Another one of the 90s more underappreciated champions. I would call Cermeno top 10 all time at 122. Not sure who I would compare him to. Shades of a lesser version of Pedroza at times.
I like him, he's an excellent little talent. I think he'd have always beaten both Zaragoza and Vazquez. Actually, he'd probably beat everyone outside of MAB, Morales, Gomez, Pac, Rigo and Fenech. Very good fighter. Cermano vs Bungu would definitely be interesting.
Agreed 100% with that list. Those would be the only 6 super bantams I'd take over him. Cermeno was better than Bungu IMO. Just a lot more tools than Bungu, and more pop.
And yet, he would've certainly beaten Wilfredo and I would pick him to beat Cermeno as well. So he is certainly in your conversation of who would've and would not have beaten Cermeno. So wtf?
The Wil from the Perez rematch would've butchered both the Izzy who lost to Larios, or the one who lost to Rafa.
Israel would have "certainly" beaten Wilfredo Vasquez? LMAO! WTF!! Izzy Vasquez ain't Gomez, Morales, or Barrera. WTF makes him a lock over an excellent fighter like Wilfredo Vasquez???
Oh yeah? Well I pick the Izzy who beat Rafa and knocked out Gonzalez to destroy the Vazquez who lost to Perez, Cermeno and Lora.
You do realize Miguel Lora was a far higher caliber fighter than Izzy Vasquez, right? Both in terms of ability and resume. Lora should be in the HOF. And that was a back and forth war, where W.Vasquez hardly got destroyed or embarrassed. What in the world did Izzy ever do for you to overrate him like this?
I pitted Wil from his prime vs Izzy from various points in his, while also pointing out his losses. Wil was past his best for Cermano, and both green and below his best weight for Lora and Perez - two incredible bantamweights, as well. Better than Rafa, that's for sure. You've got two brawlers, one who's slower, with considerably less skill, not as much power, and a worse chin, and the other who's all of the above and much more proven and didn't lose smack bang in his prime to Oscar Larios. Why would you favour Israel?
Doub has always had a hard-on for Izzy Vasquez. It's nothing new. Vasquez became his boy after JL Castillo. And Doub once famously said on here that Castillo would beat Pryor, and Whitaker.
I never said that. But the subtext here is: don't disagree with me or else I'll attack your credibility.
You did say that in the early 00s, and obviously it's too far back to pull up. If Cdogg were around, he could back me up that you said that. While it's off topic, it does kind of lend to the point that you get to overrating guys you're fond of. Had you said "Israel Vasquez IMO beats Wilfredo Vasquez", ok cool, I can live with that. You said Izzy Vasquez "certainly" beats Wil Vasquez, which is crazy talk. Izzy wasn't some elite fighter where he's a lock over Wil Vasquez. Based on WHAT???
For what it's worth, I do think Wilfredo Vasquez is kind of overrated. I know he's generally viewed as the second best PR super bantam behind Gomez, but to me, Victor Callejas was a better fighter than W.Vasquez.
For some reason I have always confused Cermeno with Hector Arcero-Sanchez. I saw Arcero-Sanchez fight Zaragoza at the Forum, from the 12th row, sitting right next to the ring card girls. For some reason, if left to its own devices, my memory will convince me that it was Cermeno.
It kind of depends... I saw Tommy Hearns. It wasn't a great fight but it was Tommy Hearns. I saw Barrera's first fight in the US. That became a bigger deal as time went on. I saw Genaro Hernandez, Raton Jimenez, Too Sharp Johnson, Julio Cesar Borboa, Engels Pedroza when he was good and after. I saw the 2nd Gonzalez v Carbajal fight and the Ruelas v Pendleton fight was very good . I saw some dingbat try to start a fight with Jorge Paez and Tone Loc, drunk as hell at ringside, try to start a fight with a Russian that had just scored a knockout and came back down to watch the fights. The guy was a light heavy called the Russian Mexican and he ended up 19-5 with 19; Tone was lucky the Russian didn't speak English. There was one card with Genaro and Barrera, maybe Too Sharp, that was really good; on second thought it may have been Chiquita instead of Johnson. It was an anniversary show and all those guys were in pretty tough, a lot of rounds that night. And I was in the 3rd row.
