Of course theres no way to be certain how good Ayala would have been, but we can always speculate. How would he have done vs the following welters and jnr middles of the 80's and 90's: Leonard Duran Hearns Curry Benitez Starling Jackson McCallum Matt Hilton Norris DLH Vargas Quartey Shane Tito Winky Mayorga Ouma Margarita
I'll take a stab at half of the list tonight, and then the other half at another time. vs Leonard- Gets embarrassed and then stopped late. vs Duran- Loses the toe to toe trench war but may last the distance. vs Hearns- Gets dropped and stopped early. Don't see him lasting 4 rounds. vs Curry- Would provide hard moments, but not nearly enough. Gets stopped in the middle rounds. vs Benitez- Has competitive moments but the best Benitez clearly decisions him. vs Starling- Could possibly outwork him due to Starling being an all time great poser in the ring, but Marlon has too many skills at his best IMO. vs Jackson- Julian via early to mid rounds KO. Too sharp and powerful. vs McCallum- Gets eaten up here pretty badly. Tailor made for Mike. He'd get a beating. vs Hilton- Not certain here to be honest. Need to think more on that one. vs Norris- Has a puncher's chance, but Terry at his best is too good. I'll do the rest later.
Agreed on all counts. From my list, the only ones I'd have picked him to beat are Mayorga, Margarita, Hilton, Ouma, and Vargas. He loses to the rest.
When I was first reading your thread it seemed like you were picking Ayala to beat these guys and I was like WTF?
Ayala was a hot prospect, ok red hot. But he was not much more than a prospect. Who did he beat that even would make us think he could hang with Most of these guys? Title challenger Mike Baker? Baker lucked into a title shot with eleven losses, he lost thirteen by the time Ayala fought his breakout fight against him(including the previous fight). Cheatham? I'm afraid he was through. Steve Gregory? He was just stopped before his big fight with Ayala and was also stopped in his next two. Ayala's best win argubly came against Robbie Epps who was 28-2 and had beaten 28-0 Dwight Davidson, Epps however lost his previous fight to Teddy Mann(his previous loss before a little earlier in his career was to one Henry Walker that was 14-12). Epps next big fight(kinda) after Ayala he was stopped in one by 22-14 Curtis Ramsey. After the Epps fight Ayala was sent to prison. Ayala was a hot prospect but in my opinion not much more.
