Originally posted by TheGreatA
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You are right to say that a 16 year old doing this is special. But how many got the opportunity? Langford perhaps overhauled his teen achievments, but aside from Benitez, there just wasn't anyone that really got the opportunity (A good thing!). Tyson is an example of a fighter who could have made this kind of impact.
I should clarify that I do not recognize the wins over LaBarba as among McLarnin's best, but with some research I found myself appreciating them more and more. Only looking at LaBarba's modest record of 1-0 and 2-1 can be misleading, in my opinion he was already a force in the division at that stage. LaBarba surely gained some valuable experience in the following 6 months but I wouldn't put it past him to have been competitive against Genaro and Brown at the time he faced McLarnin for the third time.
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