Truly one of the best left hook KO's of all time. Becerra was an excellent champion. He's lucky he didn't face Eder Jofre, as it wouldn't have ended well for him, but he was an excellent bantamweight champion. The KO is at 42:20 for those who just wanna see the KO, but I would suggest watching the whole fight. This fight was on the undercard of Carlos Ortiz vs Battling Torres.
Really good fight and a tremendous KO. Not a bad card to attend! Becerra and Halimi fought twice and this is their second fight. Couldn't find their first one.
I dont think film of their first fight exists. I wish there were more prime Becerra fights available.
I think Beccera gets stopped in the late rounds, but his style is problematic for Jofre. Pressure fighters were what Jofre struggled with more often than anything else, and his chin wasn't unbreakable. Beccera had what it takes to make a night really uncomfortable for Jofre IMO, he was just lacking the toughness to stay on Jofre all night. Jofre would break him down with bodywork and would be ahead on points, but he'd be in for a tough night IMO. And he'd look far more beatable than he did vs Caraballo. Beccera is also the second best bantamweight Jofre would ever beat, and he beat the best man he beat three times. This alone goes to show it's a good fight IMO.
No, I think he beats Moon. It'd be a good fight, though. I think it's a war which is nap and tuck to begin with, is frightfully competitive in the mid-rounds, but a tiring Beccera's superior firepower pulls away late. Medel at his best is absolutely horrible for either of them IMO, I think he'd stop them both in the first six.
Becerra might just have Medel's number. But yeah, an accurate power puncher like Medel figures to stop Moon, considering he stopped a much better Asian than Moon. Moon ain't Olivares or Jofre.
Nah, I think it hard far more to do with Medel being 18 than it did Beccera having Medel's number. I think a steady pressure fighter looking for a left hook, is a perfect match-up, for Medel. His huge shot, excellent work off the ropes and perfect trap setting and timing lead to him KOing Beccera, prime for prime, IMO. Same goes for Moon, it's just much more clear cut.
It really was a shame that the Ingram bout ended as it did, both for Ingram and Becerra. Even if Becerra had it in him to beat an upcoming Jofre, this event would have been too big a shadow for him to perform at his best imo. R.I.P.
This KO is very impressive imo. Halimi was a very good fighter. Crafty and tough. Chris Smith's Eder Jofre biography gave me a bit of insight on him, as well as on Johnny Caldwell, another underrated talent.
Better than this ko? https://twitter.com/BoxingAntics/status/1452840299726655488?t=kLbm68KHhiRBOaz5xBB2Iw&s=19
Some guy at ringside was celebrating before Halimi even went down. He knew it was a winner. Halimi was *Algerian *Jewish *1 of 13 children of whom 7 made it to Adulthood Different times.
He was being softened up before that though too. Right hands. Seemed a bit wide open. In fact his chapter in the Jewish Hall of Fame refers to him as a guy who throw wide looping shots.
That period in bantamweight history will likely never be seen again. It went from Becerra ruling the division, to Jofre, to Harada, to Rose, to Olivares, then a few years later Zarate took over the division.
It was pretty much 20 great years, from 1960-ish to 1980-ish. Nuts. And how many of those guys from that time period are in the all-time bantamweight top 25? Close to 10 of them maybe - Becerra, Jofre, Harada, Rose, Olivares, Castillo, Herrera, Zarate, Pintor... then you've got the likes of Jose Medel, Jesus Pimental, Rodolfo Martinez, Romeo Anaya, Albert Davila and other quality contenders like Alan Rudkin and plenty more. EDIT: And I forgot Zamora as well!
Within that time period I also like Bernardo Caraballo, Famoso Gomez, Rogelio Lara, Julio Guerrero, Venice Borkorsor and Superfly Sandoval.
Superfly Sandoval's fight with Zamora was one of the best wars of the 70s. Zamora took him out brutally in the end, but Sandoval put up a helluva fight.