Winky Wright is better and should be ranked higher than other 'names' from this era

Calm down. Mosley is universally viewed as a big, strong welterweight. He's not looked at as a small welterweight like Judah or Hatton, nor is he perceived to be a lower weight fighter who shouldn't really be at welter like Pacquiao or Marquez. Hell, Shane outmuscled the beast that was Margarito at ww and outfought a prime Oscar at ww. His credentials as a long-time bona fide welter are solid and indisputable, irrespective of where he started out. He was a bit small to be highly effective at light-middle, but size was not a huge issue in the Mosley-Wright fights. Mosley was not greatly undersized.

 

Size wasn't a big issue for Mosley at lmw. He was, as I've clearly acknowledged, not a big lmw. He was smaller than Wright for sure. But Mosley wasn't too small to function effectively at lmw in the same way as Oscar was too small to function effectively at mw or Hatton was too small to function effectively at ww. Shane had a close fight with Oscar at lmw, and was awarded the decision. So he wasn't a fish out of water there. Wright-Mosley is not one of those wins that can be written off or lowballed due to a size disparity. IMO.

And I completely refute that size was an issue for Mosley-Forrest. That's crazy talk. They were both established welters at the time, and fought at welterweight, and both made the weight. Thus, we can't take size as being an issue in that fight.

 

:good

I strongly believe Winky would have won a solid UD against Oscar. Considering how Oscar ran out of ideas and steam once he realized he wasn't hitting Mayweather cleanly, I don't envisage how he could've fared better against a guy just as hard to tag, but who was bigger, stronger, busier, more aggressive, and had a much better jab. I wish it had happened, as they are the two guys from that era and those weight classes who didn't meet. The rest all fought each other (Tito,Mosley,Oscar,Hopkins).

 

By 04, Hopkins was on the decline (clearly evident vs Oscar), and Floyd's loss to Castillo was receding into the distance. I'd say Floyd was the top dog in this time period, with Winky 2nd.

 

If you categorize guys by how good they looked in their top 3 performances, and throw the quality of the opponent into the mix, Winky would rate very highly. Those three displays are just superb.