Lads this is impossible - as much as we enjoy doing it we can't compare fighters from different eras. Although Harrison is still an active fighter I personally almost consider him from a different era, his best results were some EIGHT years ago - now that if a fact. AT THE TIME that Burns beat Martinez he was widely considered to be the best in the division - "Ring No.1 at SF". BEFORE Burns last 4 performances I would have said "forget it" to a Burns vs Harrison match but AFTER his last 4 performances I'd really quite fancy it. I think Burns might have some glory & titles in him yet. I personally don't think there's any titles left in Harrison. He was an amazingly exciting boxer in his day but TODAY he's yesterday's man.
Do you not think McCullough put weight on after the weigh in? McCullough fought Naz at Featherweights 4.5 years before fighting Scott, and went the distance with him a lot easier than he did with Scott. (he said that).
Ring Magazine Featherweight Rankings 2003 Manny Pacquiao, Champion 1. Juan Manuel Marquez 2. Marco Antonio Barrera 3. Scott Harrison 4. Manuel Medina 5. Johnny Tapia 6. Derrick Gainer 7. In-Jin Chi 8. Michael Brodie 9. William Abelyan 10. Rocky Juarez This was the class of Scotts division, Rocky Martinez would have struggled to be a top 10 fighter in that division at that time. Scott beat 3 of the top 10, Marquez was his mandatory, signed to fight Scott, then pulled out as he thought Scott would vacate and never fancied it. He also beat a great champion in Chacon to win title. There is 4/5 guys in this list that will be hall of famers, and Scott would have added to that if he never had his life outside the ring. This is how comparing Scott and Rickys achievements is insulting to a guy who was a great fighter, and achieved all this before he was 29 years of age
You're oblivious to the truth if you think Rock Martinez was a better win than Wayne McCullough. McCullough beat a top level opponent in Japan for the title who was one of the better titlists in a stacked division. He competed at elite level against Daniel Zaragoza, Erik Morales and performed brilliantly in both occasions. McCullough pushed Naz hard who was top level. McCullough beat the undefeated,world class and highly touted Johnny Bredhal. After Scott Harrison beat him he had two wars with Oscar Larios who was world class. Larios went onto fight and go the distance with Manny Pacquiao in his next fight. McCullough was a great fighter a real warrior who was very underrated. Scott gave him so bad a beating he was in the Southern General for over a week.
With all due respect pal of course you can compare the resumes of fighters - it's a forum after all, that's the fun of it. I agree Martinez was good win for Burns, but all this nonsense about him being P4P and no.1 in ring magazine is bull shine. Ring magazine ratings are bollocks they had Adrien Broner in the top 5 and looked how that turned out. Martinez was and is a good fighter, but he never proved he was no.1 in the division and arguably Mzonke Fana could have been ahead of him in the rankings as he had fought and beating better opponents than Martinez at the time.
Abelyan better than Jose Gonzalez? Don't be moronic. I blatantly concede your first point about Harrison's excellent domestic wins being better than Evensen and Laryea. Cook is better than Mullings/Wenton/Thornhill, but obviously he should not even have been in the ring when he fought Burns due to his back. I think McCullough is fantastic, one of my favourite fighters. But he achieved very little (never even came close to beating anyone worthwhile) at 126 and it's highly presumptuous to assume he was better than any of Burns' wins at the weight based on the fact he is a name. You have absolutely no basis for it, so that's clearly all you're doing. Brodie was DONE by the time he fought Harrison, the wars with Chi destroyed him. None of what I've written is conjecture either: This content is protected His decision to retire despite the fact he was not affluent and still had the opportunity to be in fights at a decent level (in name) tell you all you need to know. I know it, you know it, and the fact you had the gall to actually mention him either shows that: a) You are a troll. Or b) You are a ******. At this point I'll go with a), but that's open to question. Katsidis and Moses are better wins than the Brodie/McCullough wins. That should not be open to debate. Harrison caught Medina and Chacon on the downward slope, based on their form before and after their Harrison fight. but for the hell of it, let's just pretend they were better wins than the Roman Gonzalez one.
WBC champ: Johnny Gonzalez WBA champ: This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
I want to argue with this, but can't. Gonzalez, whilst better than Abelyan (and around the same level as Juarez, maybe slightly better) would have struggled to be in the top 10 in the division. Rankings are always misleading though, you have fighters clearly on the way out who are probably not one of the 10 best at that moment in time (Tapia), and fighters on the way up who probably are in that category. Also Chi, Gainer, Tapia and possibly Juarez were better fighters than Harrison ever was. In 2003 so was Brodie.
ryan, Wayne was in hospital for 2 days purely as a precaution mate FACT! Scott had at least 18 lbs on Wayne entering the ring that night and took a bad beating, Wayne had no right fighting as a feather, he was a cracking banyan/super bantam During that fight his a major member of his team was asked to stop the fight because of the one sidedness of the fight but they said no.
Chelo Gonzalez looked a top fighter, but who did he beat before he fought Ricky Burns because I know he hasn't fought since? The only recognizable name I see is Joseph Laryea who Burns himself stopped in 7 rounds. William Abelyan beat Orlando Salido and Guty Espadas jnr. He beat him in between Espadas's two fight with Erik Morales. After he lost to Harrison Abelyan went onto to beat a tough Mexican Martin Honorio who was a top contender at the time, so how could you say Gonzalez was better than Abelyan or even Rocky Juarez when he hasn't proved it. There's no basis for that. Ok Brodie had two tough fights with InJin Chi, but him and his manager said they were 100% fit before his fight with Scott and they were super confident they were going to beat him and that's what we have to go by. This is just sour grapes from the Brodie camp. Yes Brodie was finished but only after Harrison took his ribs home and ate them for dinner. I was there and saw it he had cabbage and potatoes with them.
I was talking about Roman Gonzalez. I agree that Chelo, while he looked good hasn't proven anything. I think he's better than Abelyan was but is yet to conclusively prove it. Abelyan's win against Salido (in a 6 rounder) was too early in Salido's career to prove anything. Fighters say things all the time: They always claim to be 100% when it's clear they aren't - Sergio Martinez being the most recent example. Brodie did seem bitter in that interview. But despite the tone, there's no reason to disbelieve anything he said in the interview other than being able to beat Harrison in 4 rounds in his prime. He had nothing left physically, as evidenced by his comeback 4 years later.
Billy you know you cant win fights just by your weight and people that think that are often mistaking. You know the saying "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog". Yes Scott was the bigger man, but he was also the better man and you can't take the shine off his victory for that seen as McCullough went up and had a war with Oscar Larios in his next fight. Larios was an excellent fighter and did you not see his fight with McCullough? It wasn't as one sided as Harrison's performance. And Larios went onto give Pacquiao a good go for 12 rounds after McCullough.
That's quite a list Moog, but the division was more wider than that when you take into account the guys who were around the top 10/20 at the time. Here's some of these names: Juan Guzman Chris John Robert Guerrero Victor Polo Steve Luevano Orlando Salido Gairy St Clair Nedal Hussein Martin Honorio Walter Estrada A lot of people don't understand how wide the divison was back then because most of these guys became or were world champions and won multiple world titles at different weights and some are still around to this day. Absolutely stacked! You don't get divisions like that these days :deal
