Skills wise, yes. He looks like wizardry on film. But his career, as good as a lot of the wins are, is a little short. I can't think of any fighter with only 20 ish fights being ATG.
Honest question. Should someone be considered an ATG based on potential alone? H2H, Loma is a force in any era, but mythical victories, in my opinion, should not count. Awesome fighter, as talented as anyone that has stepped into the ring, but his professional accomplishments fall short. First ballet HOF'er.
yes, you only have to look at his stats & the amount of records he holds.. sometimes Fighters come alone that change the game just like Mike Tyson.. Loma is another.. no one saw **** like that before... who cares if they lost ... fact is they were generational.. if Loma had of turned pro 4 years earlier we would be talking about him now in the same breath as the likes of Mayweather and Pacquiao, but in terms of resume he's not in that League but at his best yes he could compete with anyone imo and that is the mark of an all-time great.. injuries have plagued his career which set it back somewhat too i may add
His 20 fights don't really matter when they form the following. 3 division world champion in 12 fights. Something like all bar 2 of his fights have been world title fights.
Compare FM and Pac's accomplishment to Loma's. Loma falls short by a long way. Is Loma as skilled, yes. But, He hasn't ruled a division for a long period of time, hasn't amassed double digit defenses of a title. His level of opposition is good only because he challenged himself from the start. But if he started fighting 4 years earlier and fought the same level of opposition in his last 16 fights, with 2 losses, I don't think he would be considered an ATG. And yes, bad management and injuries took their toll, but all fighters face the same challenges. The real ATG's get past those issues and prevail. Saying if this or that didn't happen he would have done this or that is irrelevant. What has he accomplished as a pro and how does that stack up to other ATG's?
No. He's a HOF'er, but not an ATG. He was ATG potential though, but he has some misses he shouldn't have. If you take away excuses and look at him holistically, he simply isn't.
I can agree with both of your guy's posts, Would Like to see Loma come back & continue on & see what he ends up doing to determine his position.