Especially after yesterday's masterclass performance against another P4P boxer in Junto Nakatani, where does Inoue rank all time at 122 lbs or at super bantamweight? Did he do enough to surpass Wilfredo Gomez? (Im still torn but i think Inoue is 2nd greatest all time) Also if you guys can, please send me your top 10 greatest super bantamweights of all time? Thank you!
I've been thinking about this since Inoue's victory over Nakatani was announced. So, I think most everyone would agree that the top three guys at 122lbs are Gomez, Marco Antono Barrera and Erik Morales. Where does Inoue rank in that company? Gomez has 17 title defences, two wins over HOF bantamweights Zarate and Pintor, and some nice title defences over futire titleholders Leo Cruz and Juan Meza. Some of the contenders the faced like Raul Tirado, Jose Cervantes, Carlos Mendoza and Ruben Valdes were decent. Morales had a total of nine defences, along with a win over ageless HOF Zaragoza and Junior Jones. He's also got the win over MAB in an all time classic but a lot of people thought he lost. MAB had three WBO title reigns, arguably defeated Morales and does have a few nice scalps like Kennedy McKinney, Frankie Toledo, and Agapito Sanchez. He's also got two definitive losses to Junior Jones. Since moving up, Inoue's got seven title defences over his undisputed title (eight if you count Tapales as a title defence of the first two he bagged) and has defeated four of the five guys who were ranked in the top five when he arrived at the weight. Plus he's got a clear win over a pfp undefeated former bantamweight champ in Junto Nakatani. I think that kinda stacks up to Barrera and puts him at/near Morales, all things considered. It's not quite enough to ovetake Bazooka, who's got two great wins and a number of very good ones. But he's at the point now where the discussion isn't farfetched anymore.
Based strictly on what they did at junior featherweight I think Bazooka still has to be at the top of the list. 1. Wilfredo Gomez 2. Marco Antonio Barrera 3. Erik Morales 4. Naoya Inoue 5. Daniel Zaragoza 6. Guillermo Rigondeaux 7. Vuyani Bungu 8. Oscar Larios 9. Israel Vasquez 10. Celestino Caballero
I think my current list is as follows: 1. Gomez 2. Morales 3. Inoue 4. Barrera 5. Zaragoza 6. Rigondeaux 7. Bungu 8. Vasquez 9. Larios 10. Antonio Cermeno
Great thread and great, thoughtful responses too. Was thinking about this as well but hadn’t got as far as making a list. I think inside the top 4 as Drew amd Fogger have him seems reasonable. He’s undisputed champ which none of Gomez, Morales or Barrera were (albeit Gomez was clearly the no. 1 throughout his reign when there were only two world titles). In this era of multiple split titles, that’s an achievement in and of itself (and coming up to the weight as undisputed champ at 118 too).
Honestly the onlys 122 lbs who could defeat him historically was Nonito Donaire (prime), Emanuel Navarrete, Rafael Marquez, Guillermo Rogondeaux, Antonio Cermeno, Celestino Caballero, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym. But I have to be honest this a very generous list and probably only Donaire prime & Navarrete have their chances against Inoue at 122 lbs.
After that win over Nakatani I personally think Inoue has a good case of being the best 122 but perhaps just below Wilfredo Gomez. That can change depending on if Inoue ends up fighting Bam Rodriguez and manages to beat him.
Bazooka Gomez uber alles at 122 for me but Inoue (my favorite current fighter) cracks that next tier with MAB and Morales without question: 1. Gomez 2. Barrera 3. Inoue 4. Morales But I’d like to call in @Greg Price99 as a special guest for a rundown of how he breaks down the resume of each at/around 122.
Heh Pat, my all time rankings exclude active and recently retired fighters, to avoid having to constantly update them. I'm part way through all time top 10s for the inbetweener divisions and have completed SBW. Reading this thread, I fear I've underrated Barrera. My rankings only factor bouts contested at SBW: 1. Gomez - 33-0-1 at the weight, 18-0 in title fights, all lineal, key wins include Zarate, Pintor, Yum, Cruz, Kobayashi, Davila, Meza, Perez, Cervantes and Rubaldino. 2. Morales - 31-0, including 10-0 in title fights, beat Barrera (debatable), Jones, McCulloch, Zaragoza and Acero-Sanchez. 3. Rigondeaux, 18-0, including 8-0 title fights and 6-0 lineal title fights. Donaire, Ramos, Agbeko and Cordoba. 4. Vasquez, 31-5, 9-2 in title fights, 6-1 in lineal title fights. Beat Marquez (2-1), Larios (2-1), Gonzalez, Julio and Hernandez. Losses in and around prime include Licona SD aged 21, Larios twice avenged and Marquez twice avenged. 5. Bungu, 37-2, 14-0 in title fights. Beat McKinney x 2 and Romeo Jnr. Only loss in or around prime was to Norwood. 6. Barrera, 22-3, 15-3 in title fights. Beat Mckinney, Jimenez, Croft and Benavidez. Lost to Jones x 2 and Morales. 7. McKinney 8. Zaragoza 9. Caballero 10. Larios If fights at SBW are the sole contributor and we respect the official decision in the Morales vs Barrera fight (I do, except in instances of clear robberies, which this wasn't, though I do factor in the closeness of the fight), then not only is Morales clearly above Barrera, imo, but Rigondeaux and Vasquez are too. I'll periodically get round to rating my rankings to include (currently) modern fighters. Will be interesting to see where Inoue falls then. He's only had 8 x contests at SBW, but all have been unified title fights. I don't think there's enough there currently to trouble Gomez or Morales, but he may already have enough to surpass Barrera. I'd need to perform my usefully analysis years after his last fight in the division to confidently place him. Of course, there may yet be SBW contests that lay ahead of him.
