There's really nowhere this thread can go except Sly making the pick we know he will and cdogg replying with page after page of increasingly exacerbated comparisons of their competition at the weight and the scale of the chasm between. Quite honestly, a Napoles stoppage seems the most likely outcome, if not a very clear decision. If they were exactly the same natural weight class it'd be an interesting fight.
I'll field this one, since we have an unbeliever First off, both of the fights with Curtis Cokes... Cokes was a tremendous counterpuncher, it was his whole game... typically, to aggressively go at him was to play right into his hands, he'd measure you and land that straight right over and over... the guys that troubled Cokes usually were fast guys, cuties that made him chase (other than Kitten Hayward who was just too big and strong for a young Cokes and overpowered him by coming forward through his shots) ... Napoles fought aggressively went right at Cokes and Curtis could NOT hit him, couldn't land anything, he was made to miss all night, both fights, while getting absolutely painted with left hooks to the head and body and right hands... Napoles made it look easy, he outclassed a guy who was an easy mark for no one, just carved him up each time while almost never taking a single flush shot... It's really a pair of ridiculous displays Each of his fights with Ernie Lopez are brilliant displays, again he made it look easy, chopped him up, especially the second time around To me, if you took Jose Luis Castillo and made him 5 times better defensively, considerably quicker and gave him a far more polished offensive arsenal with superior timing, you'd have something like Napoles... You could argue that Floyd is as a great a fighter P4P as Napoles, you could even argue he is GREATER P4P... but I don't see any evidence to suggest he's a better WELTERWEIGHT at all... Floyd would be competetive because he's a bad-ass fighter, but I can't see him defeating Jose Napoles at 147 pounds
Napoles' rhythm and footwork is a unique thing, like magnets on the soles of his feet he could switch on and off instantaneously. Constantly shifting, but always planted to throw properly at the same time, and any punch he saw the space for, too (with every punch chosen thoughtfully). Every bit as one-off a guy as Ali or Jones or Whitaker. I don't think Mayweather could last 15 with him at welterweight, personally, I think he's Floyd's personal nightmare.
Agreed. An excellent technician but it took me a while "to get used to it". By that i mean i hadn't really seen anybody fight quite like him before or since. Whether attacking or slipping punches his style seemed a bit odd. Not in a bad way, just different. Hard to compare him with somebody else if you haven't seen him fight.
Agreed, exactly the same for me. It looks like he should be easy to hit, looks wild and reckless, but isn't.
Yeah when i first heard the nickname 'Mantequilla' i was picturing something different in my head. I really don't know what, but again - different. ::
Yup When I first learned about him, I pictured a guy more along the lines of Donald Curry when he was on the backfoot... your classic technician, textbook combo puncher with a tight defense... Like Whiskey said, the nickname conjured something more along those lines, a guy who throws real sharp combos and is hard to hit clean, but someone controlled and deliberate The first Napoles fight I ever saw was the rematch with Billy Backus... when I watched him, I was initially disillusioned... I thought he was basically a slugger... I wondered where the hell he'd gotten the nickname... But as I grew to understand boxing in a more nuanced way, with a greater appreciation for the feet and the relationship between feet and hands, I started to pay closer attention to this one fight... and it dawned on me- Backus can't hit him with anything good, no matter what he tries, and Napoles lands almost at will... he's aggressive, but he's not "slugging", it's not Carmen Basilio dispensing with the pleasantries and looking to see if you are tough enough... no, it's a strange hybrid of full-on aggression and Benitez-esque punch placement and head movement... really remarkable... you make a great point, he really was utterly unique
You know who else that reminded me of a bit? Kid Gavilan... the bounce in the feet while coming forward, almost straight back and forth and than the uppercut to the body, fast hook upstairs... Look at that opening sequence, looks a lot like one of Gavilan's favorite tactics
The hook is really remarkable... he gets it off so quickly and effortlessly and seemingly no matter how he's positioned
