Excellent fantasy matchup!! Rock-a-bye Ruben is one of my all-time favourites, and in his heyday he was like a bantamweight version of Tyson. He was one of the greatest punchers the division has ever seen, but if he had one glaring weakness it was his utter disdain for training. On some nights it looked like Ruben trained for the fight during the walk down the aisle... but at his peak he was a destroyer, and a very skilled one at that. But if you could catch him with some big shots like Castillo, Hafey and Herrera (no easy task mind you) did, while avoiding his own murderous punches you`d have a chance at getting to him. I think that Jofre, who was always in great shape for all of his fights and was a deadly accurate puncher, would catch Ruben coming in at some point and take him out late in the fight or drop him once or twice en route to a close decision win. But I cannot rule out Ruben entirely, especially the version who beat Lionel Rose for the title. That night he was constantly pressing, barely out of range then suddenly he would close the gap and get inside throwing hard punches to both the head and body then get back out only to resume his assault from a new angle. I get the impression that he may have been quicker-certainly of foot and probably of hand as well-than Jofre. Ruben was very clever in the ring and he doesn`t get enough credit for his defensive and strategic abilitys as a fighter. But I think Ruben`s best chance at victory would be to pressure/smother Jofre at close range, not letting him fight at a distance and pace that he felt comfortable at, much like Harada did to him. Ruben could box beautifully when he wanted to, but in this fight he would have to be the aggressor. Taking both men at the absolute peak of their abilities, I would still go with Jofre by decision or late KO/TKO. Eder wasn`t an all-time great in every category, but he did have very good handspeed, power, stamina, chin, skills, ring smarts, etc. In a 15 round bout, I believe Jofre would avoid most of Olivares` powershots, while jabbing, moving and countering. In the second half of the fight the Brazilian would go more and more on the attack eventually leading to either a late stoppage or decision win. Olivares is an all-time great, but Eder Jofre is (along with Carlos Monzon and Roberto Duran) one of the three greatest fighters to ever come out of South America. Jofre KO14 Olivares
Jofre TKO - more versatile fighter Would be a great fight ! http://www.ibroresearch.com/?p=200 Excellent article !!!!!!
I'll go with Olivares. I haven't seen the film yet of Jofre where he looks better than this: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOl5aoDEq6Y[/ame]
Absolutely magnificent post.This is the reason that I read the Classic and why it is so much better than the General.Cheers,man:good
Jofre on both counts. All-time, Jofre was more dominant at his peak, was embarrassed much less in his losses, and had more success until a much more advanced age. H2H, Jofre was exactly the kind of tough, aggressive technician that could and did give Olivares heaps of trouble. I think Olivares' wide punches, occasional disregard for defense, and difficulty with strong pressure fighters who worked him to the body would be his undoing here.
