Who was the best featherweight of all-time

Anyone who underrates him does not understand boxing of which there are many on this forum. They probably think boxing started with Loma whereas anyone with a brain understands Azumah would have annihilated featherweight and junior lightweight versions of Pacquiao.

 

Serios question Olu.How do you reckon a fight between Azumah and Naseem Hamed would work out?

 

Pep not only the best featherweight but also the best pure boxer of all time.

 

Agreed, best FW ever & I can definitely see an argument for best pure boxer! He is still amazing on film and does all kinds of stuff besides what I'd call 'pure boxing', as many of his moves, both offensively and defensibly, were very much his own.

Sandy Saddler, while an ATG, fought Pep after Willie had been in an airplane crash. I don't know how much better Pep would've done before the crash, but seeing them even at 2 wins each doesn't sound far-fetched to me & Pep might've even made it 3-1, who knows? He certainly was great enough and Sandy was great enough to push him to his limits and then some!

 

I voted for Sanchez. Stamina rate off the charts. Try to knock him out quick and you're ****ed.

 

To be fair to Naseem Hamed I would want it to be the best version of himself. I love Hamed but he had his flaws. Both guys have power but Azumah would beat Hamed because he is all round better with better fundamentals and he can take a punch whereas I don’t think Hamed would be able to take Azumah’s full arsenal. How do you see It going? Also Hamed vs McGuigan how do you see that going? I say Hamed stops Barry.

 

Hi Olu thanks for your reply and your opinion of the fight.I agree that Naz would beat Barry not so sure about the stoppage though.As for Hamed v Nelson i feel Azumah would be favourite but Naz definitely has a chance

 

Saldivar should have been included in the options for this, surely?

Anyway, on achievements and consistency, it's Pep, albeit I think he gets let off ever so slightly too easily for the 1-3 record against Saddler (I know, I know, fouls and all that). On paper Saddler himself was an all-time great, so ordinarily I wouldn't hold it against Pep too much. But on a personal level, Saddler must be the ugliest and least gifted of any candidate who has a pound for pound top thirty claim and even allowing for the norms of the time, and Saddler's own dirty tactics, I'm amazed that Pep managed to look and do so poorly against him.

No doubt Pep was a legend, mind you, even if I don't quite rate him as highly as many others and I'd probably go with him as the number one at 126. But I do think that, at his best, Sanchez was perhaps the best pure fighter at the weight and might well have surpassed Pep had fate not cruelly intervened.

 

Willie Pep was also in a plane crash and some say he was never the same after that. He did suffer a leg fracture and a back fracture I believe ?

 

Nelson weathers an early storm and then drops Hamed en route to comfortable decision win.

 

Feasible

 

Fair enough, @Dynamicpuncher, but like a few other boxing tales from the past I think the extent of Pep's injuries in the crash, and what it took from him, might be a little exaggerated by those most enamoured with him.

He was fighting again within five months, and whatever depreciation his skills suffered couldn't have been much - he scored some of his best wins after the crash against Leslie, Famechon and (above all) Saddler, and in fact that second fight against Saddler is widely considered his career-best performance and result. If you're going to give him full credit for that, then it seems reasonable to at least give him a little heat for the defeats at Saddler's hands as well - at least it does if you're anything like me, and feel that Saddler was one of the most unimpressive and scrappy of the all-time greats. Saddler was the only guy who beat him in the five years following the crash so I don't think it's a given, as some seem to assume, that Saddler beat a post-prime Willie.

The Riley and Flanagan fights in 1950 really showed Saddler's limitations, and to this day I still have a hard time figuring out how such a crude and unskilled fighter managed to go 3-1 against a man who people still claim might have been the best 'pure boxer' (not that I like that term - but they do!) ever in Pep.

 

Pep, but Sadler has those wins against him..

 

Oh yeah it definitely was a style issue for Pep, I also think under modern rules Pep would beat Saddler. As Saddlers rough house style wouldn't fly today I don't think. But overall I do think Pep lost something from plane crash. A back fracture and a leg fracture is a pretty big deal. And let's also remember that Pep was ahead in one of the fights, until he had a shoulder injury maybe dislocated ? I can't remember.