox this man from 135-147..He would be very hard to knock out because his chin was solid and his defensive skills were top shelf. Of the guys mentioned I would only be confident of Duran and Ortiz beating him at these weights below welter..Sweet Pea aswell..With hard punching and high paced guys like Pryor, Williams, Armstrong and Chavez possibly bringing cuts into play enough for them to force a victory. Very short list of fighters IMO.
