Vinnie Paz , Jr. MW Champ, gives Rocky Graziano at shot at his title. (Graziano was known as the best MW in the welterweight division). Who wins??
60/40 rocky by ko. if it's a decision paz won if it's a ko rocky won, the reverse results are very unlikely imo.
Tony Zale x2 and Ray Robinson were the only fighters able to stop Graziano in 83 pro fights. He went 61-10-6 (52) overall and 1-3 (1) in MW world title fights. He beat among others- Al "Bummy" Davis KO4 Freddie Cochrane KO10 and KO1 Marty Servo KO2 Tony Zale KO6 Sonny Horne W10 x3 Tony Janiro D10, W10, and KO10 One thing is for sure, Rocky could punch.
Graziano by KO. Absent what appeared to be massive steroids late in Vinnie's career, Graziano is the bigger man. He certainly KOd bigger and better fighters than Pazienza. Pazienza was a lot of hype with good marketing. No better, no worse, than Greg Haugen. Paz's comeback after his motor vehicle accident was inspiring, but, mostly smoke and mirrors. He beat really nobody of note. His performance against Roy Jones is one of the only fights I have ever seen where a fighter as busy as Paz actually landed zero punches in a round before getting knocked out hard in the following round.
He definitely did not belong in the same ring with Roy Jones Jr. that night. Pazienza was inspired to box after watching the movie Rocky. He went 50-10 (30) overall and 2-6 (1) in world title fights at LW, JWW, JMW, and SMW. He was stopped 3 times. Add another 4-1 (2) if you count IBC, IBO, and WBU world title fights. He beat Harry Arroyo, Greg Haugen x2, Gilbert Dele, Luis Santana, Lloyd Honeyghan, and Roberto Duran x2 among others. He was beat by Greg Haugen, Roger Mayweather, Hector Camacho, Loreto Garza, Roy Jones Jr., Herol Graham, Aaron Davis, and Eric Lucas among others. He was on the level of a Greg Haugen as someone pointed out already. He went 2-1 vs. Haugen... two 15 round fights for the IBF LW world title and a 10 rounder at JWW (their actual weights were 142 for Paz and 141 for Haugen). He clearly lost decisions to Roger Mayweather and Hector Camacho. He was getting clearly outboxed by Lorea Garza before being DQd in the 11th round. After Garza he did not fight for 7 months, during this time he bulked up from a 140 Lb. fighter to a 154 Lb. fighter. He had 2 fighst at JMW before his car accident and to be honest he looked really good. He beat Ron Amundsen W12 for the USBA JMW title and Gilbert Dele KO12 for the WBA JMW world title. He came back 14 1/2 months later and never fought at JMW again. I actually think that 154 could have been his best weight. He did go on to get some decent wins but was never a top guy at MW or SMW. Paz looked great working out and sparring, he really knew how to put on a show for whoever was watching. In an actual fight vs. a top fighter? Not so much.
