Thoughts on Esteban de Jesus

1. Great. If not for Duran, rules the lightweights for long time.

 

Yeah, great fighter imo, certainly talentwise even if his record isn't as stacked as other great lightweights. Lightweight is the deepest division ever historically so not top ten. Maybe 15 though and definitely 20 I'd say. Had a number of very nice wins outside the Duran accomplishment.

He was a bit like a smaller version of Napoles but without the iron chin and late rounds stamina. Great smooth offensive counter puncher with excellent upper body and head movement, very good power and combination punching ability, especially his left hook. Very good feet too; lots of little light half steps to control range. A really complete boxer puncher in general but very undersized for the weight unfortunately, which worked against him against bigger foes of similar or superior skill. Especially over 15 rounds.

I mentioned Napoles earlier, which is an ironic comparison because of the Cervantes fight. Just like Napoles-Monzon in terms of the colossal size difference. Small welter versus massive middleweight; small lightweight/natural feather versus huge light welter/welter.

DeJesus against Buchanan would have been a compelling fight with Esteban's better all round offensive game and fluidity vs Buchanan's jab, mobility and android-like stamina and durability.

 

I consider him a great fighter.

 

DeJesus was a great fighter. He came along at a time there was an Uncommon champion in Duran. He still managed to make a name for himself and even beat Duran once. Just the beatings DeJesus took against Duran physically didn' do him any favors.

 

Brilliant win against Duran but it was a 10 round non title fight above lightweight so it doesn't rank as one of the best in history.

 

I think he's a great fighter based on the eye test and beating a fighter like Duran. His resume is likely only very good, but the other factors make him great.

 

I've long wondered if DeJesus losing to Antonio Gomez was on the up and up. Venezuela was notorious at that time for iffy officiating and home cooking in a similar vein to Argentina and it was a points loss in Caracas. Gomez was a heck of a fighter though, very skilled technician who also beat the young Cervantes (albeit in Venezuela also). A bit of a forgotten man.

DeJesus would've been a beast at featherweight/super featherweight in this era btw.

 

he was not great. Come on.. He lost to Cervantes also

 

Very good fighter

 

I suspect he was great but he couldnt really prove it because he was sandwiched between two all time greats, Duran and Cervantes. As it stood I think he was terrific. Of his five losses only one came against a non-champion and three came against the previously mentioned all time greats. His style beautiful to watch. Yeah, without Duran he would have dominated for a long time.

 

Good posts in this thread, thank You.
I have a question for "the panel". Isn't it crazy that with his resume, De Jesus is not in the Hall of Fame while fighters like "Chico" Corrales, Arturo Gatti and Ricky Hatton are in?
That's not to be disrespectful of those fighters, but I'm coming here from the thread about Duran's resume in comparision to Mayweather and Pacquiao so that caught my attention.

 

Shooting a guy right in the head might have to do something with that. Didn't Castillo also go to jail and it kinda killed his future push for HoF? Maybe I am confusing Castillo with someone.

One tidbit: he was ranked #83 on Ring's to be the best: 100 best boxers in the history of Ring rankings, which ranked boxers according to their record against Ring rated opposition. He is ahead of the likes of JMM, Benitez, Morales, Ward, Buchanan etc. His resume outside of Duran gets underrated somewhat. Not an ATG resume but very comparable to say Castillo and Corrales, even Lomachenko. Lots of top contenders on it.