Three best pound for pound fighters of the eighties ?

KO magazine's top 5 fighters of the 80's.

1. Leonard
2. Hagler
3. M Spinks
4. Holmes
5. Hearns

 

Leonard, Sanchez, Hagler.

 

Whitaker is an invalid choice here.

 

Kittikasem, may I ask why you feel that?

 

1. Sugar Ray Leonard
2. Larry Holmes
3. Julio Cesar Chavez
3a. Marvin Hagler

 

Work purely in the 80s:

30 Meldrick Taylor
29 Dwight Muhammad Qawi
28 Gilberto Roman
27 Don Curry
26 Brian Mitchell
25 Alexis Arguello
24 Hector Camacho
23 Lupe Pintor
22 Sot Chitalada
21 Michael Nunn
20 Jeff Fenech
19 Myung Woo Yuh
18 Jung Koo Chang
17 Mike McCallum
16 Evander Holyfield
15 Pernell Whitaker
14 Jeff Chandler
13 Khoasio Galaxy
12 Salvador Sanchez
11 Azumah Nelson
10 Roberto Duran
9 Aaron Pryor
8 Eusebio Pedroza
7 Julio Cesar Chavez
6 Larry Holmes
5 Michael Spinks
4 Tommy Hearns
3 Mike Tyson
2 Marvin Hagler
1 Ray Leonard

 

I would've thought it didn't need explaining, it should be blindingly obvious. If you know Pea's career at all, you know that he only had 2 or 3 top wins in the 80s (Ramirez II, Haugen, R Mayweather), and suffered the "defeat" then too. Pea was a 90s fighter, that's where his most fights, best wins, major accomplishments, and landmark performances came. You cannot be considered one of the three best p4p fighters of the 80s on the strength of a few wins over world level but not p4p level fighters, that's disrespectful to those that had the majority of their world title careers in the 80s, and is just generally bogus IMO. It's like saying Floyd Mayweather was one of the top 3 fighters of the 90s because he beat Hernandez and Manfredy in '98.

 

Tony Sibson
Ayub Kalule
Alberto Davila

 

Except that he was in his physical prime at his best weight, perhaps the best lightweight that ever lived. That's far more than enough for me .. by merely mention the "loss" , a fight he was clearly robbed in , you are not being completely honest.

 

I did say "defeat" in inverted commas, so no need for tears.

When the question is "best p4p fighter of the 80s", I consider it to be asking for who proved their greatness in the 80s, ie who would be top of a p4p top 10 for what they did in the 80s.

Wins over Haugen, Ramirez and R Mayweather are not sufficient in themselves to prove p4p greatness in that decade, not compared to how Leonard, Spinks, Hagler, etc proved their greatness.

 

You know who deserves a mention. Khaosai Galaxy.

 

Kittikasem, thanks for replying.

I agree with you that the majority of Pea's major accomplishments came in the 90's, but I don't think that was the original question posed by the thread starter. If the question of the thread was "whose were the greatest accomplishments of the 80s", I wouldn't have nominated Pea. But, to the question of "who were the 3 best p4p fighters of the 80s", I would definitely include Pea. I watched a lot of Pea's career, and even in the 80s I considered that he was at that level...he barely lost a round (the Ramirez disgrace aside!!!). I think Pea was that good, he deserved the highest recognition. It's an opinion I absolutely stand by. I believe he was virtually unbeatable in the late 80s.

Just my opinion, cheers K.