My top 10 is probably: Duran (#1), Hearns, SRL, Chavez, RJJ, Mayweather, Whitaker, Jofre, Hopkins, Hagler.
I think the Duran from DeJesus3 through Leonard 1 was and looked talentwise, unstoppable. He years sweet pea Whitaker APART whether at light or welterweight. DURAN was fast, crushing body puncher, the greatest I ever saw at pinpointing punches during high-powered exchanges. He years forehead weakchinned Whitaker head off. Inside 10. Beat him as he did Esteban in 1978. DURAN was brilliant in the ring and smarter than pearnell could ever think of being.
Yeah, I understand your take on "manufactured weight gain" but my take is : with some of these guys we don't know how much their "natural weight" is in fact unnatural or due to "manufactured" weight loss. For example, to simplify, imagine two fighters both fight at 140 their whole careers, one of them might be very comfortable there or even well fed to stay up there, while the other is struggling to stay down. They look the same and perform the same, but one of them is "naturally bigger" and we'd never really know. James Toney was a fat, steroid-pumped fighter, definitely that's manufactured. Yet the scales said he was a heavyweight when he fought at heavyweight, and I'm sure he wasn't the only fat, steroid-pumped fighter in that division. He's another heayweight. If he wasn't a heavyweight, what was he ? We have to put him in some divison and when the scales say he's too big for all the other divisions, that's heayweight. The same rule applies to everyone. Under your point of view or criteria, what would be Pacquiao's "natural weight" ? It seems to me, every loss he's had post-1999 he's been at a massive disadvantage in that sense anyway, size wise, and he's very comparable to Duran in his feats.
His complete dominance at 135 sets the scene for him. A 6 year reign of terror, 12 defenses including a unification and just miles ahead of his comtempories. You've basically got a Hagler type reign right there and he left the division as champ then beat the guy that ended Haglers reign years later. Going into the SRL rematch he's sitting at 72-1 with the sole loss avenged twice in supreme fashion and had beaten the champ a full 2 divisions above where he come from, a future ATG at that. He'd also beaten the excellent Carlos Palomino in dominant fashion. He had a 12 year professional career behind him at this point.
Great thread. Love this forum but this is my first post so don't be too savage, lol: 1. Duran 2. Leonard 3. Hagler 4. Whitaker 5. Jofre