Browsed Through Some Old Fights Today!!!!!!

[DLT]

I was going through my tapes and everytime I put one in, I started watching guys I havent seen in awhile or guys when they were younger and more in there prime. You tend to forget how good somone was.

I rewatched Hopkins-Holmes. Hopkins was still 36 but when he took off his mask, he looked so young and his body was so sharpe looking compared to now. He looked like the prototype Middleweight and that guy wouldve killed this Taylor or Winky. I remember watching that fight the 1st time it happened and I immediatly said that there is no way Tito is going to beat this guy. He just looked like a Iron Man.

Then I watched Tito-Joppy. I almost forgot how fast Tito's hands were and how much snap & pop he had on his punches. It was unreal and you could see why he was very hard to beat. A very special guy who always brought electricty to the Arena. Watching that fight made me wonder how a pre Hopkins Tito would do now against Winky & Taylor. I think a pre Hopkins Tito would do much better then the one that fought Winky. He was much quicker back then, his confidence was sky high, and he was just a much sharper fighter.

I then watched Rahman-Lewis 1. It was so weird to watch that fight. Lewis lost and you could tell he was playing around but you could also tell from watching him, just how pathetic our HW's are now. Dude was so big, with a perfect body, and so skilled. I cant believe we are actually watching these pathetic guys now. Compared to Lewis they look like garbage. Even Vitaly. He is good but he just doesnt look anyway near as skilled as Lennox was.

Then I watched Vargas-Flores. Vargas was solid but was dropped in the 2nd round and mostly looked ****ty.

I then watched Tito-Vargas. That fight was so electric and the arena was going crazy. Vargas looked so young and skilled in the intro's. I love watching the look and the swagger of a talented, undefeated kid. They just think there on top of the world and there glowing. The fight started and Tito shook him but Vargas came right back and led after 5 rounds. The fight happened just too soon for Vargas. He wasnt ready yet but you could tell he was a beast. He made Tito look foolish in those early rounds after the Knock downs and you came away thinking that he couldve won if he had more experince. I also came away thinking that maybe this Winky could still beat that Tito because he did struggle at times with Vargas.

Thats why until this day, I cant understand why so many of you on here still say that Vargas hasnt been the same since the Oscar fight. Tito ruined Vargas and its so obvious to see. Why cant you guys see that? He got dropped 5 times in that fight and looked like a punch drunk guy at the end. You cant recover from that beating. He never looked good in any fight after that, leading up to Oscar. Im telling everyone like I said before, there is no way in hell that a pre Tito Vargas wouldve lost to Oscar. If the Vargas that fought Tito wouldve fought that Oscar then Vargas wouldve won, fairly easy.

Thats no disrespect to Oscar though, because that Oscar was also not in his prime. I then watched Oscar-Sweet Pea. Again, its so crazy to look at these guys when there young. Oscar was 24 and the fight was at 147. His body was flawless. He was lean and ripped. It was his first fight at the weight. The fight started and it was great but Ive only got one thing to say and those who appreciate pure boxing will 2nd it. Damn I miss Sweet Pea. Watching him is a thing of beauty and I miss all the shimmy stuff he use to do. Oscar would throw these 8 punch combos and Sweet Pea would just lean forward, backward, move his head, and make Oscar miss every punch. Oscar also did well and looked so quick and threw these fast, powerful combos. That guy wouldve killed this Margarito.

What I always like to do is try to compare then to now. I look at a guy like Floyd who is now at 147 and I say, how would a fight look between him and that Oscar or him and that Sweet Pea.

Damn I love boxing. Do you guys have any thoughts on this? I also would recomend to any of you who have older tapes, to go back and check out some of these fighters when they were younger because its such a beauty to watch.

[MR. V]

1. Dude was so big, with a perfect body.

2. If the Vargas that fought Tito wouldve fought that Oscar then Vargas wouldve won, fairly easy.

sorry mann, but wrong on both accounts. by the time lewis fought rahman he had already beat all the top notch fighters and he wasnt working out like he should have been doing. his body was nothing and i do mean nothing to what it originally was when he fought holyfield. and second, vargas could never beat oscar not even if God wanted him to. i mean for gods sake , vargas took steriods when he fought de la hoya and still lost the fight. what does that say.


ps/ i luv boxing just as much as u do.

[montanadave]

Great post and thanks for the memories---in his prime I think Tito could have beat all of these guys---and Vargas would have been right behind him.

[Bonafide]

Vargas was never dropped by Flores. You must be thinking of the Wilfredo Rivera fight. I always believed that Vargas could have beat Delahoya had he not been ruined by Trinidad. His back problems also attribute to the way he looks now in the ring.

[DLT]

sorry mann, but wrong on both accounts. by the time lewis fought rahman he had already beat all the top notch fighters and he wasnt working out like he should have been doing. his body was nothing and i do mean nothing to what it originally was when he fought holyfield. and second, vargas could never beat oscar not even if God wanted him to. i mean for gods sake , vargas took steriods when he fought de la hoya and still lost the fight. what does that say.


ps/ i luv boxing just as much as u do.

When Im talking about Lennox body, I mean it looked like a great HW body, e****ally considered to the guys today. I remember the fight and I remember that Lennox didnt even train hard for the fight, so ofcourse he was out of shape and ofcourse he looked better the younger he was but I just meant that he looked like real HW champ while these guys today dont. Even out of shape his body was still pretty fit. Actually for myself, I didnt even like Lewis when he was older and everyone liked him. He was my favorite fighter in the world when he was younger and thin like he was against Ruddock. I think that guy wouldve beat the older Lennox. He was much more agressive then and a killer. After that he started fighting scared.

I completley disagree with you about Vargas. He only had 2 fights after Tito before the Oscar fight and he fought Oscar 2 years later. Thats just 2 fights in 2 years and he looked like **** in both of them. Vargas isnt the only guy to take steroids in boxing and most of them look like **** also. Besides, that doesnt prove your point on what I say when I said he was already finished anyway. Like Tito finished Reid & Joppy. Dont forget that Vargas beat Winky and even if you think he lost, it was still close enough where no one argued much. He also beat Quartey who alot of people thought a prime Oscar lost to.

Vargas was no joke and if he didnt run across Tito then he wouldve fairly easily beaten "that" Oscar. Oscar also lost to a small Shane who was then killed by Forrest. Oscar, e****ally at that stage couldnt beat Vargas but Tito ruined him.

[DLT]

Vargas was never dropped by Flores. You must be thinking of the Wilfredo Rivera fight. I always believed that Vargas could have beat Delahoya had he not been ruined by Trinidad. His back problems also attribute to the way he looks now in the ring.

Yeah, I was just about to change that but you beat me to it. The Flores fight was after that but the one I watched was the Rivera fight.

[ferocity]

I rewatched Hopkins-Holmes. Hopkins was still 36 but when he took off his mask, he looked so young and his body was so sharpe looking compared to now. He looked like the prototype Middleweight and that guy wouldve killed this Taylor or Winky. I remember watching that fight the 1st time it happened and I immediatly said that there is no way Tito is going to beat this guy. He just looked like a Iron Man.

when i first watched this fight i got the opisite effect. I thought for sure Hopkins would get his ass kicked by Trinidad. This was the dirtest fights i remember Hopkins being in -allen v. hopkins 1 was dirty too- and I thought if it wasn't for Hopkins dirty tacticts Holmes could have made that fight a lot closer or even win that fight. And after this fight i thought for sure Hopkins was going to fight very dirty against Trinidad and it was going to be a toe to toe fight, but instead Hopkins is on his toes and stays away from trinidad that whole fight untill the later rounds when trindad tires.

[ferocity]

I completley disagree with you about Vargas. He only had 2 fights after Tito before the Oscar fight and he fought Oscar 2 years later. Thats just 2 fights in 2 years and he looked like **** in both of them. Vargas isnt the only guy to take steroids in boxing and most of them look like **** also. Besides, that doesnt prove your point on what I say when I said he was already finished anyway. Like Tito finished Reid & Joppy. Dont forget that Vargas beat Winky and even if you think he lost, it was still close enough where no one argued much. He also beat Quartey who alot of people thought a prime Oscar lost to.

Vargas was no joke and if he didnt run across Tito then he wouldve fairly easily beaten "that" Oscar. Oscar also lost to a small Shane who was then killed by Forrest. Oscar, e****ally at that stage couldnt beat Vargas but Tito ruined him.

vargas only took steriods in the delahoya fight any other time you may think he took steriods is bull****

[Bonafide]

Bernard Hopkins took the Delahoya/Trinidad fight and used it as a blueprint to fight Tito. I cant remember a fight where Hopkins jab was so effective. He totally boxed that night not the usual Bernard.

[Azteca]

great post, dlh. i concur.

hopkins in my not-so-humble opinion is the most over rated fighter of the last 10 years. who did he ever beat in his defenses? 18 IBF mopes that somehow got bribed into a #1 ranking & two welterweights. he then loses twice to basically a novice middleweight who happened to be as big as him. i'll grant this, 20 defenses is impressive except most of the comp was garbage.

stack his comp against who marvin defended against and it really is laughable that hopkins is considered a "great" middleweight. great for his era? perhaps so - but an all-time top ten middleweight? puh-leeze.

i also somewhat agree with you about whitaker. after ramirez he became really flat footed and just beat guys to the punch - like floyd is doing today. he was brilliant at frustrating a foe without sniping - revert back to side to side movement, and used his powerful legs to turn foes.

what is your take on sweat pea - pbf at 147? i would deffinately take whitaker. whitaker is not going to get hit by as many shots as judah did. floyd was very predictable with his offense against Judah. fighting from outside was not working, so he came forward behind high gaurd and a lead right hand. mayweather IS an excellent body puncher, but there is no way that pernell lets him get any where near him that easily.

did you see judah circling his way out of corners. he was leading mayweather in circles, because floyd never cut the ring off. if Judah had kept that jab pumping and keep his focus he may have outworked floyd.