Forgotten great lightweights

Even casual boxing fans remember Edwin Viruet. He beat Escalera, drew with Mamby, decisioned Vilomar Fernandez, and was the only boxer to last the distance with a peak Duran twice. He was the first to last through 15 rounds with Duran. The other ones were SRL, Benitez, and Hagler, pretty heady company.

Nobody ever crawled underneath Duran's skin like the Viruet brothers. Anybody remember what happened in the ring after Roberto's ten rounder with Ed's kid brother Adolfo, as they were waiting for the decision? (For those of you who missed it, Duran walked right up to Edwin, and punched him in the mouth!) If the two of them are ever scheduled to be in the same room on IBHOF induction weekend, sell me a ticket!

Vilomar Fernandez and Esteban DeJesus also come to mind. Duran is single handedly responsible for the fact that DeJesus is not yet a boxing HOFer.

Kenny Lane was a solid performer for a long time.

 

Abusing the G word again! Angott was excellent but no great, the only great fighters who fought more than one or two fights as a pro at 135lbs are Armstrong, Duran, Carpentier, Chavez, Leonard, de la Hoya, Whitaker, Arguello and Gans IMO.

And if these fighters are anything other than household names in your household, then you are on the wrong forum...

 

Same as, but we are not normal, we are fanatics

 

So, Ike Williams, Carlos Ortiz, Ismael Laguna and Ken Buchanan don't qualify for your standard of greatness? (Hell, maybe you should be running the IBHOF! What does a boxer have to do to meet your definition of great anyways?)

 

I just think of the 'Great' as very, very special and only have 35 fighters as Great IMO. All the fighters you named are superb, some may think of them as great. I would like to think although virtually all may disagree with my 35, no one has more than 40-50 fighters who they consider great, that way you keep the word Great fanatically special.

 

Of course:good

 

Would your 35 be the only ones you consider suitable HOF material, and do you have an objective criteria for differentiating the truly great from those you consider suberb? (I assume you've previously posted your list of 35 elsewhere, but if you'd care to share it again, I'd be curious to know who and why.)

 

I fully accept now there is a difference between being famous and being great. I will share my 35 fighters who I consider great; and as I respect your knowledge ,I hope you disagree with some, I only hope the fighters you consider great total no more than 50...

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Ross is great. He should be over roy Jones Jr pretty easy imo. Carp is WAY 2 high.

I belive any one can be great, You dont need to limet it to 35. Marciano is great, as is Dempsey. Even John L Sullivan is great.

 

Fair enough with your calls, but IMO to keep the word speical you do need to limit the amount of fighters you consider great.

 

Jones is good but not GREAT. imo.