The major and minor players of the minimum to superfly weight classes, 80s-90s

Not THE expert on the little guys, but here's my 2 cents:
Best
Chang
Zapata
Watanabe
Arbachakov (personal preference here especially)

i'd be bullshitting if I tried to add more info, so I'll stop there.

 

Superflyweight most notable or best fighters from that timeframe imo:

Rafael Orono: Huge, solid hitting standup boxer-puncher with some of the best physical advantages at the weight-not the best defensively.Was in some controversial fights against Jensen and poonterat, and embarassingly lost his title to Kim after taking the fight as a tuneup, too soon post-operation and was knocked out by a bodshot on that spot in a fight he was easily winning.

Jiro Watanabe: excellent hard-hitting boxer-puncher with loads of natural talent.Could well be the most talented in the division's history, but unfortunately became an ill-disciplined often lazy champion who could have off-nights and lazy periods in fights.Lifestyle probably lead to him losing his sharpness and physical ability quicker than he should have.

Gilberto Roman:a consummate pro and one of the most consistent fighters here.He was a typical technically excellent and complete Mexican, but leaning more than most towards mobile pure boxing and finesse.Only drawback is he didn't have quite the physical talent of most of the other fighters you would usually see appear in Mexican top 10-15's.He mostly made up for it with savvy and cagey skills.

Santos laciar: Excellent well-rounded aggressive boxer-puncher possessing many of the distinctive traits of the best Argentinian boxer-punchers like Galindez and Ahumada.Mainly a head-to-head force at 115, as after the first two Roman fights he was past his best.

nana Konadu:Standup boxerpuncher, with very heavy hands, who fought lot like a quicker footed, more dynamic Quartey.Both hands up high and pumping out a stream of jabs and rights, which he liked to dictate the pace of the fight with from the frontfoot.Not nearly as good when put on the backfoot or defensive.

Sung-Kil Moon:Relentless unorthodox huge puncher who made up for a thorough lack of textbook skills by overwhelming fighters with a stream of awkward looping bombs.Good physical ability and very good chin.Has arguably the best record of them all despite small number of fights.Apparently fought the last few defences while already suffering from brain damage.

Khaosai Galaxy:The division's other famous huge puncher.Galaxy was a far more methodical and patient stalker han Moon.Mostly relying on the accuracy of his left-hand to get the knockouts.Very strong, but slow feet lacking a lot of depth or variety to his style.Main criticism is he has the worst record of the 80s fighters and is the most untested of them.

Johnny Tapia: Always a bit of an enigma to me.Quick with good physical ability, capable of being very good textbook cutie that could fight on the front and backfoot with a very good jab and some unorthodox effective defensive moves.Could also brawl and fight the other guys fight too often, while clowning and showboating around.Very little power and fought a lot of mediocre WBO challengers.

Mark Johnson: Wasn't here that long, but like Laciar would be a tough head-to-head proposition.

Some other champions of note (but not all necessarily good fighters ):
Payao Poonterat
Gustavo Ballas
Sugar baby Rojas
Ellyas Pical
Rafael Pedroza
Robert Quiroga
Danny Romero
Chul Ho-Kim
Hiroshi Kawashima
Gerry Penalosa
In-Joo Cho
Johnny Bredahl


Basically the eighties crop have represented this junior division's golden age so far.Since then there hasn't really been much genuinely top notch talent in the division imo.

The WBO side of things only really has Tapia as a strong formidable champion from this period.I was a fan of Bredahl but he was a very beatable fighter who had his bigger fights at Bantamweight anyway.


IBF-barring some stopovers from Johnson, Tapia and the overhyped big puncher Romero, was generally irrelevant and sporting another weak crop of champions, ranging from downright mediocre to solid but not particularly talented workhorses like Quiroga.Galaxy fans will mention Pical as a good scalp for their man, imo he was a typical ordinary early ibf champ who fought dire competition and even managed to lose to some of them.

WBA and WBC fights was where most of the quality was, with WBC having almost consistently quality champions up until Moon retired.Afterward' Kawashima, CHo and especially Penalosa have their fans.Personally i think they were a few notches down from the division's best, though certainly among the best of the nineties crop.The WBA on the other hand went from one poor champion to another after Galaxy retired.

 

IF i had to pick one, i'd go for Moon.Roman isn't far behind though.

Galaxy, Tapia, Johnson and Orono at the bottom.

I'll do the other divisions in a few days.

 

Brilliant stuff by Lora. He has basically covered it all.

 

That's revive this.

Hope lora sees it, but I'd like to know what his Korean mates said to him re:Moon's brain damage.

 

Don't think he posted again after Pac-JMM 4. At least under that alias.

 

@ 108 it was really the best era with

Michael Carbajal
Melchor Cob Castro
Silvio Gamez
Jesus Chong
Humberto Gonzalez
Jung Koo Chang


in about this order as most of its top 10 OAT.
105 had nothing in it, so Ricardo Lopez ruled it by default.
112 and 115 were better than 105 but worse than 108.
Still closer to 108 than to 105 in terms of quality.