Oh i agree Wright at his best beats Norris, Norris at times had some difficulty vs Simon Brown's jab. he even dropped Norris with a jab if i remember rightly, can you imagine Wright's pin point accurate right jab keep hitting Norris ? I think out of the top 5 listed Hearns and McCallum would be worst match ups for Wright, Wright would struggle to get his jab working vs Hearns, and wouldn't be able to counter him with his right jab, as Hearns would just be keeping it at distance and Wright would have to be the aggressor. And lets be honest Wright isn't aggressive enough to get Hearns out of his rhythm. And McCallum would find openings to the body. Remember Michael Watson had a high guard defence, and McCallum picked him apart to the body. Ok Watson's defence isn't quite as good as Wright's but you get my point.
Julio Cesar Vazquez would beat Winky every day, every hour, every year that he drew breath. Had him completely figured out. No amount of makeup makes that sow a beauty queen when it comes to a destroyer like Vazquez.
The Wright/Vasquez debate is parallel with the Norris/Jackson debate in a way that the former lost to the latter but had the more impressive work at the weight overall. As mentioned, Wright was young and hadn’t developed into the fighter he would later become whereas I think Jackson would likely have been able to repeat the trick on an older Norris and yet I still have no problem rating Norris above Jackson at the weight as he has the better overall body of work there.
My list: 1. Thomas Hearns 2. Mike McCallum 3. Terry Norris 4. Winky Wright 5. Julio Cesar Vasquez Just outside: Julian Jackson Wilfred Benitez Numbers 1 and 2 are a level above the rest. I rate Hearns at number 1 as he had huge wins over a still dangerous Benitez and that legendary KO of Duran (which should have been for the undisputed title) and he was one of the two best fighters in the world at any weight at his peak in 1984. The only knock on Hearns and why I could see an argument for McCallum over him is that Hearns was really a part-time junior middleweight after 1984. He was fighting at middleweight in ‘85 and ‘86 and was clearly weight drained for his final defense against Mark Medal whereas McCallum held the title from 1984 to 87 and went unbeaten in all his fights during that period and was at his best by the end of his reign. The Norris, Wright, Vasquez order is highly debatable but I gave Terrible Terry the edge as he had the best overall body of work at 154. He was really at his best in his first reign and peaked in 1992 when he was considered to be one of the three best fighters in the world (the other two being a still-unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez and Pernell Whitaker), something I don’t think Wright or Vasquez could lay a valid claim to. Norris certainly had his low moments (the pre-title Jackson KO, the first Brown fight and the Santana debacles) but he was by and large the number one fighter in his weight class for nearly a decade and partially unified the title in 1995 while Vasquez was losing to Pernell Whitaker. Vasquez of course beat Wright but Wright developed into a better fighter than the version that lost to Vasquez over his long stay at junior middleweight (whether Vasquez would have beaten a more experienced version of Wright is a moot point in terms of my list) and Wright also ended his reign as undisputed champion, which he deserves credit for. Vasquez crept in at the end and edged out Jackson and Benitez by overall body of work at the weight. Benitez’s win over Duran might trump Jackson’s win over Norris which might trump Vasquez’s win over Wright so I can see those three in any order, really, depending on what you value most - signature wins or overall body of work.
Norris had 9 consecutive defenses to Vasquez’s 10 in his first reign so quite comparable plus he had 6 consecutive in his third reign so overall he had more defenses if we’re looking at pure numbers. I’m not convinced Norris was ducking Vasquez. Norris had already reigned for the better part of three years by the time Vasquez won the WBA title so 1993 was the only likely time they could have fought as Norris would lose the title at the end of that year, regain it and lose it again in 1994 and then regain it again in 1995 when Vasquez had already lost to Whitaker.
I completely disagree and I was a pretty big fan of Vazquez. Winky developed into a fighter that had a hell of a run beating all types of fighters.
Not sure how anyone can stretch Tito’s win over Reid, Vargas, and Thiam to outshine Mayweather’s wins over Canelo, Oscar, and Miguel Cotto. It’s complete nonsense to do that. Mayweather’s 3-0 can put him arguably over many of the 154 guys. Canelo should also be in any top 5 conversation at 154. Def ahead of Benitez.
