This guy was drawing and narrowly losing to Laurent Boudouani 12 years ago. Now he's a WBA cruiserweight champion getting ready to defend his title. It's hard to think of any boxer in recent times who has leapfrogged weightclasses and fought for titles, winning at a much higher division, THIS QUIETLY. He started out his pro career as a welterweight 17 years ago, and now he's a cruiserweight champion. This man, not John Ruiz, should really be called The Quiet Man.
I watched him beat the shite out of Big Truck in a very exciting fight. Didn't Jones have some health problems? He was on the sidelines for a while I thought which is one reason he's under the radar. Plus, it's cruiserweight.
Pretty close. He did go from Lightweight to Supermiddle, and he actually held two belts at lightweight even though the WBO belt was lightly regarded at the time. He held the Supermiddle title for 4 months. Still, he did go up 30-odd lbs between title fights. Guillermo over 45lbs. Guillermo had a lot of those minor belt fights, but he also beat a lot of cruisers. Thobela's campaign at supermiddle was much less impressive than Guillermo's at cruiser. Guillermo, overall, has the better resumé.
Well, you asked who did it quietly. Thobela did it quietly. I can't think of the 130 lb guy who fought for a title and lost, but he was a longtime 112 lb champ, I think. Ratana....or sing...he had a record like 41-1 at JL, with the loss being his title loss at the lower weight...and I think he eventually lost his title shot at the higher weight...
Ha, me too. One of the most consistently hideous and negative fighters in boxing history. In some of his fights he made Dirrell look like a warrior ::
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say this. Let's stick to the subject, please. ::
No doubt, I've never seen an entertaining Johnny Nelson fight. In fact, it still annoys me to this day that he holds a win over Carl Thompson, who despite his limitations is one of the most genuine and fan-friendly fighters out there, the epitome of what a real fighter/warrior is all about.
I watched Guillermos slaughter of Firat Arslan not too long ago. Arslan did not give a good showing of himself, he looked like a punching bag in there from round 1. I also saw Jones beat Big Truck Braithwaite in an exciting fight, however I missed the USS Cunningham fight.. Heck I think the only Cunningham fight I saw was Adamek.
I was a Nelson fan. Not sure why. He was part of the golden 4some with Gomez, Jirov, and Braithwaite. (at least I think they were champs all at the same time) It would have made for a superb unification series. Throw in Toney and it would have been as good as the super 6.
What fights of Nelson's have you seen? It is very hard to find footage of his and all I have seen he looked like garbage. I think Braithwaite came after Gomez as they both did have the WBC cruiser belt. If only Toney could have stayed at Cruiser..
he won at least one of those two title fights he had against that frenchman in the 90s and that was at 154. at one point, he was scheduled to fight g-mcclellan at 160 for the title, but was pulled out at the last minute for some reason. i think mcclellan fought mugabi instead. this guy has been a serious contender at cruiser for years, but at the same time, he only fights once every two years at best. not sure why don king likes to freeze out his cruiserweights. steve cunningham is another example. he fights once a year and only fights in IBF mandated bouts.
You are right about Braithwaite not being a champ at the time I'm referring to. He was considered a top prospect and could be the #6 guy of the tourney. It must have been Gomez (WBC), Nelson (WBO), Jirov (IBF), and Mormeck (WBA) I'm thinking of in 2002. I've probably seen over 1/2 of these Nelson fights and then some of his losses, as well. He gets really criticized for his 1st loss in a title fight and I didn't think it was nearly as bad as the commentators made it out to be...which isn't to say his performance was good. Nelson, Johnny KO1 Dirk Wallyn Nelson, Johnny W8 Andre Smith Nelson, Johnny KO7 Dennis Andries Nelson, Johnny KO5 Carl Thompson Nelson, Johnny W12 Bruce Scott Nelson, Johnny KO4 Willard Lewis Nelson, Johnny KO2 Arthur Weathers Nelson, Johnny W12 Sione Asipeli Nelson, Johnny KO4 Christophe Girard Nelson, Johnny KO7 Pietro Aurino Nelson, Johnny KO5 Adam Watt Nelson, Johnny D12 Carlos DeLeon Nelson, Johnny W12 George Arias Nelson, Johnny W12 Marcelo Dominguez Nelson, Johnny W12 Alex Vasiliev Nelson, Johnny KO8 Ezra Sellers Nelson, Johnny D12 Guillermo Jones Nelson, Johnny W12 Alexander Petkovic Nelson, Johnny KO7 Rudiger May
haha. the guy is at top of the list when it comes the most boring fighter ever. the only semi decent fight i saw was against sellers when he got off the canvas to hypnotize sellers (and the crowd) by just posing and feinting until knocking him out of nowhere. i remember getting the r. may fight on dvd and after two rounds, i couldn't finish it. wasn't nelson a brendan ingle fighter too? he was like the bigger and boring version of naseem hamed. anyways, he was good and his unorthodox style was very effective. i strongly would've favored gomez and jirov to beat him on points. not sure about toney since nelson could've fared well boxing from the outside while fat toney sat on the ropes.
Gardner, yes. Dirrell is okay at times. Spinks has been decent to watch since he started slipping. not sure who's more boring, gardner, nelson, or cauthen. although, the last time i saw cauthen (vs. shamone alvarez), he was in a good competitive fight. can't forget to include yuri foreman on this list.
I agree, except after Curtis Stevens on HBO and Froch on Showtime I wouldnt want to see Dirrell fight again. Spinks actually fought the whole fight against Latimore which was respectable. Gardner has to be the worst.....ever.
Up until I read this thread I had just about managed to forget that I ever had the misfortune of watching Jonny Nelson fight. Damn you all! MTF :bangh:
Me too - i was way late to this thread. I knew mikE be first to the punch with Thobela. I will have to go back and look but i started trying to rate fighters from countries and obviously Duran tops the list but Jones is higher up there than you would think for fighters from Panama
How about Leo Gamez? Although he didn't leap through weightclasses, he won WBA titles in 4 different weight divisions, and nobody ever heard of him.
One of my favorite fighters ever! And going along with the same rankings i mentioned earlier i think i ranked Gamez is the best venezuelan fighter ever! Or close to the top he certainly didn't jump up multiple weight classes at once tho his four weight classes, while impressive, were 105, 108, 112 and 115 hehe... kind of puts it in perspective
Paz did get world title belts at 135 and 154...although he never successfully defended either. Still he gets major points for coming back from a broken neck.
