Willie Pep (my personal choice) Henry Armstrong (dark horse choice) Sandy Saddler (another dark horse choice) Then, in no real order Salvador Sanchez Eusebio Pedroza Alexis Arguello Ernesto Marcel Abe Atell Jim Driscoll Terry McGovern George Dixon Kid Chocolate Freddie Miller Johnny Dundee Johnny Kilbane Vicente Saldivar Baby Arizmendi Chalky Wright Plus... Manny Pacquiao Marcos Antonio Barerra Juan Manuel Marquez Chris John Naseem Hamed Petey Sarron Battling Battalino
edit: Yeah, Pep and Saddler are 1 and 2 for me. Saddler is sometimes underrated quite a bit. Nice list. Just a couple of notes I have here regarding your "plus" grouping. Pacquiao had 5 fights at Featherweight. That is all. Barrera I and then Marquez I. As big of an ATG as Barrera was at that time, I just don't believe he can rate among the greats at Feather because of it. Barrera had about twice that number of fights at Featherweight. He has the loss to Pac, but also packed in high quality victories at the weight in Naseem, Morales, Tapia, Kelley, etc. Despite JMM having a ton of fights at 126 because he started in that division, almost all of his signature and most meaningful fights have come after he moved up to 130. His 126 resume is good, but does Salido, Gainer, Terdsak, Agapito, and Pacquiao I really compare to the greats of years past in the division? Basically, the above three fighters in the discussion of Featherweight rankings all time raise the interesting question of "how do you rate quality and quantity?" As for Chris John, he deserves to be in the top tier and not as a "bonus" like the above mentioned P4P guys. 48-0-3, all in one division. That is amazing, especially for the era in which he fights. He misses repeated elite opposition, but he does hold the second most decisive victory ever over the great prime JMM. Combine that with his ledger of traveling for a surprisingly large number of his fights, continued dominance in a division where that does not happen, being the longest reigning titlist in boxing for over 2 years, and remaining undefeated, we have ourselves an underrated and in a fair world very highly ranked Featherweight. Not saying he's top 10 all time, but he really is damn close. More than I fear he will ever be credited for.
