Remember watching Benn at his most vicious starting out as a middle. So how's he do up against tough man Roldan ?The guy that rumbled with Marvin and Tommy ?
Very risky fight for Benn. Jimenez was like a bargain basement Roldan, and he gave Benn a real struggle, outmuscling him up close and forcing him onto the ropes. Benn at that point was more well rounded (if less explosive) than at 160, and was able to adjust and outbox the stronger man. Benn was shot against Collins, but at a stretch you could use that as further evidence that he struggled against physically strong brawlers. Roldan is very live in this one. He hit hard enough to stop Benn, and was strong enough to muscle him against the ropes and crowd his work. If we're talking about the 160 version of Benn, he may not have been able to switch to a plan B like he was able to later in his career. The thing with Benn though, as much of a cliche as it is, he raised his game when his back was against the wall and people were writing him off. On paper, he had no business winning a tear-up with McClellan, and on paper Barkley was bigger and more durable. I think Roldan would give him fits, and maybe even drop him, but Benn would salvage it with some kind of hail mary off the ropes.
Roldan was in against a deeper caliber of opposition than Benn, McClellan, Eubank and Watson weren`t as good as a prime Nunn and Roldan fought well against Nunn he also nearly beat Hearns, Marvin had to back off vs Roldan he was tougher than Benn at middle where Benn quit against Watson after punching himself out and wa very easy to hit in his first fight vs Eubank.
Benn did not quit against Watson. He punched himself to a standstill, he had that little left Watson stopped him with a jab. There was never any quit in Benn, did you ever watch the McClennen fight? Roldan would be a very dangerous fight for Benn. It could go either way, but Roldan was easy to hit, defence wasn’t high on his list of priorities and that would put him In mortal danger against someone like Benn.
At the time when Benn fought WAatson he was being trained by people who didn`t know anything about boxing, Benn commented on this recently on ITV4 saying he went back to the corner tired and all his corner could say was 'steam him'! No way would he have stood a chance against G-man or Roldan with these cowboys in his corner. (On a side note I met Benn and got his autograph in `89 just before he was beat by Watson).
As I see it .As against Iran he'd be nervous but would transfer that in to a kill or be killed attitude. He'd be hurt ,maybe knocked to the floor,but he'd still be trying to get to Roldan to take his head off .
I would go with Nigel Benn. Roldan could hurt anyone but he also seemed to have a knack for quitting when he was hurt. With Hagler and with Hearns he sat after he was hurt, yet he was hurt at the end of round one so his corner sort of got him up with encouragement. I think Nigel would have been rocked and maybe hurt and would probably stop Roldan in 5 or 6 rounds. It could got he other way also. Dewitt had Benn down, and Roldan hit harder and more awkwardly than Dewitt.
