Starling can definitely beat him unless the fight is in Vegas or he just decides to goof around and do the Starling Stomp... A guy that's all left hands and loves his left hook seems to be exactly the kind of guy that should pay Starling step-aside money but Moochie didn't always take boxing seriously
Close fight, Oscar wins a controversial decision in which he throws a lot of flurries around Sterling's high guard. That would be the bone of contention, how many punches actually land and how clean they do when Sterling blocks or semi-blocks a lot of punches. Jim Lampley would be quoting Compubox nonstop.
Not once did Oscar ever "clearly" beat a welter as good as Starling. It would be a close fight either way, but we all know if it's close Oscar's starpower would win him the fight. But don't pretend like he was so many levels ahead of Starling at 147.... cause he certainly was not. BTW, I know you're a Curry hater, but Curry woulda kicked Oscar's ass at welter.
Starling has the slickness and scrappiness to give DLH, who could get frazzled and wasn't great at making adjustments, a lot of trouble but he'd lose because DLH was a much better fighter. I don't know about "so many levels" but they weren't quite the same level. DLH-Curry is a good fight but Curry never beat anyone like DLH and DLH has the same length, speed and power that bitched Curry up against Honeyghan, except more.
DLH is extremely overrated above 140. And Curry is not only a style nightmare for DLH, in his brief prime he was a better fighter than Oscar in general.
The Curry that beat Starling was far better then Oscar ever was at any time. Yes, it was a short prime, but he was damn good.
My heart goes out to all of these poor, poor 80's welters. They can't even get a fair shake in mythical match ups where everyone picks them to win.
Curry would have given Oscar hell, but Oscar, even with his stockings and high heels, was more man than Curry. Oscar would have eventually knocked out the fragile queer.
