Fifteen Greatest Featherweight Punchers

Following up on @McGrain's thread, I thought it'd be interesting to see this done at a different weight class. 126 has some amazing punchers so I stated typing them out so full of zeal but then I made it past the obvious and hit a wall. I'd love to your suggestions!

So far I've cobbled together:

- Danny Lopez
- Naseem Hamed
- Manny Pacquiao
- Alexis Arguello
- Sandy Saddler
- Henry Armstrong
- Azumah Nelson

 

Certainly given me a lot to think about. In fact, I can't believe I haven't even heard of Herrera or Murphy, especially given it was just this morning I was looking at Benny Yanger for my own list and decided to leave him off it. While Herrera's results on paper speak for themselves, why Murphy mate? I don't **** about ****, and only heard of him here, but a quick cursory look at his record didn't show me anything noteworthy - but then I don't really know much about that era either.

I agree, I was also gonna do Bantamweight next, but I found feather more interesting simply because I could come up with less names off the top of my head.

 

Persey Basset is an excellent shout btw, I don't think he'd have come into my mind in a hundred years.

 

Yeah, I was thinking about having McGovern top three. Think I'm settling on number four, but top three was my knee jerk reaction.

 

Not especially noteworthy as it's no slight on Saddler, but Bassett clearly solved the riddle of Charley Riley quicker, too.

 

Riley himself was a good little fighter from what I've seen. Teak tough, managed to give Saddler all kinds of trouble iirc.

 

Some honourable mentions to consider:

- Luisito Espinosa
- Marcos Villasana
- Paul Hodkinson
- Mauricio Lara
- Victor Callejas
- Alejandro Gonzalez

 

#01. Naseem Hamed
#02. Danny Lopez
#03. Sandy Saddler
#04. Terry McGovern
#05. Aurelio Herrera
#06. Alexis Arguello
#07. Henry Armstrong
#08. Manny Pacquiao
#09. Young Corbett II
#10. Azumah Nelson
#11. Luisito Espinosa
#12. Torpedo Billy Murphy
#13. Marcos Villasana
#14. Sugar Ramos
#15. Alejandro Gonzalez

I'm quite happy with the names in the top ten, not so happy with the order. After that, I don't really care too much, but I think the names are fine. Still pretty shakey on Murphy and Herrera, obviously, but definitely gonna look into them some more.

 

Yeah, any featherweight whose record looks like a heavyweight puncher must have a pretty good dig.

Maybe, I know there's a lot of people who thought he was, but I just don't really see it. I tend to think of him as a Tiger like guy, where he hits hard enough to get respect, but probably lacks the stuff to put guys away.

I don't think a guy like that is gonna be top fifteen. I wouldn't mind him being there, though.