I was watching a lot of those two lately, so I was thinking about this potential match-up. HBO wanted Tim to move up in weight and mix it up with fighters like Paulie Ayala, Manny Pacquiao and potentially Barrera and Morales - but Tim was always adamant that He's a bantamweight and his goal was unifying the division. As for Veeraphol, He wasn't oppose to traveling - He obviously fought in Japan a lot, but also defended his title in France. Unfortunetely unifications were very rare in lower weight-classes in that era - so it was never even considered, as far as I know, despite the two being champions together for good 5 years, between 1998 and 2003. One more thing worth mentioning is that there was one common opponent between the two - Adan Vargas, brother of Goyo Vargas and capable fighter himself, quality contender - and both beat him in style. Let's say the fight happend around 2000-2001 - in United States - when the two were in their physical prime, how do You see it playing out?
Would that mean that You consider Nishioka to be superior to Austin? Or rather it's just that You don't think Austin was as durable as Nishioka?
Sahaprom was amazing, I like Austin but Sahaprom was another level. Just my opinion, from what I can remember of both, maybe I am overrating Sahaprom, I don´t know.
I think Nish was a stylistic foil; super negative and very quick, he presented Sahaprom some serious issues when it came to consistently getting work in, but from memory I'm pretty sure I had death mask winning all four fights. Austin would be a lot easier to hit, he squares up as he steps in and wasn't hard to time as Rafael Marquez showed. I think Sahaprom would find his timing and it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel.
I saw first two Veeraphol - Nishioka fights for now. Veeraphol gave him a lesson in the first, but I thought the draw in the rematch was fair. Nishioka showed great improvements, hurt Veeraphol along the way too. Austin I was very impressed with thus far - reminds me of Junto Nakatani - but I'm yet to see the fight with Marquez. I'll wait for that before I make my mind up.
