Chris John officialy has a decision over Marquez and is still undefeated in 42 fights, but that win is controversial and he hasn't fought really world class competition before or since. Jorge Linares has another belt, is undefeated, has wins over Oscar Larios and Gamaliel Diaz (the only man to beat Robert Guerrero) and has been called by many a future top P4P fighter. Then there's Robert Guerrero. Who has one of the belts, avenged his loss to Diaz, and has wins over Jason Litzau and Eric Aiken. I have to say John, because he did get the win over JMM, deserves to be #1, but this question is more about if they fought each other, who would you pick?
John's win over Marquez doesn't have any weight because it was a robbery and other than JMM, he has a very padded record and has fought in his hometown the majority of his career, though his boxing skills appear to be decent. Guerrero is strong, but doesn't have the boxing skills of Linares or the resume. Luevano is a slick boxer, but didn't look impressive in his last fight, and overall his resume isn't as good as any of the above. Linares has the total package of skills, talent, and the resume despite his youth. I would pick him to win out head-to-head against any of the others.
Chris John hands down ... he's going for his 10th title defense and has a victory over a p4p guy ... that deserves clout IMO. Linares is on his way up but he's not the man at featherweight ... I tell you this as well ... i'll be glad when the day Roberto Guerrero is out of the fight game ... he sucks!!
Chris John is on his 10th title defense ... and Linares not too long ago won the title ... John beat a champion after winning the vacant strap that was stripped of Marquez. I give that more clout that any victory that Linares has ... John beat a p4p guy. Before then Marquez was the unified featherweight champion and hadn't lost since losing to freddie norwood.
chris john, i say linares is good but he's still not proven at the moment unless you count an already shot larios. John on the other hand has been fighting stiffs but he got good skills, he's the like the asian version of calzaghe
i only said linares coz i haven't seen much of chris john... but yes! him beating JMM is one big accomplishment.
My pick head-to-head would be Linares, he appears to be a complete fighter and even though Larios was far from his best, I wouldn't call him shot. He broke him down round by round. Like I said in the opening, I have John at #1 when ranking them as they stand now, but even though he's had 42 fights, none of them are better than what Linares has been in with except JMM, and I do agree it was a robbery and not just a bad decision. Guerrero is strong and has decent skills, but I do agree that both John and Linares should be above him. The "John is an Asian version of Calzaghe" comparison is a pretty good one. The difference is that even as bad as Calzaghe's resume is, he fought several top 10 guys at SMW during his career before the Lacy fight, where as I can't name a truly world class guy John has fought outside of JMM.
Even if you take away the Marquez win, Chris John STILL has the best resume of anyone at 126. He doesn't have other big names on there, but there are plenty of good fighters he's faced.
Very weak division, H2H I feel Jorge Linares is the best there at the moment. If go strictly by resume than Chris John obviously takes the cake, allthough his resume isn't great by any means (this further proves that the divison is weak). A top prospect such as Gamboa could really do well in this division, given it's shallow nature.
