Arguably didn't lose a fight until he was way past his past against the much bigger Trinidad. Frankly had Chavez in his pockets for most of their fight and was badly robbed. Contender for the best performance ever. Also put in one of the ATG losing efforts in a very close fight against the younger and bigger de la Hoya. So where do you have him p4p? What's the highest he could reasonably be ranked? Could he be ranked higher than Duran for example, who had a great LW and WW run as well, but also had some big wins (and bad losses) at higher weights?
It depends on your criteria. If we simply look at his form and ring generalship we can rank him as high as we like, but that is too subjective (read: worthless) for my taste. He was a great fighter, no doubt. I have him in at #24, ahead of guys like Billy Graham and Hearns. However, higher than Duran? That suggests mental illness.
higher than duran? hell no. whitaker didn't seize the opportunity he had in facing dlh and win the fight, like mosley did, even.
Maybe comparable to Duran. I'd rate Duran above him though. I don't think either of them are in the same category as Robinson or Armstrong.
Yeah, I can see that, since Pea didn't have wins like the ones over Leonard and Barkley above LW. But he doesn't have the embarrassing losses above LW either. Not until he was totally shot at least. And his performance against Chavez (that merited a clear win) was arguably as good as Duran's in Montreal, seeing how superior Pea was. He embarrassed Chavez at times and seemed to be able to do what he wanted in there. And the effort against DLH gets underrated I think. It could have been a win (even though I have Oscar just edging it) and what a win that would have been for the older, smaller man.
Maybe just around 20? SRR, armstrong, greb, charles, duran, ali, fitzimmons, benny leonard, joe louis, willie pep, joe gans, moore, ross, canzoneri, srl ....