Tony Ayala Jr vs Steve Gregory

He would have beaten Moore easily. Davey was an athletic guy who never really learned to box. Ramos had nothing to hold him off, and Hamsho was tough and dirty, but a level lower. Shuler would have been the tough fight here, but he's best known for falling in 1.

 

Still not impressed enough. Dennis Fikes knocked Mugabi outcold somewhere around the Green time in sparring and Frank was spirited but limited.

At some point we have to look beyond what the boxing mags were saying about Green, Bobby Joe Young, Dwight Davison, Alex Ramos and the numerous other "Tomorrow's Champions" and look at what they actually did and didn't do in their career.

Granted Ayala is quite unproven and Green had guts but i think he'd be up against it. I like Green he was tough and gave it his all and was a decent pug for sure. He'd give a decent account of himself.

 

With them being in the same stable even, but I don't recall any sparring stories from the Duva camp about them.

You are absolutely correct about those old boxing magazines. Just mediocre, at best & that's being kind. And they were certainly popularity based. Flash/Boxing Update was the only worthwhile purchase at the time.

 

Context: Fikes was a Light Heavyweight who moved up to Cruiserweight and then HW.

Hagler had a very hard time knocking out Mugabi, only after a 11 round war.

It is no stain on Green's record that he couldn't KO Mugabi.

 

Fikes was around light heavyweight when they were sparring.

Fikes was the hired sparring partner, he was hardly trying to knock Mugabi out cold.

The Hagler fight for whatever reason was a real outlier. Mugabi never showed remotely similar durability either before (Green, ko'd in sparring, dropped in sparring then post Hagler stopped quickly by every world class fighter he faced) or after Hagler. It was his weakness like a lot of massive punchers.

Green almost ko'd Mugabi in the second half of round 3.

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Green was a good fighter but not all that as his record shows. He was quite small and not a huge puncher. It's definitely no stain on his record not ko'ing Mugabi, it's actually a plus that he gave him so much trouble and had him in dire straights.

Mugabi said - " He literally knocked me out in one of the early rounds of our fight but I was saved by the bell, then rallied to beat Green in the 10th."

Mugabi was a decent fighter and a helluva puncher but when the competition stepped up he never ever got it done. He's rated on that great performance vs Hagler but he actually lost and doesn't have much at all on the "W" ledger if we are to be honest.

 

totally agree. Ayala was a typical frontrunner. the guys he squashed before he went to Prison were bums and second raters.
i think he was the Francisco bojado of his time. to think that some consider him a "legend" of some sort is beyond me.