Better fighter: Roberto Duran (135) or Wilfredo Gomez (122)

I've been giving serious praise to Gomez lately but, come on... lightweight Duran is arguably the best fighter in the history of the sport. Gomez has no claim to THAT high a status.

 

Duran was much better. Gomez was a terror at 122 though but would he have beaten the 118 versions of Jofre and Olivares? I tend to think not.

 

He was a little wild early on in Yum fight, just because he was young and eager to win the title. But once he settled down, he put on a clinic and Yum couldn't touch him.

Another brilliant Gomez performance was the first fight with Juan Antonio Lopez. Such an impeccable display of controlling the distance, and controlled aggression. He did Lopez from every angle, with every punch, and didn't get touched in return.

 

Jofre, no.

I think Gomez stops Olivares.

 

Bazooka a terrific talent like Khaosai Galaxy who was perfected suited to a Junior or Super Division. Too big for one division and too small for another. Would have been interesting if both had been competed in a era with only 8 divisions.

 

Gomez is great no doubt, but he is so overrated on this forum. He is the Ali and SRR lite on this message board.

 

Meldrick Taylor was another guy who fit into that category. Too big for 135, but too small for 147.

 

I think Gomez is talented enough that he’d have adapted his game early enough. He’d have been rising learning against 126 guys.

 

Gomez would not even be remembered today if that were the case (not meant as a knock as there are several others in the *******ized divisions). I don’t see him being able to cut down to 118 and he was not built to be a top notch FW. He was perfect for his division, but I don’t believe he would have excelled apart from it. Duran on the other hand showed he could be top notch if not elite from WW to MW

 

Duran by a mile.

 

Let's be clear, Gomez got knocked off by one of the top 5 all time great featherweights. So it depends on what era he's in.

Today, he'd probably be considered P4P #1... it's not like Santa Cruz, Frampton, and Warrington have any shot in Hell against Gomez.

 

Weird I thought he got knocked out by 2 great FW’s. To me he is great but apart from that division he was not going to be great at FW. I don’t even mean that as a knock Hagler and Monzon made legacies by owning a division, but I don’t see them excelling above that. Gomez is great, but I don’t see him becoming a great and/or as great apart from 122.

 

He was already over the hill by the time he’d fought Nelson. The fast living and the hard fights had caught up to him. He had no legs by then.

 

He was agreeably in the tail end of his career but he had just beaten Laporte for a FW strap. He was not going to beat the Nelsons and Sanchez’s of the world IMO at anytime. He is Jaun Laporte level good at FW. Again I don’t mean it as a knock, he ruled the division at SBW...I just don’t see him becoming great at FW at anytime

 

I guess some fighters are just made for a particular weight division and for Gomez, his best weight was between two of the original 8 divisions. Duran's best weight was one of those original 8 so he can be compared with all those greats from the past - Gans, Leonard, Ross, Armstrong, etc.

For Gomez, there was no-one and then there was him. Every top fighter since who has spent time at jnr featherweight has been compared to him and none of them have come close.

Duran makes almost everybody's top 5 lightweights, most people's top 3 and is still plenty of people's no. 1. Gomez is the automatic choice as no. 1 at jnr feather but that can't really compare historically so it's probably a bit harsh on Bazooka to compare him to Duran in the first place.