The top of the featherweight division is somewhat loaded: you have unbeaten Chris John, unbeaten Yuriorkis Gamboa, unbeaten Juan Manuel Lopez plus Elio Rojas and Cristobal Cruz as champions with Celestino Caballero, Rafael Marquez and Israel Vazquez all looking for a fight at 126. However, the new crop of featherweights are already on their way. Jorge Diaz, 22, 12-0, 8KOs - amateur standout who stopped Olympic Gold medallist Yan Barthelemy, fights unbeaten Alejandro Lopez on the March 20 Fox Espanol card Miguel Angel Garcia, 22, 19-0, 16KOs - brother of former champ Roberto Garcia, fights Eduardo Escobedo on the April 2 Fox Espanol card Juan Carlos Burgos, 22, 24-0, 17KOs - powerful Mexican contender, Nephew of former world champion Victor Burgos who suffered an unfortunate career-ending incident vs. Vic Darchinyan Matt Remillard, 23, 21-0, 12KOs, unbeaten American fighter, recently picked up the NABF FW belt on the Manfredo-Vanda card Luis Cruz, 24, 13-0, 10KOs, young, tall Puerto Rican prospect trained by Evangelista Cotto, won a minor title on the Vazquez Jr. - Sonsona undercard Luis Franco, 28, 4-0, 4KOs, oldest of the crew, former Cuban Olympian and youth world champion, recently turned pro, Jonathan Victor Barros, 26, 28-0, 16KOs, flashy Argentinean boxer, good reflexes, head movement, power, fight Yuriorkis Gamboa on March 27 in Germany, should be a very interesting fight Daud Cino Yordan, 22, 25-0, 19KOs, Indonesian prospect who gave Robert Guerrero hell before the fight was stopped and declared a no contest, will fight The Ring P4P-er Caballero for the absolute joke interim WBA FW belt What do you think of them?
Pretty good, Barros is being fed to Gamboa for a tune up for Gamboa/JuanMa so lets see how he does. 2 more to look for: Yoandris Salinas - Another recent Cuban defector, currently 3(1)-0. Lets see how he does. Nicholas Walters - Exciting Jamacian prospect, currently 13(10)-0, have not seen him yet but I hear that he's good. Won the vacant WBA Fedelatin Featherweight title by beating previously undefeated Carlos Manuel Reyes.
Half of those guys are nothing special, IMO (although I'll admit I don't know Franco). Especially Burgos and Remillard, who seem like regional level guys to me. Yordan and Garcia look pretty decent to me. Probably another regional level guy, but Patrick Hyland is another name to throw out there.
Respect if you've seen enough footage of all to properly judge them. We'll see I guess, some of them are very young so there's plenty of time to develop. What do you think of Diaz?
I probably haven't seen enough of him to judge properly one way or the other, but I saw him once and nothing stood out to me enough for me to remember him. It was on the Cotto-Clottey undercard, and he struggled a bit with a no-name after making a strong start. Looking back at Boxrec now, the opponent was someone who I've seen a few times since then and is better than his record indicates, but still. Missed his fight before the Lopez / Gamboa card because I was stuck at work. Other than Remillard, Burgos and Garcia, I haven't seen more than a fight or two for any of them.