A thread to ruminate on this collection of fighters: Fernando Montiel Nonito Donaire Anselmo Moreno Vic Darchinyan Joseph Agbeko Yonnhy Perez Abner Mares Plenty of matchups that materialised as well: Donaire-Montiel Moreno-Darchinyan Agbeko-Darchinyan Darchinyan-Perez Agbeko-Perez 1 and 2 Perez-Mares Mares-Darchinyan Mares-Agbeko 1 and 2 Mares-Moreno (at 122) A few questions: Who in your opinion was the best fighter? Did anyone actually prove themselves to be the best of this era? Put them in order from best to worst. Were any of them ‘great’ bantamweights? What were the best matches between them?
I really enjoyed this era you know. Obviously Hasegawa was the OG in terms of he was rated number 1 right up until his loss to Montiel in a marginal upset. Donaire blowing Montiel out of the water really set the standard for what a prime ATG level fighter looked like. It was a phenomenal performance and it was just a shame he outgrew the division so quickly. But for me he was head and shoulders above the rest at this time. Then we also had that tourney featuring Agbeko, Perez, Mares and Darchinyan. Going into that I was really high on Darch after what he'd done at SFLW, but Agbeko bullied him like a ginger step child. And the tourney was featuring the next best guys outside of Montiel, Donaire and Moreno so maybe we would start getting closer to a true BW champ since Pinango. And then it gets messy. Really messy. Agbeko loses to Perez in a very dubious decision where a headbutt was classed as a knockdown and Perez drew in his first defence with Mares. Agbeko then very clearly beat Perez in the rematch but Mares and Darchinyan had an extremely close fight where Darch proved he wasn't finished and Mares again failed to put himself above this class of opponent. So cautiously we now had two remaining guys in the BW tourney (Mares and Agbeko). We had Donaire who at this point had unified the WBO and WBC against Montiel. We had Moreno who wad the long standing WBA holder. And it somehow gets even messier. Donaire defends against Narvaez and then leaves the division, so 4 became 3. Mares beats Agbeko in a fight so controversial you can't really give him any credit whatsoever. And Moreno is smashing Parra to bits to stake his claim as the heir apparent. But then Mares and Agbeko rematch and Mares wins a clear decision, so now we have two guys at the top of the rankings left. Mares and Moreno. Good right? Wrong. Mares also leaves the division. Meaning the last man standing is the one who didn't unify nor take part in a tournament. And Moreno is left atop the pile and we all feel a bit meh. Crazily the fight which would have given a clear number 1 between Moreno and Mares then comes off, up at SBW. Down at BW Moreno keeps his title, then loses it on a cut, then is smashed to bits against Yamanaka, a man who ultimately loses in controversial fashion himself and whilst the division remains exciting, it absolutely has no clarity. So yeah, a good division, with good fights, but only Donaire came close to putting himself at the top. The rest just kinda fell into place due to other events around them.
Great write up, Luf. I remember the bantam tourney and didn’t get to watch the fights, just saw the results. You summed it up really well - something that was designed to bring a bit of clarity to the picture didn’t do that, and I think mainly because there wasn’t an outstanding fighter (with the exception of Donaire, who left the division) and Moreno wasn’t involved in the tourney either. It’s good that the last man standing in Mares got to fight Moreno on the end, albeit not at bantam. But the nature of his wins before that fight means he didn’t prove himself to be the outstanding fighter in the division.
@lufcrazy - how did you score the first fight between Agbeko and Perez? It was scored pretty wide for Perez but I thought it was very close, maybe even a draw. The commentators on the version I watched also had it really close.
Donaire solidified himself as a great fighter IMO, albeit not just from his work at 118. He definitely proved he was the best of them, but I'm always a little disappointed at the thought of Mares, Mijares, Agbeko, Perez and Moreno never fighting him. I'd have picked him to stop all Mares, Mijares, Agbeko and Perez. If he fought them all over a three year period, the first would likely be as one-sided as the first Darchinyan fight, and the last would be as unbelievable as the rematch. Moreno had a very real chance at an upset IMO.
Vic fought everyone listed except Montiel and lost to all except Perez. But, Vic also beat two big names who weren't listed in Arce and Mijares. Mijares also deserves praise if 115 counts. He unifed against Munoz and beat Sasakul and Arce. He was thought to be a pfp in the making but Vic pulled the rug on him. Mijares eventually came back and won another title though.
A fight that left a bad taste in my mouth, from that collection of fighters was Agbeko vs Mares 1. Mares landed about 100 lowblows, and was never penalized. And the ref even called a clear lowblow a knockdown, when he was right in front of the fighters. One of the worst corrupt refereeing jobs, you'll ever witness in your life. Sorry for my rant but as for your topic, I always liked Perez he was pretty entertaining.
