Best Fighters of The 80's

Fantastic list really. Leonard, Chavez, Tyson (late start but oh so dominant) and Spinks (for some reason always in the bottom 5 or even 2 or 3!) beautifully placed. Personally i'd have Holmes around 4 or 5, Chandler, a fighter i like a lot, just out of the 10, Arguello might just sneak in, and Nelson might get there too but who do you leave out! I like Fenech getting his due too. People like Pedroza, Chandler, Duran, Fenech, Nelson, Arguello, Chandler, Pryor, Gomez and Myung-Woo Yuh make the bottom places terribly congested for picking.

Great list, and welcome back.

 

Junior Fly...Jung-Koo Chang, Hilario Zapata

Flyweight...Hilario Zapata, Santos Laciar, Sot Chitalada, Fidel Bassa

Super Fly...Rafael Orono, Jiro Watanabe, Khaosai Ghalaxy, Gilberto Roman, Santos Laciar, Nana Konadu

bantamweight...Jeff Chandler, Miguel Lora, Lupe Pintor, Jibaro Perez, Alberto Davila, Jeff Fenech, Canizales brothers

Super Bantam....Wilfredo Gomez, Jeff Fenech

Featherweight...Sal Sanchez, Azumah Nelson, Eusebio Pedroza, Ruben Castillo, Rocky Lockridge, Barry McGuigan, Antonio Esparragoza

Junior Lightweight.....Limon, Chacon, Boza Edwards, Rolando Navarette, Chung-il Choi, Hector Camacho, Azumah Nelson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Brian Mitchell

Lightweight... Arguello, Camacho, Jose Luis Ramirez, JC-Chavez, Ray Mancini, Livingstone Bramble, Edwin Rosario

Junior Welter...Saoul Mamby, Roger Mayweather, Aaron Pryor, Alexis Arguello

Welterweight...Duran, Leonard, Hearns, McCrory, Curry, Starling, Honeyghan, Simon Brown, Mark Breland

Junior Middleweight...Maurice Hope, Wilfred Benitez, Hearns, Gianfranco Rosi, Ayub Kalule, Ray Leonard, Davey Moore, Duran, Mike McCallum, Julian Jackson, John Mugabi

Middleweight....Marvin Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Barkley, Duran, Minter, Sibson, hamsho, Herol Graham, Sumbu Kalambay, Mike McCallum, Michael Nunn, Nigel Benn

Super Middleweight...Chong-Pal Park, Lindell Holmes, Hearns, Leonard, OBelmeijas....not much depth here at all really

Light Heavyweight....Saad, Qawi, Michael Spinks, Eddie Davis, Dennis Andries, Jeff Harding, Eddie Gregory, Marvin Johnson, Virgil Hill, Prince Charles Williams

Cruiser...Carlos Deleon, Qawi, Evander Holyfield

Heavy..Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson...then Mike Spinks and all the WBC and WBA paper champions.

 

Sal do you count 1980 as the 80's? I did and then we have Arguello over Castillo, Navarette and Boza as well. We also then have Duran's (like Arguello, peak and loads of resume in the 70's) win over Leonard, tho i think his many losses and inconsistencies in the 80's make him hard to place, whether in the bottom 3 or outside.

Pintor too is in the 15, forgot him earlier.

 

Fenech and Chandler.

 

I'm no good at top ten lists.

That said, i'd say you got most of the main contenders in your own.The only one i would really disagree with is Chandler, who i don't think proved nearly enough in comparison to the other bantam champions of the era,that also had similar careers.Fenech possibly as well.

I would put Chang in there instead.He was very much the best little man of the decade, despite never fighting at Fly during his prime.At one point he had defeated every one of the reigning Flyweight champions anyway.

 

Excellent stuff throughout the list until the one glaring omission here.

 

I knew i would have missed a few.

Whitaker i am guessing.He belongs of course.I tend to end up remembering him strictly as a nineties fighter, which of course was not the case.

 

Fair enough, but he must be damn close!!!!

I'd seriously consider him myself, he did beat your number 1 after all, as well as picking up titles in three divisions. 7 losses in the 80's, with wins over Leonard, Moore and Barkley. I agree tho, misses the 10 for me, but very narrowly. One of the single greatest wins of the 80's keeps him close.

 

Very good list.

 

Azumah Nelson could possibly make the top ten he had a lot od good wins in the 80's he went 32-1 which is a good record.