Top 30 fighters P4P from 1980-present

1 SRL
2 JCC
3 Whitaker
4 RJJ
5 Hearns
6 DLH
7 R. Lopez
8 K. Galaxy
9 FMJ
10 Hopkins
11 Nelson
12 Spinks
13 Holyfield
14 Hagler
15 Sanchez
16 Tyson
17 Gomez
18 Trinidad
19 Pac
20 Chitalda
21 Chandler
22 McCallum
23 Benitez
24 MAB
25 Morales
26 JMM
27 Calzaghe
28 Pedroza
29 Pryor
30 Duran

Just a rough draft as I am in process of forming a top 100, and am not even close to halfway done, so I am sure much will change in my mind.

 

Chavez over Whitaker? i'm surprised.

Also 7 and 8 are great picks. Flea will tell you those guys were awesome in the most literal definition of the term. Certainly deserve to be their more than Chang or somebody.

 

I had a list for this and I ****ing lost it :verysad

Nice list though man. Needs more Sal Sanchez though, and Roy in the top 10, and Whitaker at #2 :smoke

 

Sometimes i think that bar 5-6 fighters, i'd have something like this all 80s fighters, at least in the top 20 for sure.Especially if it was skewed towards talent and prime effectiveness rather than say...domination and long title runs within your own time.

Jones, Whitaker(and Chavez if you count him as a 90s man-i don't), Hopkins then Holy and Pac for their weight jumping prowess.Toney, Mayweather and Lopez have the raw talent\longevity to merit top 20 somewhere. MAB, Marquez, Morales don't quite belong in a top 20 imo under my more h2h themed criteria, though make solid picks for the lower spots.I'd be tempted to have Mark Johnson and Arbachakov over them.

Fighters who had their peaks at feather and below should be mostly 80s fighters.Just a much more talent packed decade.Sanchez, Nelson, Pedroza, Fenech, Chang, Zapata, Laciar, Roman, Watanabe, Ellyas Pical....i'm not sure Morales or MAb could beat Villasana, Martinez or Esparragoza and nobody is sticking them in their top 30.I suppose it helps to make your name mostly on a great series of fights within recent memory.

 

All thse ppl whom usually criticize others' lists without posting their own , should get themselves ****ed

 

Not really. When do you define Chavez's peak?

Somewhere after his struggles with Lockrdige and Laporte?

And somewhere before his allmighty struggle with Taylor?

In that period he:

Dominated Rosario & Fuentes
Had a competitive fight with Roger Mayweather where he lost about 3-4 rounds
Another competitive although lacklustre fight with Ramirez where he lost a couple of rounds but was never threatened.


Let's compare Whitaker's peak: 89-92

- Schooled and embarrassed Ramirez, Haugen & Brazier without losing a single round.
- Beat and embarrassed Azumah Nelson & Rafael Pineda about 10 rounds to 2.
- Knocked out Nazario with a single punch (after he was coming off a win against a faded Rosario) and KO'ed Lomeli moving backwards.
- Had another dominant win, dropping a couple of rounds against Freddie Pendleton.
- Also had other good wins in this period against Anthony Jones and Policarpo Diaz, who he pretty much shut out.

The only 'bad' performance at his peak was against Jorge Paez, who he probably lost 3 or 4 rounds to because he utterly disrespected him and did the minimum needed to win the fight.

Yes, Whitaker would never beat down Rosario like CHavez did, but Chavez would never embarrass guys like Ramirezand Nelson like Whitaker did.

Overall, due to his body of work, I'd say Whitaker had the more dominant peak, no questions about it.

 

Also don't know about the claim that CHavez dominanted for 'longer'.

Perhaps he did, but not by much really.

He dominated from 84-93, but Whitaker dominated from 87-95 himself, so there isn't much in it.

Chavez did however beat more decent opponents overall.... Whitaker though had the better quality wins imo, and performed much better post-prime...

 

Chavez's peak performance to me is the Rosario fight, as you suggest by the time of his second fight with Mayweather, he is not so magical. After that although clearly a brilliant fighter, he never reaches the peak he showed against Rosario.

Whitaker was brilliant in 1989, he arguably did not lose a round fighting 'title holders' Ramirez, Haugen and unbeaten contender Lomeli. But both Ramirez and Haugen had seen better days, unlike Rosario who performances against Camacho and Bramble had him on fire going into the Chavez fight. A fight a significant minority thought Chavez would lose, unlike any opponent Whitaker fought in 1989.

 

A significant minority obviously forgot Ramirez had whipped him twice some years before :good

But you could also say that Chavez gave them some pause for thought given his performances against Laporte and Lockridge, so it wasn't all due to Rosario being a beast.

Yes, I want my cake and I want to eat it too :good

 

Salvador Sanchez did enough before he died even, to warrant a top 5 stop here. Toney and Holyfield should be right up there in the top 10. Jones Jr is top 2. And i personally wouldnt have Lewis, Tyson, Holmes, Pryor or Hopkins, above any of the 3 amigos

 

Yes, Ramirez had a win over Rosario and a close lost to Edwin.

True, Chavez was a phenomenal fighter, but it was not clear pre Rosario that he might be great. The Rosario win was a very solid plank of evidence to suggest he just might be in due course.

 

Chavez is a whiner and a bad loser. Whitaker owns that kid...Owns him. He'd have owned him at lightweight too.

 

It's based on a full body of work over a career, not one fight. You been on disco juice?