Napoles held the welterweight title from 1967 to 1975 twice and only a loss on cuts to Billy Backus in 1970 broke up what would have been an eight-year reign and would have ranked among the longest ever in the division.
Jose Napoles lost only one fight as an amateur in Cuba and likely would have won or defended his eventual championship there had the Fidel Castro regime not taken power with Napoles as a young prospect.
Castro's banning of professional boxing and Napoles turning professional before that ban left Napoles without a choice- he needed to leave Cuba to continue and he found a home in Mexico where he established himself as a title contender in the lightweight and junior welterweight divisions.
Unable to receive a title shot in either of those divisions, Napoles rose to welterweight to have one against champion Curtis Cokes, who he would stop in back to back fights to win and then retain the championship.
Napoles defended the championship next against former welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith via decision, which gave Napoles arguably the biggest win on his career resume' and a stoppage victory over Ernie "Indian Red" Lopez, the older brother of future featherweight champion Danny "Little Red' Lopez before entering what seemed to be an easy defense against Billy Backus.
"Mantequilla" (Spanish for butter) did have a weakness as he cut and swelled up very easily and when Backus was able to slice Napoles open in the first round and when both fighters heads smashed into each other in the third, Napoles had his cut worsen and watched the title move to the undistinguished Backus.
Napoles would overwhelm Backus in eight rounds in the rematch to regain the title and would rip off six successful defenses with wins over solid contenders Hedgemon Lewis and Clyde Gray as well as another victory over Ernie Lopez as highlights.
At nearly 34, Napoles decided to cash in for a big payday as he rose to middleweight to challenge Carlos Monzon for the middleweight crown.
This was the fight that continued to come to my memory both before and after the 2016 fight between Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook.
As great as Napoles was, Monzon was (in my opinion) the best middleweight ever, considering that and giving away thirteen pounds of natural weight, four inches of height, and four inches of official reach (it seemed like much more), Napoles was overmatched and despite all of that, Mantequilla had his moments in the first few rounds.
However, Monzon established himself in the fifth and it was all downhill after that as Monzon battered Napoles badly in the fifth and sixth with Napoles barely surviving the sixth.
Trainer Angelo Dundee made the smart call and ended the fight in the corner and saved Napoles from an unneeded pounding and a likely KO loss by refusing to allow Napoles out for the seventh.
Napoles returned to the welterweight division and stopped Hedgemon Lewis in a rematch along with a knockout of Horatio Saldano entering a championship defense against former U.S. Olympian Mando Muniz, who had upset Lewis to earn a title shot, in Mexico
In a rough and violent fight that saw about every dirty tactic that one could think of used by both fighters, Muniz seemed to have the upper hand with a bloody and fading Napoles in round 12.before one of the most controversial incidents in boxing history that saw the officials meet at ringside for minutes in what seemed to be an attempt to find a way to allow Napoles to retain the title.
After all of that, the ruling was that Napoles' cuts had been caused by butts from Muniz in the third round (yet, there had no notice from the referee in that round that the cuts had been caused in that manner) and therefore the fight would move to the scorecards instead of Muniz being declared the winner via TKO.
The fight became even more farcical than as Napoles was judged the winner via decision in a fight that he should have been far behind on.
The mandated rematch after both fighters had healed in four months later. a motivated Napoles controlled the bout over a disheartened Muniz and won a unanimous decision.in what proved to be not only his final brilliant performance but also his final title defense and his final victory as Napoles would lose the title in six rounds to Britain's John H. Stracey, who survived a first-round knockdown to batter Napoles, cut him above one eye and swell shut the other on his way to the referee stopping the fight in the sixth round.
The stoppage was a good one by the referee and the decision by the soon to be 36 years old Napoles to retire was just as smart as he finished his career with an 81-7 mark with 54 knockouts.
What was even smarter was Napoles never attempting a comeback as so many in boxing try to do and usually unsuccessfully so.
Napoles had to know that his skills were ebbing as a prime Napoles would have likely outclassed Stracey, who was a fighter at the right place on the right night.
Where do I rank Jose Napoles in the all-time welterweight conversation?
I'd say he's clearly a top ten welterweight of all-time and maybe even a top-five as there are quite a few qualified candidates for the fourth spot behind my solid top three of (considering only their record at 147 pounds) Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, and Henry Armstrong.
Napoles, Floyd Mayweather, Kid Gavilan, and others, all could make a claim to a top-five position on their welterweight resume' and Napoles fits into that company very well.
Napoles was what could be called the Swiss Army Knife of great welterweights as he did everything on an above-average level, yet he wasn't a dominant fleet-footed boxer or possess dazzling speed or crunching power- he just did everything very well and except for that tissue paper-like skin, Napoles had no obvious weaknesses.
Jose Napoles would have been a deserving entry into our Forgotten Superstars series, but he deserved a salute rather than just an obituary.
An excellent champion and a proud competitor, Jose Napoles should certainly be recalled as an all-time great.
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