now that mayweather and pacquaio have cleaned up the welter division (apart from each other) and made all the top guys look second rate is the featherweight division the best in boxing right now. theres some potentially big fights between the likes of Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Rafa Marquez, Israel Vasquez, Youki Gamboa, Chris John and Elio Rojas plus the B fighters arent too bad either in Ponce De Leon, Rocky Juarez, Bernabe Conception, Steve Luevano and Cristobal Cruz. plus the possibility of fighters moving up such as Poonsawat, Munroe, Vasquez Jnr, Nishioka make this a top division now
I'm not sure if the featherweight division is the best division at this point. Sure, Floyd and Manny have cleaned out the division as you say, but they are also future HOF's easily. So is Shane Mosley. Add in the possibility of guys like Devon Alexander, Timmy Bradley, (Amir Khan:nut), and Nate Campbell moving up as well as Andre Berto already there, and you still have a very potent division. That being said, I, being a Gamboa fan, would love to think that the featherweight division is the best. There are many good fights being made at this point and I can't see any reason why there wouldn't be many more to come. Gamboa, Lopez, and Rojas (Vazquez and Marquez are slowing down) will all make for a great future. Caballero and John are also on the senior side but they will also be very interesting to watch. I have a feeling in a year or so, the featherweight division will definitely be one of the best, if not the best.
I agree Marquez and Vasquez are slowing down but it would still be interesting to see them take on gamboa, rojas, caballero etc at this stage. plus its a b ig scalp that could make the younger guys more marketable
It is up there, definitly. I think 140lbs is the deepest, then 118lbs as Montiel has thrown it wide open. 168lbs is has a good top level but IMO lacks depth compared to these 2.
It has the greates stregnth in depth out of any of the divisions. I know people are most interested by the top tier fighters when measuring a divisions quality but there are a lot of decent experienced contenders in the division and a lot of prospects coming through to. Some of the names of the top of my head. Bernabe Concepcion Daniel Ponce de Leon Antonio Escalante Orlando Salido Fernando Beltran Jr Jhonny Gonzalez Miguel Angel Garcia Martin Lindsay Billy Dib Eduardo Escobedo Martin Lindsay Oleg Yefimovych Alberto Garza Juan Carlos Burgos Joksan Hernandez Cornelius Lock Rey Bautista Matt Remilard Jutin Savi Daud Cino Yordan Eduardo Lazcano Miguel Roman Ricardo Castillo Thats a lot of very decent fighters there and with a list like that you could make a number of very decent matchups, hopefully ESPN make some decent matchups.
no matter how deep or how many talented fighters are in a division if they dont fight eachother is still a boring division :hat
