Who Was The Best Flyweight?

Wilde. In his prime he KO's Villa and the rest. Had a 'ammer in his hands.

 

Is a deep division. Harada and Canto are in the mix as well.

 

Toss up between Miguel Canto and El Nica.

 

I think I'll go with Harada. He was 27-2 at the weight, with his losses by majority and split decision, looks awesome and beat a couple of champs. One of the 5 greatest pressure fighters at his physical peak.

 

Midget Wolgast

 

Wolgast was a wee beastie.

 

Jimmy Wilde has a similar reputation at flyweight as Ray Robinson does at welterweight, and rightly so. He was a flyweight who disposed of lightweights, and he often weighed less than 100lbs. Though only snippets of his fight with Joe Symonds (1916) are floating around they are quite revealing.

There's a contemporary quote about how Wilde countered so fast that the fans could mistake them as leads, and against Symonds you can see what they were talking about as Jimmy attempts to work off most of what comes his way. A far cry from ringside recollections, but when you spot a trend between eye witnesses and old footage you know it's not impossible to separate legend from reality.

Seven years at the top, beaten by another great when decidedly past his best; the bare statistics do a good job of pulling their weight.

Fighting Harada is a good shout. His initial victory over Pone Kingpetch was one of the great victories in the weight class.

 

Wilde looks pretty dangerous to me on film. Like a little Bob Foster, just waiting to drop the bomb in on you that will end the fight.

Midget Wolgast fought during the toughest time ever, imo. VERY impressive and very underrated.

Benny Lynch is among the most impressive of the era on film.

Wee Willie Davies is easily the most underrated.

How many flys in history would you confidently pick to defeat Fidel LaBarba? Yeah, me neither.

 

Besides fighting an incredible number of top flyweights, bantamweights and featherweights, Midget Wolgast was active beyond his "sell-by" date. Benny Lynch was one fine fighter, but I don't think that he came close to facing as many other top fighters as Wolgast.

Miguel Canto was the best pure boxer of his day in addition on top for awhile.

Jimmy Wilde was on top awhile in addition to being one of the best p4p punchers in history.

In its infinite wisdom, the New York State Athletic Commission withheld recognition of Fidel LaBarba as the world flyweight champion after he won over Frankie Genaro in a bout for at least one version of the vacant world flyweight title in Los Angeles during 1925. Of course, LaBarba was under twenty-one years of age, which meant he could not fight in bouts scheduled for more six rounds at the time. LaBarba also retired from boxing to attend college shortly after winning universal recognition as the world flyweight champion.

It is hard for me to pick one flyweight as the best. If forced to choose, I'd pick Jimmy
Wilde for his longevity as a top fighter.

- Chuck Johnston

 

My baised pick is Fighting Harada.

 

Really tough to pick, so many greats that are only separated by a split hair. I agree with Chuck1052. Wilde. Though my next pick would be Wolgast.

 

Niels Holgerson obviously.
Nails.
D men cud du it ol.
Hi woz biting on Foxes wum autweyd him bai laik 640%


Plus , hi woz born @ eraund 1906 , wich meix him automatically supiorior 2d laix of Jesus Rojas , Laciar & Ebihara .
Hiz record woz laik 240-5-9 , wiz 6 aut of d 9 wer NWS , 2 wer prearranged draws in case it went d distanc & 3 aut of d 5 losses wer fixt faits in wich hi admittedly tuk e daiv .