The 10 Greatest Bantamweights

George Parnassus wanted to put me dad and Pimentel together as the chief support for Olivares and Rose.

 

I was just going to mention Harry Kabakoff.

 

I’ve been meaning to find an old piece I saw written on Harada. I think you wrote it if I’m not mistaken. Do you have a link to that if possible please?

 

That would have been a hell of a fight and perhaps Pimentel would have never got to fight for a title had that one happened as good as he was his resume does fall short of some of the other guys who came close to winning the title like your dad, Medel and even Caraballo who was a hair away against Harada.

Do you think both had already just about peaked by then? Was your dad ever close to fighting Medel? It would appear their peaks weren’t quite aligned but both covered just about every top fighter of that time between them.

I think it’s fair to say all of those fighters would have had lengthy stays and perhaps be multiple weight champions had they fought during the last 25 years. That’s not a knock on today’s talent because there’s been some eye catching talents more a reference to just how hard things were back then.

 

Lol I feel like a kid a Christmas...I thought you said Tuesday so I kept going back and looking to see if Santa had come yet lol

 

Yes, it was a shame it didn't happen because it was going to be a big payday, I think on a par with what he got for the Olivares fight. He got about 35-40 thousand dollars for which was good money back the. There was talk of him fighting Pimental around 66 as well. Jesus was going to do a European tour but that never happened . There was talk of him fighting Medel around 65, 66 in England. It eould of been a big fight but unfortunately that never happened either. Medel was known in Britain from the McGowan stoppage. I think that might of been 64. Walter's dad Joe Gans was a bit too brave putting his son in with Medel at that point in his career. Medel was no 1 contender for the bantamweight title with bags of experience while Walter though brilliant was still a bit green and only really a flyweight. I think he boxed quite well really but walked into Jose's traps. He was quite cavalier Walter.

 

I’ll have to find that article. It was fairly in depth if I’m not mistaken. I personally think Harada is a guy deserving of a spot around 4-6 so I’d say he’ll be one of your next two or three.

 

Thanks for the insight.

Yeah Medel-McGowan just isn’t a fight that gets made these days.

 

Flea, I agree with your post to a point. However, Pimental actually did beat a number of fighters ranked in the top ten when he duked it out with them. I'm talking about Jose 'Portillo' Lopez, Katsuo Saito, Rollie Penaroya, Ushi Harada and Mimoun Ben Ali. All ranked by Ring Magazine at the time he beat them. Moreover, he beat Alex Benitez as well, but Benitez broke into the top ten feathers a year later, so I left him off. However, as we can all see by the names - taking nothing from them - they really don't jump out at you, do they? Not like the losses to Olivares, Castillo, Medel, Nakane and Kanazawa. Now those would have been real nice notches on his gun.

 

Yes McGowan was chasing a fight with Jofre as was me dad. Bobby Neill, me dad's manager was involved with putting the blocks on that because me dad was the British Champ so he was first in the queue. Back then you didn't really get a shot of you weren't champ. I think Brian London might of been fined by the board for taking the Patterson fight when Cooper was the champ