silkov wrote:
Manny would completely steamroll Arthur, if Arthur was bothered by the brave but rather limited Burns, he has no chance against the likes of Manny... it would be a onesided beating...
Dude, he was only bothered by Burns in Rounds 2 and 3 which were the only rounds I thought Burns won.
Howcome some think Burns troubled him a bit? Arthur won easy accept for the 2nd and 3rd.
Burns was catching him on and off all night, and this is, with respect a 13 fight novice... if Barrera or Manny were throwing those punches Arthur would have been lucky to get past 5 rounds. Arthur is still far too static and one paced and takes far too many shots. He'd do well to forget about world titles for another couple of fights and instead defend the titles he has and try and improve before he steps up to full world class.....
Burns only won 2 rounds at most though.
Burns ain't no puncher but Arthur does have a chin so whos to say Barrera or Manny would have him out easy?
Manny's only had 3 fights at Superfeather as well whos also a bit one dimensional.
Manny will still throw left hooks in quick succesion a lot faster and more powerful than Burns was throwing them. If he can stop Barerra and Morales he can definitely stop Arthur who has much worse defense and if you have no defense even with the best chin in the world you wouldn't hold up to repeated shots from Pacquaio
To answer the question, I'd say Arthur is nearing world class but not there yet. Beating Boris Sinitson was a quality win and must have got him quite a high rating with the various organisations.
If I was Alex I'd stick with the EBU crown and continue to defend for the time being and then consider world titles at the back end of 2006.
Good fight between him and Burns. Burns was very brave and will definitely come again, but Alex was the master and showed his usual star quality.
Arthur wouldn't outbox, outslug, outwork or outmove the likes of Morales, Barrera, Pacquio, Barrios, I'm sure he can fight some lesser fight who gets a belt, but Arthur is a very straight up fighter who would get found out at that level.
What's the point of comparing Arthur to Manny Pac? They're not going to meet any time soon, as it's strictly superfights all the way for Manny these days.
And while on the subject of Arthur getting exposed by Gomez, don't forget Manny was flattened a couple of times early in his career too. A better fighter for it, he'll no doubt tell us.
Arthur could still win a world title with a little luck - Barrios doesn't look exactly unbeatable for instance. Or he might get a vacant shot against another up and comer.
