Top fighters who neglected the body?

Excellent, thanks for sharing that!:good

Referee Christodoulu gave an extraordinarily precise and detailed explanation on camera of the exact criteria he used for determining when to step in and call a halt to the action, based upon his observations of Arguello's physical responses. I won't try to replicate it here, but expect that the footage of what Christodoulu described is floating around somewhere on-line.

In his loss to Fernandez, Alexis also failed to cut off the ring as he should have, a precursor to what happened with Pryor in Miami. In Arguello's first outing after that epic, he rematched Fernandez, and won easily, but Vilomar was now in his early 30s, and his legs weren't as springy as they'd been when he gave Duran 12 rounds of headaches six years before.

For the return with Pryor, Alexis worked hard on his lateral movement, and really tried to concentrate on things like cutting the ring off, but the Hawk was just too much to deal with right from the get go. (In some ways, this was an even more impressive win for Pryor. Arguello showed nearly three years later against Costello that he was not yet completely shot.)

 

You are correct, and a great description too!

 

For my money, the best display of mobility Fernandez produced was in the opening rounds of his title shot with Kenty, but it wasn't the kind of movement that would have been sustainable for 15 rounds. Unfortunately, Vilomar sometimes suffered from periods of inactivity. He needed to compete with frequency to stay sharp, but fought just twice in 1978, once in 1979, and twice in 1980, during what should have been his peak years.

As far as I'm concerned, Fernandez should have been the one to drop Howard Davis, Jr. from the undefeated ranks, with a very uncharacteristic display of aggression. At least he got appropriately rewarded with the shot at Kenty. Vilomar was a gifted boxer who made few mistakes, and kept himself in shape even when not training for a match.

 

Hmmm!:huh Fernandez-Arguello I had been up for a while (in its entirety), so maybe there's a good chance it will return. This was actually a good close fight where Alexis displayed underrated hand speed and quickness. Vilomar was able to win over ten rounds, but I couldn't see anybody running like that for a full 15 against Arguello. (In fact, nobody ever came close to doing this over the championship distance.)

To the best of my knowledge, Fernandez-Davis and Fernandez-Kenty have never been posted on-line, somewhat surprisingly, as many had Vilomar the winner in both.

 

Enough to retire the Memorial Buster Mathis, Sr. Empty Icebox Award?