I think it's fair to say that Eusebio Pedroza was the last great featherweight champion - that is, his championship reign was great and made him great. Since then though, there have been some really, really interesting fighters boxing at the weight. From the underrated Barry McGuigan (somehow he became the mark for fighters who don't belong in the Hall of Fame) to the We Are Terminators card-holder Antonio Esparragoza (would clean house today) to the immortal Manny Pacquiao (who nevertheless was pre-prime and spent little time at the weight), we've had some very, very special guys run the featherweight wing of the fistic bighouse. So: organise the below fighters into two lists, identifying each list clearly - a "greatest" list, the list of the greatest fighters in the division first to last; and a second list, of who is the best at doing boxing, first to last. If you prefer just to do one list, that's great, but identify. But please no "combined lists" aka a greatest list except when a fighter I really like is appraised. Barry McGuigan (1986) Stevie Cruz (1986-1987) Antonio Esparragoza (1987-1991) Yong-Kyun Park (1991-1993) Eloy Rojas (1993-1996) Wilfredo Vazquez (1996-1998) Naseem Hamed (1998 - 2001) Marco Antonio Barerra (2001-2003) Manny Pacquiao (2003-2005)
I don’t know about ratings, but in terms of pure satisfaction, Barrera crushes them all. Fella delivered a life times worth in one fight.
Manny Pacquiao Marco Antonio Barerra Naseem Hamed Barry McGuigan Antonio Esparragoza Yong-Kyun Park Wilfredo Vazquez Eloy Rojas Stevie Cruz
So **** that Manny is the last real champ. Nobody has settled it with a genuine top two dust up in the last 17 years, that's ****ing disgusting.
What about Chris John ? Surely he deserves a mention, he holds a win over Juan Manuel Marquez, and made 18 defences didn't he ? Almost as many as Pedroza. Not the strongest opposition overall but then again neither was Pedroza's.
I would say H2H wise on who matches up the best overall my list would be.... Manny Pacquiao Marco Antonio Barrera Naseem Hamed Antonio Esparragoza Barry McGuigan Wilfredo Vazquez Eloy Rojas Yong-Kyun Park Steve Cruz As for resumes i'll have another list for you tomorrow i need to have a think about that.
We've had a drought in Featherweight division for good 15 years now. I might get that wrong, but I think there might not have been a proper unification since Juan Manuel Marquez moved up? When Gamboa fought Salido, He only held secondary WBA title - that fight would not be sanctioned today under updated IBF rules. The fact that Juan Manuel Marquez vs Chris John is not considered a fight for lineal title comes down to some small technicalities and timing, I think. At the time Marquez still had 2 of the belts, then beat Polo - who arguably beat Harrison. John held WBA belt and by the time the fight between him and Marquez happend, Scott Harrison already fought his final fight as featherweight. I think the issue was He was still technically a champion and ranked above John? He had a scheduled fight with Joan Guzman on March 2006 that fell through as Harrison had some health issues, something related to teeth as I recall. PS: Sorry I can't answer the topic's main question, I'm not educated enough on the Featherweights from before 2000.
Is Fenech anywhere in the conversation here? Or was his work at '26 not of the same level of his bantam/super bantam stuff?
