Tho beaten soundly a couple of times Jose Luis Ramirez was usually a damn tough out. Chugged away and was very durable.
Same era/division guys like Chacon, Boza-Edwards, Limon and Navarrette were all super tough for a time particularly against each other. Sure we are getting high level but man they were tough at their best. It took a guy like Arguello to go thru them and he did it in 13 months flat with Ruben Castillo thrown in the middle for good measure and Ramirez a few months later albeit controversially.
The 40's to 60's and their insane schedules were full of such guys depending on what level you want to label and perceive guys as. Guys like Mims, Henry Hank, some of the Murders Row, guys like George Benton. Villemain isn't talked about much but was consistent and tough.
Marcos Maidana was a tough out for anyone. Rocky Lockridge gave the likes of Chavez, Gomez, Pedroza and later in his career Tony Lopez all they could handle. Take away the LaPorte fight and he troubled everyone.
Lockridge was the one that was eluding me!!! I knew i was forgetting someone from my own era. He wasn't all that far off great IMO. Plenty of correspondents scored the first fight against Pedroza for him and Gomez was absolute highway robbery. You put W's on these gigs and all of a sudden "great" wouldn't be far away.
Ralph Tiger Jones deserves a shout. Only a journeyman on paper but he gave hell to the likes of Giardello,Rocky Castellani, Kid Gavilan, Johnny Saxton and Gene Fullmer and not to be forgotten he beat the stuffing out of a comebacking Sugar Ray Robinson. His record isn’t great but he was stopped only once against some of the best middleweights of a bloody great and deep era.
Surprised nobody mentioned Salido, ga. I'd say Margarito, but he didn't really have the same power or effect he did pre Mosley and his career during that time frame is suspect.