Disagree mate. Pedroza and LaPorte were solid wins agreeably, but Taylor never really achieved anything in his career and was never considered a top contender. I think Frampton's resume of Molitor (faded), Quigg, Santa Cruz, Donaire (starting to fade - but has gone on and beat Burnett) slightly tops that. And the fact that it was over two weights.
Injury beat Burnett. Not donaire. Frampton achieved little to nothing at 126. The two weight argument doesn't hold up.
I'm not sure how you can describe a convincing win over a top 10 ATG (and possibly top 5) featherweight as merely "solid", while simultaneously bigging up wins over Molitor and Quigg. LaPorte was a beast, and would have a much flashier record if he hadn't been going toe to toe with ATGs - Sanchez, Pedroza, Gomez, Chavez to name a few. Taylor was a huge talent, one of the quickest fighters of the modern era, and came very close to dethroning Pedroza before McGuigan did. Without the US boycott, he may well have had the additional kudos of an Olympic gold. He was ultimately an underachiever, but the fact that McGuigan took his '0' by stoppage is very impressive. He was heavily hyped and highly thought of in the early 80s. McGuigan fought (and was successful) in a much tougher era. There is no way the likes of Kiko Martinez would be a factor in the mid 80s featherweight division.
Due to the plethora of world titles, it means much less these days compared to when McGuigan fought. Plenty of example of recent very poor World Champions these days - Charles Martin, Pudding Stiverne, Skippy Burns (Post Beltran), Bepe Di marco, Anthony Crolla, Tony Bellew, Rocky Fielding, Joey Parker, Charlie Edwards, Manuel Charr, Tyrone Zuege, Terry Flanagan, James Degale, Arfur Abrahum., Kell Brook, David Haye (Heavyweight), Jamie McDonnell. The list of pony 'World Champions' is endless and totally devalues the significance of single belt World Championship wins.
By comparison, the champions when McGuigan was an active featherweight were: Eusebio Pedroza Salvador Sanchez Juan LaPorte Wilfredo Gomez Azumah Nelson (the IBF 126 title was barely recognised at that point) Look at that list compared to the titlists at 122-126 during Frampton's era. The fact that McGuigan was able to beat two of the guys above, and win and defend a major title, shows that he was a quality fighter. His star burned out quickly, but he reached heights that Frampton never did.
Indeed. He was also badly mismanaged. The background to the Vegas fight was appalling. If he'd not gone through that he may have had years more as a top fighter.
I don't get the nasty attitude towards Barry by some posters. He seems to get a lot of vitriol for no good reason. I followed Barry from his amateur days and as a fan, (admittedly not knowing the guy personally )i always found him to come across as a very decent guy. Likeable friendly fair and sporting.....so what's not to like? I'm a big Carl fan but I have to say Carl has never made the slightest effort with his southern Irish fans. Whereas Barry put time into ALL his fans.
Both in achievement and head to head Barry is superior. I like Frampton a good skilled operator but he’s a level down of what McGuigan was.
Len, no disrespect intended, you must be the last man that cant see McGuigan for what he is, a horrible little spiteful man. Forget the fighter, look at the man. You have plenty to see with it, I honestly think your not good at reading people, I mean we had the bags off about Kellie Maloney ffs, again a non argument, plenty of info on him/her being horrible, actually on film
