Your thoughts on "Baby" Joe Mesi

[Sugar Adam Ali]

He was definitely better than Maskaev.

Im not so sure about that,, maskev has been in with the best, mesi looked bad vs the 2 best guys he fought in jirov and monte,,

i think if mesi doesnt ko maskev early, maskev with his skills would put it on mesi, just like he did sam sinal or rahman

[beez721]

I can't picture Mesi knocking out Rahman two times and wiping the floor w Jefferson. Maskaev also has a lot of okay B level wins.

I agree. maskeav was a real solid fighter for a time before his chin got checked by kirk johnson. he went downhill after that. no shame in getting stopped by tua early in his career. he was beating tua rather handily till he got caught late in the fight and his stoppage loss to mcall was also very early in his career when he was very green. Id take a prime maskeav over mesi any day

[joe strong]

he had great power & speed for a big HW. not the best chin as he was laid out by monte barrett(at his best)& vassily jirov when he moved up to HW. his best wins were over david izon & davarryl Williamson. he beat some good journeymen as well. lennox lewis even considered fighting him in buffalo because of his drawing power in the buffalo region... that was just something I heard when he was looking for opponents before he settled on kirk Johnson...

[joe strong]

He was definitely better than Maskaev.

maskaev was much better then people give him credit for. his chin was not made of granite but he got cleanly KO'd by almost every big puncher he faced but jefferson & Rahman. he had skills & a big punch. maskaev could go 12 hard rounds & he was in with some good HWs. i'd take maskaev if he got past mesi's early assault...

[billeau2]

maskaev was much better then people give him credit for. his chin was not made of granite but he got cleanly KO'd by almost every big puncher he faced but jefferson & Rahman. he had skills & a big punch. maskaev could go 12 hard rounds & he was in with some good HWs. i'd take maskaev if he got past mesi's early assault...

This is my recollection. Maskaev was a professional gatekeeper and could compete with the best....before becoming a notch on someones' belt of aspirations! His fight with Rahman was hillarious.

I think mesi could shuffle by if he didn't piss Maskaev off. He had the speed to make it happen.

[Scott9945]

I can't picture Mesi knocking out Rahman two times and wiping the floor w Jefferson. Maskaev also has a lot of okay B level wins.

I can picture Mesi doing that. And after seeing Oleg get KO'd so many times it's easy for me to pick against him in big fights.

[beez721]

I can picture Mesi doing that. And after seeing Oleg get KO'd so many times it's easy for me to pick against him in big fights.

maskeavs chin wasnt all that bad till kirk j caught him walking into a punch then that soft spot seemed to grow. I really think a prime rahman would have stopped mesi. sure mesi had a punchers chance but I think rahmans jab would have given mesi fits and rahman hit much harder than barret and jirov

[U_TALKING_2_ME?]

maskeavs chin wasnt all that bad till kirk j caught him walking into a punch then that soft spot seemed to grow. I really think a prime rahman would have stopped mesi. sure mesi had a punchers chance but I think rahmans jab would have given mesi fits and rahman hit much harder than barret and jirov

Mesi beat Rahman in the NY Golden gloves to win the tournament.

But in the pros I think Rahman takes it also.

[Cardinal Buck]

Mesi beat Rahman in the NY Golden gloves to win the tournament.

But in the pros I think Rahman takes it also.

Rahman had a period around the Tua fight when he was pretty good. I think he had declined a little by the time he fought Lewis due to bulking up too much and being stiff.

Re: Mesi. I just can't put my faith in a guy who either scrapped by and took serious punishment whenever he stepped up to top 20ish heavyweights. I guess he had one good performance against an okay fighter when he fought Williamson.