After watching about 45 minutes of Ricardo Lopez fights, I've come to the conclusion that he is the best boxer I have ever seen. Now I've seen a bunch of RJJ in his prime but I think p4p Ricardo Lopez was better where do you guys rank Ricardo Lopez?
He did not actually have any mollecular mass and hence can not be ranked in a pound 4 pound sense at all
He´s definitely great, the problem is, that in his era weren´t so many fighters who could have been a real challenge for him, so it isn´t that easy to rate him...
Lopez hangs, in terms of talent and skill-set, with any fighter to ever lace up a set of gloves. In terms of quality of opposition...different story. p4p...maybe Top 50. Certainly makes Top 100.
My biggest criticism of Lopez is that he played it safe and remained at 105 for most of his career, never really taking the challenges that ATG P4P fighters did. He never fought guys like Michael Carbajal, Humberto Gonzalez, Marc Johnson. Say what you want about Roy Jones, but he won belts at 160, 168, 175, and 200+. Lopez remained at 105 and was loath to move up to 108 or 112, only doing so at the very end of his career when there was literally no one challenging out there for him.
Lopez was a legend. He was the best 105 pound fighter I've ever seen. Lopez was a superior technician with off the charts puncher in his weight class. The results were some of the best knockouts you will ever see. Scouts honor. Get his fights. Lopez retired with a record of 51-0-1, with 38 knockouts. His lone draw was a technical draw on a cut, which was later avenged. Lopez made 24 title defenses in a row. Most of the lower weight fighters burn out in their late 20's to early 30's. Lopez still had his best stuff until he retired at age 35. While it’s true he never faced an all time great, I think his ring record and longevity in his weight class is amazing. Don King put on lots of crappy PPV main events. Lopez was often the under card.
I remember seeing Lopez on some PPV undercards, a bloke sitting near me was bemoaning 'these little guys who cant fight', while I was just taking it all in. He was certainly head and shoulders above anyone else but theres the dilemna, how can you measure how great he was when he just didn't have the opposition? Only Lopez cheerleaders will make the case for him, but an undefeated record and 20 odd title defenses would make me pretty happy. He certainly deserves to be remembered a little better.
