Olivares from the Zenzuke Utagawa,Chacon I and II and Alexis Arguello fights vs the Marcel that fought Arguello,Gomez and Shibata. 15 rounds who wins?
FT, I wanted to see this bout so bad back in '74. They were poised to meet with Olivares' upward trajectory at the time, but Marcel retired right after the Arguello fight. They should have made the Hafey rematch for the vacant title but I believe Marcel didn't announce his retirement until after Olivares and Hafey met. Anyways, I think it would have been an excellent fight with Olivares the winner.
At this stage of the game, Olivares was in full party mode and would only train when he would get up for an opponent. He trained diligently for the two Chacon fights, the Hafey rematch and the Arguello fight. But then he would turn in a lackluster performance if it was someone he expected to steamroll, such as Hafey in their first fight, the Kotey fight or the Ben Ortiz non-title. It's a shame we didn't get more outstanding performances from him during this period, but an Olivares challenging Ernesto Marcel, I think he would be trained very tight. I do think, however, it would go the distance in a good fight.
This is one question I'd have loved to have asked Alexis at Canastota during HOF Induction weekend. My guess here is that the slightly taller, longer armed, younger and always improving Marcel would've won the Championship Distance UD, to unify the WBC and WBA FW titles. We never got to see how much better Marcel might've become, while Olivares was hot and cold, vulnerable to stoppage defeats during that era. After Duran, Marcel kept his gas tank filled, while Ruben could be inconsistent and party it up a bit. (Perhaps revealingly, Olivares NEVER won over the Championship Distance, a limit over which Marcel produced one of the monster successful title defenses of all time at.)
Olivares was already past his best at Featherweight but was still able to beat Chacon twice and outbox Arguello for a good portion of the fight before getting stopped. Against a stylist like Marcel I think Olivares can hold his own but most likely loses on points. Olivares won't be able to keep up with Marcel's movement and fast combinations.
I agree with this, but look at their career trajectories at this moment, and Marcel certainly had been moving upward since Duran, and we don't know how much better he might have gotten after Arguello. Ruben (who we all love) of course was already a legend, but I am not convinced Olivares was the world's best FW when Marcel-Arguello took place. Olivares had to have been under some urgency to prove he was superior to Arguello after Marcel-Arguello, but couldn't close the show. As great as Olivares was, he'd have to win a decision over Marcel. Looking at Marcel-Arguello and Arguello-Olivares, I just don't see it. Excellent fantasy matchmaking BTW.
