Ricardo Lopez and Khaosai Galaxy have had the record straightened on them for years now. His CV is only marginally better, but he continues to make every top 10 Flyweight list, usually in the top half. Why is this? Why is he not even challenged on a semi regular basis?
++ I also think his main scalp - Shirai barely enters the Top 10 best japanese fighters. Good champ, but nothing outstanding. IMO Accavallo and Laciar have best opposition than Perez
He's not challenged because he defeated more ranked contenders than any other flyweight in all of history, bar one. It's true he didn't share the era with men worthy of his opposition, but he trampled the division. On three occasions he defeated the best flyweight in the world excepting himself, which is very rare. Basically he did everything that a fighter should be called upon to do when he only has a weak division to dominate. You'll see Carlos Zarate atop the bantamweight division here and there - literally number one - and he did less than Perez i'd say.
If that’s true I will eat my own head. Shirai and who else? Yaoita? Does old man Shirai count as two of those occasions? He defended his title once more. That’s it. Everything else is in Zarate’s favor, I believe.
Yeah, I see Zarate as much better. I get that he “wasn’t lineal” but that’s only because the BS that made the Zamora bout over 118. That’s like punishing Burley compared to say Zale because he was never champion IMO. Zarate doesn’t have a ton of depth I’ll admit but he wouldn’t be dominated by Yaoita level guys (I know non-title, won the rematch, Yaoita was good etc and only lost his title on a heist in addition to which the top of his resume are superb and dominant wins -Davila, Martinez (underrated fighter and resume), Zamora, he stopped one perhaps even two fighters from being great IMO. I do see Perez as great though. Reigned first a long time, in an original division with great consistency. I give the benefit of the doubt when it’s an undisputed title.
I'll look forward to that. Yaoita, Ursua, Arias, Martin, Dower, Suarez, Espinosa, Kid, Shirai were all made men when he met them. Suarez is the only one i'm not close to 100 percent on. You've got guys like Genaro who beat six, Oba (six), Kane (7), he's right there with guys like Lynch who equalled him and Wolgast who beat more. How doe this head eating thing look? He beat more men int he top five, more men in the top ten. Most of the men he took on were among the very best in the world when he met them. You've confused a weakish era and a weak champ.
Explain this real quick. As to the rest, I hear what you’re saying, but it puts him in the same boat as Lopez. You can only beat who’s alive. Still, if they mostly suck you have to incur a penalty. I’m not saying he was weak. I don’t think Lopez was weak, either. I’d say both were great, but one of them competed in the newest and weakest division in history and the other competed in one of the original 8. Therefore it’s a lot easier to justify a high all time divisional ranking for the former.
Benny Lynch defeated as many made men as Perez, I think. Wolgast beat more ranked contenders. He's the only flyweight who did so. How many ranked guys did Lopez beat? The problem I have with the general tone here (not that there's anything wrong with exploring it) is that defeating this number of contenders is extremely, extremely, extremely, widly rare. It doesn't happen. That's why in the 110 year history of flyweight you can count the number of men who have achieved it on one hand. Perez destroyed the top five. Destroyed it. With a machine gun. You called his resume paper-thin - that is woefully inaccurate i'm afraid. That said, he didn't share an era with any really heavy hitters and that should be acknowledged.
Several newspaper issues, in early June 1956, report Suarez as being rated the Number-10 Flyweight by Ring Magazine.
So there was a Flyweight who beat more. No head eating from me. No clue. Tell me. I assume a good percentage of the 25 he faced during his title defenses must’ve been ranked among the top 10 Strawweights in the world. I’d be pretty damn surprised if it was less than the 9 you have for Perez. That’s a very underwhelming number, I gotta say. I know they didn’t keep Ring ratings the whole 110 year history of the division, but even still I have to question that. No, it isn’t. The men he defeated were still a very weak bunch by all time standards. Shirai is the only one that stands out as an excellent fighter, and he was on his last legs by the time Perez took him out. Every other fighter in the discussion for best all time Flyweight beat better fighters. Every. Single. One.
The statement from @McGrain , to which your "head eating" response came, was thus: " This content is protected " My only question to you is... ...would you like salt with that?
Ridiculous. Defeating nine contenders is "underwhelming"? That's an absurdity. It's a huge number. Massive. I hate to be rude about it but you seem not really to know much about this sort of thing? The number of fighters to hit double figures for Ring/TBRB ranked guys is absolutely minuscule. Question away. I've already given you the names of many of the big hitters. They were among the best fighters in the world in their weight division. Because he fought so many and because such a high proportion were in the top five, he's built himself a very decent resume. Mark Johnson, for example, beat fewer then half the contenders Perez did and never fought anyone - ever - in the top five. Perez is made.
You’ve got me there. I don’t know or care about rankings. But, how about Lopez? How many did he beat? C’mon, man. I’m not comparing him to Mark Johnson. He beat better competition than Johnson did. I’d have said that at any time. Johnson never gets a mention among the top 10 or thereabouts, and if he does it’s barely solely on ability. Perez is not only lacking in terms of resume, but also very questionable as a head to head talent due to his diminutive stature. So what does he really have going for him? Why would he even rate above his conqueror Kingpetch?
