Bert Sugar: “Pacquiao Greatest Asian Fighter of All Time”

Muay Thai legend Samart Payakaroon won the WBC Junior Featherweight title I believe

 

You have to take your own initiative to find out who these guys are.

The media is always searching for a new face and a star's fame is often here today,gone tomorrow.

 

I'm not a Pacquiao fan by any means and I know of a lot of those fighters. The only people who don't are casual fans like you who know nothing about the sport.

 

Actually,I haven't heard of most of them on Sweetpea's list.
I'll have to check them out.

 

Not to be a dick but Vargas is as American as it gets. Not only was he born and raised here in America but he fought on the goddam US Olympic team for chrissakes. I mean, what more do you want?

Now you may carry on with your theory.

 

rayhogan is an idiot with zero boxing knowledge


just thought i`d say that..... thats all, carry on

 

rayhogan is M.I.A.

:rofl

 

hope hayhogan reads.

I approved!:good

 

Right you are. He'd be another fine addition to the list. His victory over a shot Lupe Pintor is tainted, but it still showed his excellent technical and physical talents, as did the Meza schooling. The most skilled boxer of any of the Muay Thai cross-over fighters IMO, and that includes the Galaxy brothers.

When Fenech got to him Payakaroon was in nowhere near fighting shape, as he'd hardly trained out of overconfidence and was having severe troubles making the weight (he had to have his urine drained pre weigh in). As a result, Fenech gave him a terrible beating. I wouldn't have a problem favoring Fenech over any version of Samart, but that fight was indeed tainted in that aspect, IMO.

Overall, he just didn't have the discipline to maintain his boxing excellence as he did in his Muay Thai career, though he was a hell of a talent for a little while there.

 

Louie Espinosa needs to be mentioned.

Gerry Penalosa.

Andy Ganigan.

You can make your case for Rolando Navarette.

 

I wouldn't place Ganigan that highly, though you could definitely make the case for Navarette. He was another excellent Pinoy talent.

 

Ganigan.

Well, He surprised Arguello one time. Just cant get it done.

Still, the man makes quite a name.

 

Veeraphol Sahaprom doesn't get a mention? Techically, one of the best ever Asian fighters. 3 major Muay Thai titles, 180 Muay Thai fights; turns to boxing, wins WBA bantam belt in 4th pro fight, loses it in 5th, goes on a long winning streak - including a win over young Choi Tseveenpureev - batters world class Joichiro Tatsuyoshi twice for WBC title. Long WBC title run, 14 defences, batters some bums, but beats tough cookies Adan Vargas, Richard Barrajas. Has 4 tough fights with Toshiaki Nishioka - the current WBC super bantam champ - in Japan, earning 2 wins and 2 draws. Loses title at age 37 to Hozumi Hasegawa in an outright classic: Veeraphol clearly 2 or 3 rounds behind, has a massive last round - a great last stand for a fine champion. Knocked out badly in rematch - Hasegawa goes on to make 9 defenses and proves himself outstanding champ in his own right. Veeraphol had wonderful skills and was a hard little *******.

Hasegawa, in the last 3 WBC title defenses, has looked outstanding. I believe he will go on to be one of the best ever Asian fighters.

Masamori Tokuyama was also a brilliant super flyweight champion. He won about 10 title fights and all of his defenses were vs skilled world class fighters.

I think Khaosai Galaxy was better than Pac. Of course, Galaxy doesn't have the defining names that litter Pac's record. But he stayed at one weight and had an incredible run, & was an absolute monster, a dominant, commanding force in the ring. A force of natrure.

 

I agree on Chang, but I find Harada the greater fighter.

There are two things you ignore in your "only 2 divisional champ" claim:

1. The bantamweight that Harada beat was none other than Eder Jofre, who is the consensus best bantamweight of all-time and an arguable top 10 PvP fighter of all-time. And nobody else but Harada beat Jofre.

Think about that: How many fighters do you know who beat an undefeated, all-time best fighter at a higher weight?

The only comparable situation I find is Duran beating Leonard, except Leonard is probably the #2 all-time welterweight at best.

2. Harada's "loss" v. Famechon in their first fight may be the worst robbery I've seen in a professional match. Harada should've been a 3-weight champion in the days when that actually meant something.