How good could Ricardo Lopez have been?

Yes, he was freakishly big and powerful at straw, not as much as the likes of Panama Brown or Jibaro Perez at Bantam, but still huge.

Cheated himself by not fighting at least at light-fly i'd say.in a way he's similar to McCallum staying at 154 for so long, where he was huge and the legacy defining fight was at 160.

I don't have much trouble imagining him in with fighters who fought as full Flyweights, as he easily had the size for them, though 115 matchups are too hard to consider without seeing him fight there imo.

A long championship run between light-fly and fly, with impressive wins over those you mentioned would comfortably see him in the class of the best Flyweights of the previous decades like Chang, canto, harada, Ebihara etc.

Especially if he was able to retain the same longevity and not lose until at least 115, then he would almost certainly be above most of them.Of course fighting tougher opp may have produced harder fights that shorten prime and/or losses.

He could also have opted to leap divisions quicker, while fighting the best at each weight like Harada.That would also have saw him rated higher than he is, assuming he was successful.

This is all using hindsight though.Moving up to light-fly quickly to force fights with Carbajal and Gonzales is the key and a reasonable expectation however.

 

How good could he have been? He is already one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. He never lost pro or amateur and had 21 defenses of his Strawweight title. Not too shabby.

 

LOPEZ TOP 40 ATG:yep

GET BACK TO THIS THREAD LATER READY TO WATCH COTTO STOP FOREMAN IN 11

FOREMAN WILL BE COMPETETIVE EARLY BUT COTTO TAKES OVER AND SHOWS HIS CLASS.

 

Some guys do manage to hold their weight their whole career and work at it to keep the weight low. And this guy had a great run and retired at an old age. In those lighter divisions, most guys are washed up at 25. so in the latter part of his career, Lopez was constantly giving up a big advantage in that department. How many other fighters really do beat youth time and time again in their title defenses?

 

I'm really only here to see you and anarci go back and forth but that hasn't really gotten going yet.

 

the 1990s was a solid era for little fighters, he could have had real tests against humberto, carbajal and yuri arbachkov.

 

Few other older champions were fighting the level of opposition he was though.His longevity WAS top-notch though, don't get me wrong, but it may not have been quite so much had he been taking on competent challengers consistently.Youth only counts for so much if you can't fight well in the first place.

Look at the competition someone like an older McCallum was fighting at 160 and how it took it out of him in a relatively short period of time, then you see the kind of guys lopez went up against are the types an old cagey fighter loves to face, alvarez aside.

 

Obviously a great technician, but I dont think he was physically strong enough to move up. His fights with Rosendo Alvarez showed his shortcomings against stronger physical guys. He was a great straw, but Im not sure he has the same success moving up. Alvarez wasnt great in anyway yet his size alone gave Lopez all kinds of problems.

Nice call Anarci. Foreman fought like a nervous nelly. Cotto fought a good fight under Steward, I mentioned his boxing skills were underated and it was good to see him get back to boxing a little more. I still think he gets hit a lot, so it will be interesting as they move up the comp to see if he can follow Mannys instructions.

 

The fly in the ointment is the lower the weights, the quicker the decline. You just never did see 32 year old champs facing 22 year old undefeated up and comers at those lighter weights and continue winning. Just look at how long middles can compete. Then compare that to say junior lightweights. Or bantamweight vs. welterweight. different ballgame and big disparity in age. The lighter weights see deterioration of reflexes at a much younger age. And once those reflexes and legs go at those lighter weights, the career goes downhill rapidly.

It's the higher weights guys have long careers in. And you still don't see them facing youth all that frequently.

Lots of guys did like a McCallum at 160. Actually, in that guy's case I never did like his effectiveness at that weight compared to junior middle. the ko % sure dropped a ton.

 

I'm still waiting. Maybe I'm not as good at predicting certain matters of thread activity as I had grown to believe. :bart

 

Alvarez was a lot stronger than Lopez, that was my point and he pushed Lopez around. He was more suited to move up in weight.