Best bantamweight: 1990-2010

Canizales was good at bantamweight. Also wilfredo Vazquez was a champ at that weight athout short too.

 

It should have been Naseem Hamed after he won the European Bantam title, but he wasted a lot of time with the WBC International Super Bantam belt before his WBO Feather reign.

With is awesome power he would walked through the list of names on the thread

Shame

 

Erik Morales!! Hands down! Where are the rest? Barrera, Israel Vasquez, Guzman, etc?

 

I agree with your top choice. Canizales by a landslide for me. Absurdly underrated, one of the best Bantamweights of all time IMO.

 

Veeraphol deserves a big reevaluation. 4 wars with southpaw Nishioka - who went on to stop Genaro Garcia and Jhonny Gonzalez for WBC super bantam title. Barely lost the title, in another epic, vs Hasegawa, also in Japan. Longevity, accurate fast puncher, and could sustain a big pace for 12 rds, in hostile terrain, even when he was old.

 

Division of underrated and overlooked fighters. Of the above mentioned fighters, Hasegawa (whom I want to see in the US vs. one of the western elite names), can put some more quality names in the bag, he has a year and a half until 31 Dec 2010 if you count the decade like that. Sahaprom is still active, but he's going nowhere I'm afraid.

I wouldn't pick a name because I just don't know half of the guys enough to judge them properly. But BW had a bunch of great fighters and has some today too. It'll be interesting to see what they have to offer for the rest of the decade.

 

Those guys weren't bantamweights.

My pick is Canizales despite is competition not being great the guy was one hell of a fighter,Rafa,Tapia,and Austin would be next.

great thread :good

 

Definitely, Hasegawa is in a great position. Already had 2 BIG wins - war and then KO of Veeraphol. Hozumi definitely finished the brilliant Thai (one of the most naturally gifted fighters I've seen). That stoppage of Malinga was nice, as Vusi was considered a prospect. The next opponent looks very credible. An excellent, consistent fighter is Hasegawa.

One thing: ppl are saying Hasegawa will move up to featherweight & challenge Chris John. I hope not, but if he's strugglign with the weight-making...I'd like to see him in with a rival champ. Darchinyan could be a big fight. Or maybe Nishioka for the WBC belt at 122 (though they will probably both go in totally different directions, with their own career paths.

 

Nice thread. I enjoyed the read and thought it was a good list. Can't go wrong with the #1 spot either, like Sweet Pea says Canizales was absurdly under-rated.

 

orlando canizales. thank god for you tube.

 

:-( @ all the people voting for Marquez.


Its Canizales and its not even close.

Sahaprom is probably on par with Rafa at the moment...And Hasagawa may soon be.

 

Canizales was an excellent fighter.

He beat good fighters Seabrooks (twice), Bones Adams, Billy Hardy (twice), and some of these were terrific fights. His footwork and his offensive skills were great.

However - 2 narrow/controversials wins, v Hardy 1 & Reyes. Not many good challengers, if we're being honest, and a fair bit of padding. He also didn't dominate all his lesser foes - and lost to perhaps his 2 best opponents, up in weight, v Wilfredo Vazquez and Junior Jones. Canizales was coming on vs a tiring Wilfredo Vazquez, but started too slowly and lost in his own hometown. Jones was a former bantam champ, so it's not great for Canizales to lose to a fellow former champ from his best division.

Marquez fought guys that actually had big reputations - Tim Austin, Mark Johnson - at the time. Did Canizales?

Veeraphol fought away from home v fighters who went on to do something - 4 wars with Nishioka, who went on to win WBC 122 belt v Jhonny Gonzalez, and obviously the narrow loss in another great fight to Hasegawa. Which Canizales opponents went on to do something impressive?

I'm not trying to have a go at Canizales, just to point out some of the asterisks against his name.

 

Fair points rumour..but I feel Too sharp's little foray in bantamweight was ill conceived..It looked like a man vs a boy in there.

Austin was fairly overrated IMO...a good fighter, but not much more..Not the p4p candidate some thought he might be.
I sometimes feel American's that do well at the lighter weights are immediately put up on a pedestal because they are a rarity and they challenge the dominance of the mexicans and asians but thats for a another thread.

But to the point...the best bantamweight in that time period was Canizales without a doubt IMO..he looked clearly better then Marquez did I reckon. and would have beaten him 19 times out of 20.