The only one id disagree with you on is that he could beat is Pacquiao. I think pacquiao is a better fighter than Taylor, but Meldrick would beat Tzyzu or Hatton imo.
Ortiz only was champion for 6 months at 140, and his legacy there is built on wins over Loi and his fight with Locche, and Loi also has to depend on his fights with Ortiz for recognition at the weight. Pryor while one of the best h2h fighters ive ever seen is built on two wins over Arguello who was moving up in weight. I actually forgot about Cervantes, so I might give you that, id rank cervantes ahead of Taylor. Locche I have to rank on par with Taylor, his resume relies heavily on a win over Cervantes but I might give him the edge. Theres not much in it between him and taylor though. I forgot about Cervantes and Locche, so I would chancge my list as follows 1 Julio Cesar Chavez 2 Antonio cervantes 3 Kostya Tzyzu 4 Niccolino Locche 5 Meldrick Taylor
Taylor wouldn't rank among the top 10 at 140, much less top 2-3. Are you people joking? Barney Ross Jack Kid Berg Duilio Loi Tippy Larkin Eddie Perkins Carlos Hernandez Nicolino Locche Julio Cesar Chavez Antonio Cervantes Aaron Pryor Present the case for him outranking any of those guys.
Taylor's resume pales in comparison to every man listed, not to mention I'd have him losing to most, if not all of them in a head to head.
Taylors best wins at 140lbs are as fallows;Robin blake,a young Primo Ramos,A wieght drained Buddy McGirt,His two title defenses were against the very average John meekins and Courtney Hooper,before his epic defeat to the great JC Chavez.Thats it.As i said before,he's a very good exciting fighter,just not an alltime great.He reminded me of a poor mans, want to be, Sugar Ray Leonard,without the power and not nearly as good.I think he would go to war with Tszyu, but quite possibly get KOed.Tszyu would lower the boom on Taylors poor defense.I will agree though,he would give them all great fights,he was a warrior and willing to go out on his shield if neccesary.
Yeah I might have jumped the gun rating taylor so highly. I have to admit I forgot about some of these great 140 pounders like Ross, cervantes and Locche before El Buja and Green mentioned them. I still rate Taylor very highly and believe that he deserved the win over Taylor though.
Iron chinned warrior that I'll always be a fan of since he was my intro to watching boxing live but not high on the ATG list because his accomplishments never lived up to his very lofty talents.
The difference being that Meldrick had too much heart and Chin for his modest power and size disadvantages whereas Judah has everything BUT heart and a decent jaw.
Not to keep ripping into Taylor,but just off the top of my head,i came up with a couple more who would have defeated him:Oscar Delahoya would more than likely have done a Terry Norris type job on him,and i'm pretty sure Whiticker would have beat him as well.That being said,i still think he makes the 140lb,alltime,allstar team,McGirt,Hatton ,and Taylor would all be team mates,as well as the other 140lb standouts of the 140lb history.