Remember this guy from my youth, always liked watching him fight but don't know much about him. School me on the Bazooka.
He's one of those fighters that couldn't really punch all that hard, couldn't box his way out of a paper bag, ridiculously porous guard (I can't even bring myself to call it a "defense"), was cut prone, had weird balance, very slow...........almost every descriptive term for him would have to be a negative, yet he was a two-time champ at 130 during one of that division's deepest eras. Guess you can go a long way on a good chin and being a combative little sh/t. Very exciting, rugged southpaw, good body puncher, threw a ton of punches, and just wore guys down. Choi won the first six rounds against him before being stopped on body shots in round seven, and he wore the explosive Navarette down the same way. Of course his fights with Chacon (their fourth fight is my personal favorite fight ever) and the underrated classic against Boza-Edwards are his shining moments. Gave Arguello a good tussle too. Apparently he wasn't exactly a nice guy..........told the press that he'd do to Boza what his countryman Pintor had just recently done to Johnny Owen. Ouch. Not cool.
Thanks. Looking at his record he came up the hard way ... lots of mediocre losses early in his career and no real big wins until Chacon, IIRC. Did he change something or was he just on a steep learning curve and better suited for longer rounds?
Haven't seen the first Chacon fight or anything of his before that......I think the second Chacon fight and Lionel Rose were the earliest I've seen of his. I don't see that he changed much. I mean, I'd hate to think of even a late version of Limon as anything resembling polished. Most likely it was just a case of a fighter learning little things here and there and eventually putting it all together once he absorbed a few tough losses.
I disagree about Limon's power, there was real pop there. The punches were bizarre and looping but there was power at the end of them.
In his prime: Power: B- (He had to wear you down through attrition to get a stoppage) Hand Speed: C Defense: D Stamina: A Body Punching: A- Chin: A Resistance to Cuts: D Heart: A Political Connections: A (The WBC loved him)
Can't add much more than has been said really.He was the epitome of a "more than the sum of the parts" fighter.By the time Camacho wrecked him he was faded from the Chacon wars, though of course you could easily argue Camacho would have been too talented and fast for any version, but the one circa Choi would have gone the distance and maybe would have got to Camacho a bit as it wore on. Maybe a bit lucky to get Navarrete right after Rolando's brutal drawn out war with big punching Choi, he looked a bit worn against Bazooka.Incidentally the two had an irrelevant rematch in the late 80s, which i believe Rolando won over 10.
