Alexis Arguello's loss to Vilomar Fernandez?

[.Paulie.]

I find this a pretty bizzare loss, for Alexis to be honest. Alexis was virtually at his peak and was reigning WBC Super Featherweight Champion (His best ever weight). He was on a 27 fight win streak, which included wins over the likes of Ruben Olivares, and Alfredo Escalera.

Vilomar Fernandez going into the fight carried a 22-6-2 record. The fight before he had drew journyman Larry Stanton. Going into the fight Duran had also stopped him in 13 for the WBA Lightweight. And he had also been defeated by some sub par oppostion.

But yet why cound't a peak Arguello defeat him? The scores will very close, but still I would of just expected Alexis to KO some of this caliber of opponent especailly in his peak.

Although he did avenege it, still a very very bizzare loss for him.

Thoughts?

Paulie

[XviciousX]

I guess it was on some Kostya Tsyu-Vince Phillips ****, the opponent simple had a good night while the champ was caught with a lucky shot or shots.

[TheGreatA]

Arguello never dealt well with good movers. Fernandez was a good mover. However in a 15 round bout Alexis may have caught up to him.

[TBear]

First of I'd like to say that everybody has a bad day. We get up and go to work and no matter what, we are going to have a bad day sooner or later. The same is true for fighters. No matter how good you are or how ready you are it is going to happen. I'm not only talking about Arguello or even any fighter in particular, I'm just saying it happens. Unfortunitely most fans attribute loses under those conditions to weakness, like that fighter had the style to beat them. Louis-Conn comes to mind.

Fighters can and do train for styles wrong on occasion and even worse underestimate opponents. That comes with confidence. Which all successful fights must have.

Now Arguello faced a wide variety of styles at that point and he was the type of fight to be patient if he didn't figure out an opponents style right away. Sooner or later he would catch them. On that day perhaps the moment never came. Perhaps he waited too much.

Also many times champions raise their game for title fight after title fight and it is those non-title tune ups that can be the most dangerous because it is not taken as serious as it would be if the title was on the line. It happened to Duran when he took a non title bout with Esteban De Jesus and even Jeff Chandler with Oscar Muniz. It has happened alot through out history.

[TheGreatA]

Fernandez was a game fighter. I don't think he should be cast aside as some journeyman who got lucky. He beat Ray Lampkin the top lightweight contender and nearly derailed the Howard Davis hypetrain.

[donkim]

I guess it was on some Kostya Tsyu-Vince Phillips ****, the opponent simple had a good night while the champ was caught with a lucky shot or shots.

LMAO.Have you even seen the Tszyu-Phillips fight? There were no "lucky shots".It was just a case of Kostya Tszyu fighting a a decent fighter with a pulse.Phillips took Tszyu's overrated power and laughed and Tszyu couldn't take his.

[TBear]

Fernandez was a game fighter. I don't think he should be cast aside as some journeyman who got lucky. He beat Ray Lampkin the top lightweight contender and nearly derailed the Howard Davis hypetrain.

Yes, not taking anything away from Fernandez, he was a very good boxer and very clever. I remember that Davis fight back then too.

[Dynamite Kid]

Fernandez was an awkward fighter to deal with and was pretty gritty to. Ive seen his fight with Duran & both fights with Arguello and he gave a good account of himself in all those fights,although you could argue not so much the second time around against Alexis.

Fernandez fought Arguello in a 10 rounder for a start, now anyone who knows Arguello knows he gets stronger as the fight goes and i strongly believe he would of beaten Fernandez in a 15 round fight, much how i feel Duran would not of lost to De Jesus in a 15 round fight.

At the point Arguello lost to Fernandez i seem to remember there being a lot of talk about him fighting Duran so maybe he took his eye off the ball, that coupled with Fernandez awkward style and the 10 round distance is why i believe he lost.

[mhager91490]

Fernandez really did what he did best and that was spoil, the fight was pretty cintroversial to, a lot of people thought Alexis had won.

[BennyST]

Well, Fernandez wasn't exactly a chump journeyman. He was very skilled and and was great at spoiling. He has some very good wins and was obviously at his best against better opposition because he rose to the occasion each time he stepped up. He showed great skill in all his big fights and was very difficult to handle. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise as if you watch the fight you can see Fernandez would have been a handful for anyone.

He was difficult to hit cleanly, was quick, counter punched well, moved a lot and could keep it up for long periods of time. He was one of those very good fighters that just never really solidified everything into a great run. Had some fantastic wins but was too inconsistent.

It's possible that if it was a title fight that Arguello would have won the last few rounds and either pulled out a draw or even won being that he was so strong in the championship rounds.

But, if you watch Fernandez fight he was a very tricky customer and for a guy that was as straight forward as Arguello was, someone like that was always going to cause him problems. I'm surprised they put him in with Fernandez after the way Ernesto Marcel handled him too. Marcel was very tricky and slick, fast, counter punched etc. Fought the way Mayweather does and he beat Arguello convincingly by using the same tactic. Move, confuse, turn, slide and counter and it gave AA fits.

He was never that great at fighting guys like that.