Tell me more about Antonio Cervantes.

Cervantes was fun to watch and I pop in some of his fights every once in awhile... talk about a skilled warrior. Many folks might not know this about him but he was descended from freed slaves who lived in isolated villages and trained their whole lives to fight.

What I liked most about Kd Pambele was that he was not afraid to take his title on the road and beat his foe on their home turf, that took some brass balls and showed just how confident he was in himself and his abilitys... out of sixteen title defenses 13 of them were on the road!

Cervantes is one of those guys you have to see to appreciate, and like Jose Napoles, his greatness lay in the nuances of his offensive outbursts and tactical adaptations to any given situation. As for what was his best performance, I`d say the DeJesus and Locche returns were very impressive and are my two favourite Cervantes fights. If you haven`t seen them I suggest you acquire them and view them for yourself.

 

There were rumors that the Colombian great was on a collision course with Duran in 1976. The fight fell through for some reason. A shame because it would have been special.

 

He was supposedly a little older than he was usually listed as, Archie Moore style.

 

He was very clever and had a good punch. When he was past his prime, he had Pryor down but then Prior overpowered him. Kid Pambele was a legend in Latin America but never became a big name in the U.S.

 

Here's what Roberto had to say about the match

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif][FONT=times new roman, times, serif] Now, had you fought the following people, how would you see these fights playing out? Antonio Cervantes.

When he fought, the only thing he had over me was height. But, the fight, I could have won in three or four rounds. That finisher right hand that he had, well, that's [inaudible]. He had the height advantage over me. I had a hard time losing weight. It's just one of those things that he caught me at the right time. But, overall, I was the better, more complete fighter than he was. [/FONT][/FONT]

 

Lucky for AC this fight never went through.


Give me one physical advantage Cervantes would have over Duran? He had very little in the way of a punch and was very slow, wide with his punches; he never would have been able to keep Duran off so Roberto is correct in saying this fight wouldn't have gone far.

 

Simple - 3 inches of height

:good

 

A prime Cervantes was very difficult to beat. He would have given Duran fits. I'm not saying Duran would've lost, as I see Roberto winning a close decision

 

You mean 3 more inches he can hit. Hagler was always beating on guys who were bigger than him - you never bring that up.

I believe this fight would have gone like the Cervantes-Pryor fight of 1980 where he just caved in from the relentless pressure. The replay showed the beauty of Pryor's perpetual motion attack combined with his unhittable bobbing style of defense. How easily he slipped past his counters to feed Cervantes more leather. How he hated the taste of that right hand!

That was one of boxing's finest hours.

 

Yep, Pryor's demolition of Cervantes was almost up there in the rarefied air of Norris' systematic destruction of Sugar Ray :good

 

Does't get any better than that except for Hagler Ko 3 Thomas hitman Hearns

 

The problem with Cervantes is alot of people have never really seen him fight alot.
By the time he fought Pryor he was done.He was close to age of forty and yet still managed to knock Pryor on his ass with a counter right.
And this was from a Cervantes who was WAY past his prime.

I think Duran would have beaten a Cervantes but it wouldn't have been an easy bout for Duran.

 

How do you think AC would have done against Pryor. I still think Aaron would take his head off.