List went to press mid 1989. 1. Sugar Ray Leonard 2, Thomas Hearns 3. Donald Curry 4. Marlon Starling 5. Milton McCrory 6. Lloyd Honeyghan 7. Simon Brown 8. Roberto Duran 9. Mark Breland 10. Colin Jones 11. Tommy Ayers 12. Roger Stafford
Looks good at a glance. 9-12 and perhaps the exact slots of the top guys might be debatable. But this looks like one of the easier ones
The "move-up" Duran took out Carlos Palomino & SRL, before failing in his first defense at WW. Too bad he didn't take his WW championship serious enough and engage in fights with Hearns, Curry, and SRL3 down at WW.
He's got 1-1 with Ray in the decade and a win over Nsubuga. I reckon if the Palomino fight was 80's he'd be #5 at worst.
That mightn't be far off the mark but Breland didn't beat Honeyghan until early 1990 either. It'd be a no brainer with that bout inside the 80's. Of course Breland is helped by the Davis loss being in 1990 too.
I don't know. Honeyghan beating Curry and to me being a much better professional than Breland all around. When Mark beat Lloyd, Lloyd was washed up after the Starling fight.
This is more like it! Terrific bunch of fighters in here. Top 3 picks itself and the order is spot on. After that, it gets tougher. Duran has the biggest win of the era along with Leonard's win over Hearns. That win alone could theoretically put him in the top 3 or 4, but then No Mas blows that - 11 months also doesn't seem long enough. I think 8 is about right.
