Hector Camacho - Most underrated fighter of alltime??

Rosario, Ramirez, Pazienza all went on to become world champions after he beat them!!!....Pazienza and Rosario more than once!!!

Add in a quality Haugen, Limon, Edwards and Leonard even Mancini......three/four titles at different weights and a guy who fought the best without duckinging!!!..DelaHoya...chavez....Trinidad.....

To me he belongs up there with If not surpassing Benitez........No one denies Benitez his legendary status but whether by personality trait or the fact he became too defensive minded this guy doesn't get the same respect!!

Trying to think but have failed of a guy more disrespected and overlooked..

Nailed on great for me...

Damn good fighter, but not sure he's particularly underrated in the grand scheme of things. He's generally seen as an all-time very, very good rather than an all-time great and, for a good while, one of the elite fighters (at the time) in the world in his pomp - which is pretty much what his achievements warrant, for me.

Extraordinary physical talent for sure, but he never really made a division his own and, although you can make the excuse that he wasn't his old, bombastic self by then, the Chavez fight highlighted the gap between good and great in my opinion.

Suppose it's all relative..............

Here's the thing though truss. He called himself the macho man and spent the latter part of his career on his bike... Its like calling your chihuahua Tyson, but without the sense of irony. He admitted himself he got gunshy after Rosario.

Immensely talented, but the fact he stank the place out too many times counts against him for me. He's in the should have been, not was category in my eyes.

He still won...gunshy or not...

Fair point truss, some of them were squeaky but a wins a win. Shame he couldn't raise his game for the Chavez fight, might have been a cracker had it happened pre camacho Rosario.

Has anybody here seen his first Duran fight in full? I saw a video of it on youtube but the middle rounds were missing. For the rounds I saw it, 45 year old Roberto looked in control and pretty surprised by the verdict. It's hard to draw a conclusion from only two thirds of the fight though.

JBW I've watched it - Duran treated him like his bitch he just moved and landed wherever he wanted - particularly that right. Same with Pazienza 1 - I cant find the latter but Duran was shafted in both of em.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkcyRwvDBIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-4Z6esxhvY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZczIRUStew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFnykPbAGM

He was better at boxing than he was at gang banging.

Don't appreciate that kind of humor.....

Just a little bump for this thread -With links to Camacho Duran which is a pretty interesting fight...

As I mentioned in my original post on this thread all those years ago, I used to think that Camacho was rated about right overall. These days I find myself thinking that he was, and remains, slightly overrated if anything.

I think pure speed can cause people to overrate a fighter's overall skill set or abilities - I'm not saying that Camacho didn't have any skill or technique of course, because he evidently did. But his game was quite repetitive and that raw speed dictated a lot of his fights - he was arguably the quickest fighter in the world during his prime years.

Obviously looked very impressive pre-Rosario but his opposition makes it hard to accurately gauge him. He was beating up the small and over the hill as a Super-Feather. Very good win and performance against Ramirez for a Lightweight strap (although again, even that fight highlighted a couple of deficiencies in his approach, for me) and then of course came the tussle with Rosario, in which he showed massive heart.

But aside from his really good performance against Howard Davis he never really impressed all that much again after that point. He admitted that the Rosario fight gave him doubts and his confidence in himself seemed to wilt a bit. It's a strange one, because if anything I'd say coming through that Rosario test and crisis moment should have had the opposite effect.

Struggled badly with an over-the-hill Mancini and deservedly beaten by Haugen for me. By now he'd become a very cagey, safety-first operator, and by the time of the Chavez and Trinidad fights he was really just a survival specialist. Like a 140 / 147 pound Kevin Johnson.

Very good fighter but I remember when I used to rate him higher than a couple of other elite Puerto Ricans such as Trinidad and Cotto. I'd definitely be reversing that now.