Kid Gavilan Benny (Kid) Paret Luis Manuel Rodriguez Jose Angel Napoles Who was the best Cuban welterweight?
They were all great fighters but somehow I feel Luis Rodriguez might have been the best of the lot. He did better than the others against some of the best middleweights of his time. He had Nino Benvenuti beaten and bloodied in their title fight until he got caught late in the fight. And this was an older version of Luis Rodriguez. Napoles,Gavilan and Paret also fought for the middleweight crown and didn't come nearly as close to winning the middleweight title as Rodriguez did in his effort.
Rodriguez may have the best resume against middle weights ,but judging them ontheir Welterweight days I would give Napoles a slight edge over Gavilan,though both would have their hands full with Luis.
Napoles. I used to rank Gavilan just slightly ahead, but I actually rate Napoles #3 among WW's on further review, ahead of Griffith as well. Gavilan comes next, followed by Rodriguez. Speaking of which, how highly do you guys rate Rodriguez at WW?
I rank Gavilan ahead of Napoles at this time...but I definitely need to study more footage of Napoles...Why do you put Napoles ahead? This has to be a very close fight either way. Please elaborate.
Would definitely be a close, great fight, but I'll take Napoles. Gavilan was a stylist. Napoles was more subtle. Gavilan had a good jab and good boxing skills, and was a flashy fighter at times, with the bolo punch and his variety of whipping punches, made useful by those long, lanky arms. I think, while both were terrors when they had an opponent hurt, and capable of giving an opponent an absolute beating despite their calmer boxing styles, that Napoles was a better boxer. I think he was a better counter-puncher, and more accurate. I see better defensive instincts in him as well(though both had granite chins anyway). I think he would land the cleaner shots, slipping the harder shots from Gavilan more often than not, and landing at a higher percentage. I sense a slightly smarter fighter when I watch Napoles than I do when I watch Gavilan, though that's no disrespect to Gavilan at all. I guess I rate Napoles just because I am more impressed when I watch him than when I watch Gavilan.I get the impression that he was the more dominant fighter in his time, though that may have to do with the fact that Gavilan had guys like Ray Robinson around. Resume wise, you'd have an argument for Gavilan.
I agree with this assessment. I have Napoles 3rd among the welterweights myself. Gavilan, however, is not far behind and is in the top 5 in my book.
What in gods ****ing name just happened to the boards? You can only post once every 30 seconds but I posted that many times in one minute?
