That fight was not easy!Oba Carr had some bad luck too with the era he was in. First title shot is against undefeated Felix Trinidad. Second is undefeated Ike Quartey. Next is undefeated Oscar De La Hoya.
He did get a gift as a young up-and-comer against a declined Livingstone Bramble.
Oba Carr had some bad luck too with the era he was in. First title shot is against undefeated Felix Trinidad. Second is undefeated Ike Quartey. Next is undefeated Oscar De La Hoya.
He did get a gift as a young up-and-comer against a declined Livingstone Bramble.
Oba Carr had some bad luck too with the era he was in. First title shot is against undefeated Felix Trinidad. Second is undefeated Ike Quartey. Next is undefeated Oscar De La Hoya.
He did get a gift as a young up-and-comer against a declined Livingstone Bramble.
him losing to thurman , porter and spence has shaved his chance of becoming elite.
he was never elite. just a skilled counter puncher with a big left hook. he'd struggle in the Meldrick Taylor/Mark Breland era.
The 80s and 90s eras were generally strong at WW. The SRL/Hearns/Duran/Benitez late 70s/early 80s and Tito/Oscar/Pernell/Ike/Shane of the mid 90s to early 00s era stand out, but in between that it was pretty solid.
After Leonard retired in 1982, Donald Curry and Marlon Starling were about to make real noise at WW. Then you had other guys about to come around like Simon Brown and Lloyd Honeyghan. Starling's performance against Honeyghan is a masterclass. Simon Brown's first fight with Tyrone Trice and Aaron Davis-Mark Breland were great fights. Meldrick Taylor looked very good in beating Davis, then was a shot fighter a year later.
I've always said that Taylor was going to have a short stay at the elite level, Chavez or not, because of the talent level at 147 (and his style). Cristano Espana was Taylor's mandatory, and Whitaker was just about to jump to 147. Tito won a title in 1993, and then Ike Quartey came along and beat Espana not too long after that.
glad to see someone else that knows the history back then. those were good times too. Donald Curry was undisputed (and my favorite fighter at that time) and he was the very first WW to hold the IBF title as it had just been created in 83. at that time, Curry was considered as the P4P best fighter in the world, such as Bud and the talk was that he was being avoided as well. We spoke about this the other day how SRL and Mike Trainer became Curry's advisors and steered him away from Hagler (he was going up 2 divisions to fight him) and SRL ended up fighting Hagler, which caused Curry to launch a lawsuit.
the competition in Taylor's era was FEROCIOUS. up or down. because you had some great 140lbers then Norris was a killer waiting for anyone coming up. the WW's were too big for Taylor and when he went up to face Norris, he got obliterated. Taylor was too small for Espana, much less Norris. Breland was like the next SRL/Hearns. Highly celebrated amateur. People view him as an underachiever but the competition was crazy then. Aaron Davis was no joke.
For the sake of comparion, Bud is like Curry and Spence is like McCrory. Jermell like Norris. 140 isnt that strong to compare back then to. the WW division today is deeper though, just off the strength of Manny.
sn: Curry's Olympic team didnt participate due to boycott.