1. Eusebio Pedroza 2. Salvador Sanchez 3. Azumah Nelson 4. Jeff Fenech 5. Barry McGuigan 6. Antonio Esparragoza 7. Wilfredo Gomez 8. Juan Laporte 9. Ki yung Chung 10. Bernard Taylor 11. Rocky Lockridge 12. Mike Ayala
Makes it difficult when he died mid 82 tho. He got a helluva lot of work done still but so did Pedroza and he had a few extra years on Sal.
A top quality start and then a general lack of depth for the second half. The is an argument for any order for the top three. Fenech is a solid fourth, I would have Antonio ahead of Barry. Gomez did not quite cut it at 126lbs, Laporte was as good as anyone outside the top half dozen. The Korean seems token, I do not remember being very high or indeed interested in him, and back then Asian fighters piqued my interest. Taylor never quite lived up to the hype, and yet The Ring is probably right, he is top 12. That Lockridge (at 126lbs) made it, again shows the depth problem. And then Ayala... Someone was under deadline pressure and just thought of a name from the past. I do not think he even had a meaningful fight at 126 in the 80s. Grove and a young Paez just off the top of my head seem a level above Ayala for the time period.
While Gomez and Lockridge are difficult to rate highly at FW Ring(not sure about KO or if they did annual type ratings?) they were both highly rated for a 4 year run. Gomez #2 81-84 and Lockridge 3-4 from 80-83. Not sure who could go in in thier place? Ayala stands out to me as the guy who does not belong....even if this goes top 20... did he even fight at FW after Little Red?
They didn't mention him in the write up either. He just doesn't have anything in the win column and didn't have many fights either.
