Fought most of the "Top 15" Welters of the late 70's, early 80's. Beat Palomino as an amateur, and tangled with Cuevas, Leonard, Benetiz and McCrory in losing efforts. Drew with, and beat Randy Shields. Always came well prepared ....and gave it his all.
LH,...Pete may have been the gatekeeper, and he may have drawn with and then beaten the underrated Randy Shields, but I still consider Randy to have been the better fighter....certainly the tougher and more clever of the two, as he proved vs both Cuevas and SRL, both who destroyed Ranzany. Shields, also with his combination of cleverness and toughness, lasted what, 13...14 rounds with Tommy Hearns without coming close to hitting the deck...and I can't see Pete going half as many rounds with Hearns. Randy's only shortcoming was a severe power deficit. If Randy had any kind of power may very well have beaten Cuevas...as well as perhaps keeping Hearns honest enough to where he could have gone a full 15 with him as well. I think that by having some power, he would have beaten Pete Ranzany too. Pete had a severe defensive deficit BTW.
Pete Ranzany was a very tough and capable fighter. A top ten fighter who was just outside the elite level. Hope he is doing well. For whatever reason this thread made think of Andy "The Hawk" Price, another good welter form that era, just not a quite as good as Pete.
