These are two of my favorites and while I rate Napoles higher, I have always wondered if Laguna could beat him???? What do ya think does Laguna have it in him to beat Napoles and how/why?
A very good question. In their primes the Ring had an article comparing the two with the big difference to them being that Napoles "was not quite the greyhound on legs that Laguna was." That aside and at Junior Welter, with a slower Hedgeman Lewis as my example, I will take Laguna to shade Jose in a very high caliber match up. Ismael at his best was something else, maybe a little better then Buchanan who caught him at the tail end of his career.
They were within 4 lbs of each other for many years....and Laguna was actually taller.....wonder why they didn't fight at 140 lbs??????
To me Napoles at lightweight/junior welter is just devastating. Napoles by clear decision due to Laguna choosing to survive...Napoles has the timing, and the ability to string his combinations together so well...especially at this weight. Napoles may have been the greatest lightweight of all time.
I disagree w/ greatest....to me greatest entails accomplishment/resume, and he is not even in the conversation.....better implies to me H2H, and on that front there are not many from LW-WW that I would favor to beat beat mantiquillia. Perhaps El Tigre Colonense @ LW
