Rank these Lightweights in order.

IMO

5. Roberto Duran
4. Pernell Whitaker
3. Floyd Mayweather
2. Shane Mosley
1. Joel Casamayor

(1 being Least, no way I can put Casa's name over any on these dudes even in a backwards rating...lol)

 

h2h?

Casamayor
Mosley
Mayweather
Duran
Whitaker

Confusing way of doing it :|

 

5. Roberto Duran
4. Pernell Whitaker
3. Shane Mosley
2. Floyd Mayweather
1. Joel Casamayor








Duran and Pernell are clearly the best of this list. They are Top10 All Time Great at 135. Excellent toe-to-toe, and with great accomplishments there.

Mosley did good at 135 and deserves to be third. But his competition there was awful and was never Lineal Champ. He is third because of the toe-to-toe basis.

Joel Casamayor has been an average Champion and a referrent of this relatively weak lightweight era. Has fought like 10 times at 135...beat like 4 contenders (Corrales, Santa Cruz, Katsidis and Campbell). Mayweather had four fights, two wins against Castillo, and was very good there (toe-to-toe). It's very close between Casamayor and Mayweather at 135, but Floyd crushes him P4P.

 

Describing Casamayor as an 'average' champion is very harsh. He's actually much underrated, everyone hates him because he's stunk the place out a few times and as a result he gets virtually no recognition compared to fighters with far less impressive resumes

Sure, he had a few lucky decisions, but he's had a few go against him too

 

In my opinion, he is an average Lineal Champion at 135, so far, because of his resume. Won the title via Split Decision against a deteriorated Corrales, then defended it against Santa Cruz (who I think was rated in the lower part of the Ring's Top10; many say that fight was a robbery) and then against Katsidis, who is a fine contender but wasn't proven against top opposition. Two title defenses so far.

Other Casamayor fights at 135 have been against guys like Daniel Seda or Lamont Pearson (?), although he defeated Nate Campbell clearly in 2003.

Casamayor is not in his prime, and we also have to consider that aspect.

If Casa defeats Juan Diaz, maybe rematches Campbell, and then fights someone else like Guzman or Pacquiao, etc...that would be another story. Time will tell.

 

I think Whitaker ranks far, far ahead of Mosley at lightweight.

 

Duran is 1st. Whitaker 2nd. Mosley 3rd. Mayweather 4th, Casa 5th.

Although Castillo is better than anyone Mosley beat at the weight class (or Whitaker for that matter), Mayweather's short stay at the weight as champion, and the relatively weakness of his other two defenses (Sosa, Ndou), aren't enough to put him higher.

 

Exactly. The win over Castillo and the two title defenses (against weak fighters) are enough to rank Mayweather over Casamayor, but not enough to rank him above 135 Mosley or Whitaker, who is one of the All Time Greats in that weight class.

Mosley's competition sucked at 135, but he was "the man" for a while, had 8 defenses of the IBF belt and looked very impressive.

 

I suppose it doesn't look too impressive if you only consider his lineal reign which is fine in relation to this post but I was talking from a general viewpoint, and its only 3 fights and all of which have been past his peak which is slightly unfair. He's only really 'average' relative to names like Duran or Whitaker. By todays standards, he is a pretty decent champion, a win over any version of Corrales is notable

His overall resume is a good one, and he is desperately underrated on here

 

Yea. If you combine his resume at 130 and 135, it is a pretty good one.

The best lightweigts of this era are defintely Castillo (#1) and Casamayor. Mayweather is also mentionable, even though his campaign was a short one. Corrales had his moment in 2005. Those guys are the best Lightweights of the last generation (Freitas...Not really).

We will see if the young guys can do something...Juan Diaz maybe? Or Amir Khan? And Pacman?

 

I pick Whitaker by decision over Whitaker in a competitive fight. I think Mosley @ 135 is competitive with just about any lightweight in history. Not only for his marvelous physical gifts and good skillset, but also the size advantage he'd have over the lightweights of the past who had different weigh-in procedures.

I was talking about all-time rankings, which I guess is wrong because the original thread said "prime for prime".

I have a tough time ranking guys in a list when people are talking about who is the best at their prime (not really talking resume and achievements). There's always going to be strange style matchups. I wouldn't pick Mayorga over Mosley at 147 head-to-head even though he knocked out the man who beat Mosley 2x.

 

Are we talking JUST their stint at lightweight? Or are we talking about their whole careers?

I'm assuming JUSt as lightweights, in which I'd say:

5. Casamayor
4. Mayweather
3. Mosely
1/2. Whitaker and Duran

IF you were talking about their whole careers and were just calling them lightweights (cause most of the fighters main part of their careers were there), then I'd say:

5. Casamayor
4. Mosely
3. Mayweather
2. Whitaker
1. Duran

 

I disagree. Outside of his 2 Oscar wins (which one was controversial), Mosely has very little names (outside of his losses to Wright, and Cotto, which was when Mosely certainly wasn't prime).

Floyd is arguably the greatest 130 pounder ever, if not, CERTAINLY top 5. He's won 6 world titles in 5 weight classes (3 weight classes in which he was lineal), and remained UNDEFEATED while doing so, and only ever ONCE looking like he had trouble (maybe twice, since he played "safety first" against Dela Hoya). But still, for 37 fights, 6 world titles in 5 weight classes - Mayweather has made it look DAMN easy.

He has names like Corrales (when he was undefeated and p4p), Castillo x 2 (who would GO on to be p4p), Dela Hoya (faded, yes, but with EVERY advantage under the sun - not as easy as it was made out to be. This is Floyd at welterweight fighting a legitimate 154 pounder), Hatton (p4per), even Judah, Hernandez, Gatti and other names can be thrown in as at the LEAST decent to very good.

AWESOME resume, even better record, and all the while making it look damn easy. But as you said (that it was your opinion), this is just mine too.

 

135
5.Casa
4.PBF
3.Mosley
2.Duran
1.Pea

Career
5.Casa
4.Shane
3 way tie Duran, Pea, PBF