Panama Al Brown vs. Ruben Olivares

Even Olivares might not stop brown because of his elusiveness I do think he would land enough brutal left hooks to shake Panama Al and force him out of his game plan. I like Olivares by a close but clear decision.

 

So you pick Brown via stoppage?

 

I haven't picked anybody, but he could.

It's a 15 round fight and Olivares is usually very aggressive, while Brown is a sharp counter puncher. Olivares packs the bigger punch, but he is more vulnerable for a knockout.

 

Walker very freely admitted carrying opponents during his career. King Levinski went 30 rounds with Max Baer in official competition, but later got wiped out by a vicious second round left hook in an exhibition after he provoked Maxie. Mike Gibbons derided brother Tommy for falling in love with his power. Brown boxed in a different era with some different boxing values and priorities. McLarnin was known for his power, but the consequent hand problems undermined his knockout percentage. Canzi only had 44 knockouts in 137 wins, but he took out Chocolate in two, Berg with a single right hand, dropped Ambers twice early, and repeatedly staggered McLarnin in their first scrap. We know from the films that Tony wasn't feather fisted. (Gavilan also gets dogged with the feather fist label, even though what he did to Cartier, Turner and Davey is documented on youtube. We know he could punch when he wanted to.)

Brown competed with some frequency, a situation which can call for hand preservation. Furthermore, he often did so against highly experienced opposition, something else which can dilute this statistic. Fortunately, we have footage which documents his ability to punch with power.

He competed in an era of five and six ounce gloves, over a period of more than 20 years, at a time when 30 years of age was a terminal milestone for many. Ross was still in his late 20s when Armstrong finished him. Canzi was done before 32. Others like Canzoneri went through more fights before being stopped. But Brown was 40 years old when he finished up, still never having been taken out. Consider that he was never less than 20 pounds lighter than Britton. Factoring in the consequent increased wear and tear and other demands of competing at such lighter weights, the longevity might be relatively comparable.

Olivares might actually have a slightly more deceiving knockout record due to his hell for leather approach. (I emphasize, slightly. I'm not delusional. We have the footage.)

Ruben left the bantamweights with a 68-2-1 record. He failed to take out just four opponents, but the best of those four proved to be too much for Olivares to halt three times. To evaluate how Ruben might do at his best against Brown's prime, I feel we must evaluate him by the Chucho Castillo trilogy. Castillo had been stopped five times from 1964 to 1966, so he was not impervious, although obviously vastly improved. (Later, at 126, he would get dropped and stopped by Chacon and Little Red.) In their rivalry, Olivares was decked twice (by an opponent who was not in the class of Zamora and Zarate as an ATG bantamweight puncher) and stopped on cuts. Ruben also proved his endurance conclusively. No question he could hang with Brown through the championship distance. But if Ruben could not stop or even floor Chucho in three tries totaling 43 completed rounds, then how reasonable is it to conclude a stoppage win over the sinewy Panamanian?

What evidence there is suggests to me that Brown, not Olivares, would be more likely to manage a stoppage if one was to occur, whether on a cut or by managing to stun with force. Ruben, like Miguel Canto, fractured Mexican stereotypes. In Canto's case, it was the notion that all Mexicans have two left feet. For Ruben, it was the iron chin presumption and ability to withstand infinite punishment stereotype. He could be dropped, and that could have ramifications if Ruben and Al went the distance.

In the loss to Castillo, Olivares was in trouble from that butt induced cut at the outset. That was a situation where he really needed his power to get his opponent out of there, but unlike Hagler against Hearns, he just couldn't produce the finisher in a critical moment, even over a dozen successive rounds of opportunities. At the highest level, there were limits to the efficacy of his knockout ability. By winning that series over Castillo though, he proved he didn't need that knockout to win, and he gets full credit for forcing Arguello to overtake him in a losing effort. Brown is tougher and more durable than Alexis though, taller, far more mobile, and with a longer reach. He's more of a physical freak at 118 than Hearns at 147. (And a much more rugged bantamweight than Tommy was at welter.)

 

Oh Duodenum, your informative posts that make me come back a week later and reread them and leave me wanting more!

Write a book so I can have something on paper to come back to, damn it. :good:good

 

Put it better than I ever could have. :good

I was thinking that a Panama Al Brown stoppage and a Ruben Olivares decision could very well be possible, even though it would not be the first thing to pop up in mind while looking at this match-up, considering their respective records. But Brown was extremely durable yet prone to being "outhustled" at times, while Olivares was more vulnerable but proved himself an adept boxer with the ability to outpoint an opponent that he could not stop.