Can't see too many guys beating Napoles outright at Mantequilla's absolute best. SRR would be the only one I'd clearly favor. SRL and Hearns would be favored too, I think, but Naploes would be dangerous against both at the very least.
Even in his day Napoles was touted as an all time great, and I think he is. He could slip punches effortlessly, as well as Benitez but he had allot more dynamite in in his mitts then Wilfredo. I can't think of anything he lacked while in his prime. Both Sugar Ray's were a little faster with their hands and feet, and overall Leonard may have hit harder but I have them even up as a prediction. Hearns like Monzon may have been a little to tall and rangy for him but after that from Armstrong on down I wouldn't fault anyone taking him as the winner, he was just that good.
Was Jose Napoles at his absolute peak or a bit on the downside when he was the world welterweight champion? Certainly he was going downhill quite rapidly during the latter part of his reign and had to be bailed out by the referee in his first bout with Armando Muniz. He was completely shot when losing the title to John Stracey. - Chuck Johnston
In fantasy matchups people will always say, "If his skin holds up." But I think too much has been made about the cut thing. It's like chuck said, once his skin deteriorated after a long hard career, that was it. But overall, there hasn't been this Henry Cooper-like blood-letting. I can think of the loss to L.C. Morgan, the 1st fight with Billy Backus and the 2nd fight with Ernie Lopez. That's it. Then of course we have the Monzon, Muniz fights and Stracey when the skin was just gone. There may be other instances but i can't think of them without research. Chuck, to answer your question of his 147 prime, I tend to put a fighter ina sort of 3 fight prime and I would place Napoles in the Cokes-Cokes-Griffith era. He would be about 29 after fighting for years at Jr. Welter without a title shot.
