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By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
Mythical bout 1: This will be fought at 140 pounds and will pit Pacquiao against Aaron Pryor in a super lightweight bout. Ring’s 140-pound title was vacant in 1984, but Pryor was the top-ranked challenger.
Who wins and why: I’ll go with Pryor by a late-round stoppage. Pryor was so strong and so powerful, the great Sugar Ray Leonard wanted nothing to do with him. Pryor was unbeaten for the bulk of his career and his only loss came after he was out for 2½ years. Pacquiao’s speed would have caused Pryor some problems early, but Pryor was too strong and would have stopped him somewhere in the second half of the fight. Pryor by 10th round TKO.
Mythical bout 2: Marquez holds most of the lightweight belts, so he’ll meet Livingstone Bramble, the No. 1 Ring lightweight in 1984.
Who wins and why: Marquez would win a close, but unanimous decision. Marquez is a more complete fighter than Bramble and would have found a way to win the fight. Bramble’s most notable win was over Ray Mancini, but he never defeated a truly great fighter in his prime.
Mythical bout 3: Hopkins was a middleweight for most of his career, but is campaigning as a light heavyweight now. That results in a match between Hopkins and Michael Spinks, the Ring champion 25 years ago.
Who wins and why: It would be perhaps the best fight on this list, but Spinks would pull it out. He’s the naturally bigger man and he’s just as crafty as Hopkins. Spinks by decision.
Mythical bout 4: Williams is hard to place in a division, because he fights all over. But since he holds a version of the super welterweight belt, I’ll consider him a 154-pounder for the purposes of this match and will place him against 1984 Ring super welterweight champion Thomas Hearns.
Who wins and why: I think very highly of Williams and he was impressive in his win over Wright, but he would have had no chance – none, nada, zip, zero, zilch – in a fight against Hearns. I’ll take Hearns by eighth-round TKO.
Mythical bout 5: Mosley is another fighter who jumps around in weight, but he’s campaigning as a welterweight now. The result is a fight against top-ranked 1984 welterweight Donald Curry.
Who wins and why: Tough fight to call, since Curry at his best was phenomenal, but he had a very short period of excellence. I’ll give Mosley a slight edge here and say he would have been able to outwork and pressure Curry to win a split decision.
Mythical bout 6: Cotto gets a break because he’s the second welterweight in the Yahoo! Top 10, so he gets to face the second-ranked welterweight by Ring in 1984, Milton McCrory.
Who wins and why: Cotto drew a tough match, as the 6-foot-1 McCrory would have had a six-inch height advantage and a decided edge in punching power. Cotto’s body assault would have had an impact on McCrory, but I’ll say McCrory would have eventually caught him with something big. Say McCrory, TKO 10.
Mythical bout 7: Calderon, arguably the best boxer active today, gets a tough break, because Ring doesn’t rank light flyweights in 1984. As a result, he’ll have to face a flyweight, the 1984 Ring champion, Sot Chitalada.
Who wins and why: Chitalada wasn’t well known in the U.S., but he was a very good boxer and had a long, successful run at flyweight. He fought for the light flyweight title in his fifth pro fight and won the WBC flyweight belt in his ninth fight. He would have found a way to overcome “Iron Boy” and won a unanimous decision.
Mythical bout 8: Darchinyan is going to fight at bantamweight in July and, since Ring didn’t rank super flyweights in 1984, we’ll match him with 1984 Ring bantamweight champion Richie Sandoval.
Who wins and why: Sandoval was a good boxer with good power. He has a knockout win in a title fight over the great Jeff Chandler. That’s enough to convince me he would have taken out Darchinyan in nine rounds.
Mythical bout 9: Dawson gets the second-ranked 1984 light heavyweight, so he must face Dwight Muhammad Qawi, given that we’ve matched Hopkins against top-ranked Spinks.
Who wins and why: Qawi was a buzzsaw and Dawson would not have been able to keep him off of him. Qawi would have found a way to get inside and broken Dawson down. Qawi by TKO 11.
Mythical bout 10: Hatton has fought nearly his entire career at 140 pounds, so he’ll get the No. 2 ranked Ring super lightweight in 1984, Billy Costello.
Who wins and why: Costello was a well-rounded fighter who punched well even if he didn’t have overwhelming power. He would have been able to take advantage of Hatton’s defensive deficiencies and won a unanimous decision.
How it breaks down: In my 10 fights, I gave two, both by decision to fighters from 2009. I had eight going to fighters from 1984, with five of those by knockout.
do you agree with kevin?
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