An underrated fighter from far too recently to be as forgotten as he is. The same applies to one of the men he split fights with, one Marcos Villasana. Looking to correct that with some newly available high quality footage of the man. Enjoy. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
Jeez the Villasana fight was on U.S. TV I think I have this in one of my Boxing VHS boxes!! Great pick again!!
Terrific fighter indeed and so entertaining ! Villasana I was sick ! Goyo Vargas put one hell of a performance against him.
Vargas was brilliant when he beat paul. I thought he.was the the next big thing .lost to Kelly and seemed to disappear .A real what if fighter
Hoko! I'm due a re-run of some of his fights, he's a lot of fun to watch. Very good, tidy, offensively well-schooled pressure fighter with that crushing Philly-style left hook. It was a pity he marked up and cut so easily, especially as he wasn't hard to hit It was nuts the amount of flush shots that Villasana took from him over both fights, what a chin that bloke had. Vargas had a great chin too but was a skilled hard-hitting counter/puncher to boot, and he fought out of his skin in that fight. I think Hodkinson was a little bit better than some of his contemporaries. Johnson, Medina, Ingle etc. Maybe a shade better than Kelley too though it's debateable. Looking at recent British lads like Lee Selby having success at the weight he looks like Chavez in comparison. I think best for best he could've given Naz a very, very hard fight if he didn't cut or swell up too badly and start to lose his vision. Or get walked onto too many of Naz's deadly oddball counters, which is very possibly what would happen eventually. Yeah, he's underrated and a highly dangerous dark-horse type fighter who doesn't get his just do's compared to a lot of other guys with similar ability. And like I said, fun to watch. I remember him being described on here as a smaller, more skilled version of Katsidis, which is apt.
Good fighter he was, it was sad watching him get beat by Robinson, he should not have come back for that one.
It was a sad fight ,by then he'd basically lost every thing .But I remember watching Hoko in his hay day .His first title challenge, having his eye's shut and having to tell the ref he couldn't see .But Paul regrouped and came back again ,good lad .
And the Steve Cruz fight was seen as a belated revenge fight for Barry losing in las Vegas. A bit crazy but that's how it was looked at in some circles .A bit like,, Smack him one for Barry !
Fantastic post Tin, was awaiting for a response from ya'. I didn't know you were a fan. I'm doubly glad I chose to put most if not all of my Hodkinson stuff up so soon. For some reason Japanese broadcasts of all sorts of fights tend to be in excellent quality. I've found that to be an almost universal truth when collecting footage over the years. I don't know if certain Asian television channels were perhaps known to keep higher quality recordings of their own stuff, a "vault" of sorts, or what.
Thanks bud, it's always nice to have your opinion valued. The threads deserve input, they're consistently interesting and insightful. And like BlackCloud is fond of saying, it narrows down the heavyweight shite clogging up the front page. Yeah, I like Hoko a lot. Fellow Brit, mean left hook and never gave an inch. Featherweight Sibbo. Interesting point on the Jap broadcasts, you're right that the quality is always very well-defined. I've never given it much thought, they do like their technology....
