Top 50 featherweights ever (21-30)

It was the biggest television audience ever for boxing in the United Kingdom. 20 million people tuned in to BBC One on a Saturday night in June to watch Barry McGuigan win the WBA featherweight title from Eusebio Pedroza at Loftus Road. The Irishman features in the next section of our list of great featherweights as well as a group of several modern-day boxers, showing how strong the featherweight division has been in recent years.

As always, comments and strong opinions are welcomed.

21. Erik Morales
One of my own favourite ever fighters, Morales was a quality boxer and an extremely hard man. Born above a gym in the red-light district of Tijuana. He will be best remembered for his remarkable trilogy of bouts with Marco Antonio Barrera. The first (pictured, with Morales, right), in 2000, he won but most felt he should have lost. The second he lost, but seemed to win, and the third was a wafer-thin decision for Barrera. He first won the WBC super-bantamweight title by knocking out Daniel Zaragoza and won six world title belts in total between super-bantamweight and super-featherweight. Perhaps his greatest win was his 2005 unanimous decision win over Manny Pacquiao (at super-feather), which was Morales's last win and Pacquiao's last defeat.

22. Kid Chocolate
Was Kid Chocolate the greatest Cuban boxer of all time? It would be something of a bold statement, but the man whose real name was Eligio Sardinias Montalvo made a huge impact on the sport. Legend has it that the Kid won all 100 of his amateur fights and sparred Jack Johnson among others. He also claimed a record of 136-10-6. A popular boxer and party-goer in New York, Chocolate fell short in his attempts to claim the world featherweight title against Battling Battalino, but went on to win the world title at junior-lightweight and beat Lew Feldman for the New York version of the featherweight title.

23. Barry McGuigan
The night McGuigan beat Eusebio Pedrosa in June 1985 would certainly be high on many lists of great sporting moments. Pedrosa was an old champion and many will feel McGuigan got him at the right time, but, prior to facing McGuigan, he had made 20 successful defences of his title, had been champion for seven years and successfully defended his title in nine countries. Perhaps McGuigan's best win, some feel, was prior to becoming WBA featherweight champion when he beat Juan LaPorte on one of those famous nights at the King's Hall in Belfast. He made two successful defences before the Las Vegas heat got him against Stevie Cruz.

24. Jeff Fenech
Fenech (pictured with Joe Bugner) has a good claim to be the best Australian boxer ever, he certainly was the first one to win three world titles. After winning and giving up the IBF bantamweight title, he won the WBC super-bantamweight title from Samart Payakaroon, not the biggest name but it is worth noting that the Thai knocked out Lupe Pintor to win the title. He also defeated Carlos Zarate and then won the vacant WBC featherweight title by stopping Victor Callejas in 1988. The undefeated record came to an end in Melbourne in 1992 when Azumah Nelson stopped him in eight rounds - the pair having earlier drawn in Las Vegas. Some would say Fenech gained some revenge this year by beating Nelson in a match of former featherweight champions held at light-middleweight. Most would say it was a poor spectacle between to old men who should know better.

25. Jim Driscoll
Driscoll's career from 1901-1919 consisted of 77 fights - not many for the era, but his 63-4 record was pretty sensational. Driscoll won British, European and world (British version) featherweight titles and was one of the first British boxers to have a successful spell in the United States. A newspaper decision over Abe Atell in 1909 in New York, when he had been unable to force Atell into a title fight, is probably Driscoll's greatest moment in the ring. And when 100,000 people turn up for your funeral, it means you must have accomplished something in your life.

26. Johnny Dundee
The Scotch Wop, as he was known, was a tricky boxer to place in this list. While he was a top-class featherweight, he is probably best remembered as a lightweight and junior lightweight, so his position here takes a bit of a knock. Dundee was a great defensive boxer who had a 22-year career, boxing 343 times. He is believed to have boxed 59 times in the first two years of his career. In his 87th fight he boxed the great Johnny Kilbane to a draw and then did not receive another title shot for eight years. Then he beat George Chaney for the title and later unified it by beating Enrique Criqui. After moving up in weight, he came back down to challenge Tony Canzoneri for the featherweight title in 1927, but lost a 15-round decision.

27. George Dixon
George Dixon, who was born in Nova Scotia in 1870, goes down in history as the first black world champion. He won the bantamweight title in 1890, at the age of 20, (he would probably figure higher in the lighter division) and beat Cal McCarthy for the featherweight title the year after. In fact, record has it that he knocked out McCarthy twice, because the referee allowed McCarthy's corner men to drag their man to the corner to revive him - as was allowed under bareknuckle London Prize Ring rules. He held the title until losing to Terry McGovern in 1900. He also drew with Young Griffo, drew and lost to Abe Attell and lost twice to Jim Driscoll during a lengthy spell in the UK later in his career. While record from the era are patchy, the boxer known as Little Chocolate was credited with having more than 800 fights, boxing up to 15 times a week, and had 23 world title fights.

28. Juan Manuel Marquez
Some boxers get pushed towards greatness- some get there the hard way. Juan Manuel Marquez has found the route to the top a steep one, but the Mexican has finally got the respect he deserves. Ignoring his recent super-featherweight career, for the purposes of this, Marquez lost his professional debut on a first-round disqualification and he lost his first world-title attempt - against Freddie Norwood for the WBA title in 1999. But he went on to win the IBF title in 2003 and seemed to get a totally raw deal against Manny Pacquiao the year after - getting off the floor three times in the first round, Marquez seemed to completely outbox the Filipino, but only got a draw. The blot on his record is the 2006 to Chris John in Indonesia, but Marquez is a high-quality fighter.

29. Ruben Olivares
Perhaps the greatest bantamweight of all time, Olivares was a two-time featherweight champion and a fierce puncher who recorded 77 stoppages in his 88 wins. Indeed, going into his final world title loss, to David Kotey in 1975,for the WBC title, (after which he should have retired) Olivares had the impressive record of 79-5-1. Olivares won the vacant WBA 9st title in 1974 and actually lost t in his first defence, when he run out of puff and was stopped by the upcoming Alexis Arguello. He went on to have an even shorter reign as WBC champion, winning the title from Bobby Chacon and losing it to Kotey. Remarkably, he last boxed in 1988, when he was 41, when he was knocked out in four rounds by a Mexican novice.

30. Daniel Zaragoza
A three-time WBC super-bantamweight champion (as well as short-reigning WBC bantamweight champion), Zaragoza (pictured, right) essentially dominated a somewhat unpopular division for a lengthy period. But it is longevity that earns him a spot on this list - when he finally lost the title in his final bout, he was three months short of his 40th birthday. Zaragoza will be best remembered in the UK as the first man to beat Wayne McCullough. The Ulsterman was unbeaten and had just vacated the WBC bantamweight title when he moved up to face the ageing Zaragoza in 1997, but the Mexican outbattled McCullough to win a split decision. In a small trivia note, Zaragoza beat Britain's Ray Gilbody at the Moscow Olympics.

Comments

[James Fairweather]

Simply have to agree with the Kid - I loved watching Barry, who was responsible for some of the most thrilling sporting moments that I've ever seen, but in this case, distance lends too much enchantment to our eyes.

Barry's always been able to trade on the fact that his title was lost through a combination of heat and bad management. It was certainly hot in Las Vegas the day that he lost to Cruz, but was it not equally so in the King's Hall that night when Bernard Taylor blamed the temperature for retiring against Barry and was roundly derided for it? As Nigel Collins wrote at the time, "it depends on whose ox is being gored, my lads."

McGuigan's world-class wins probably numbered a maximum of half a dozen - Caba, Orozco (maybe), Laporte, in hindsight much his most impressive night's work, Pedroza, Taylor and Cabrera (again, maybe). That track record seems far to skinny to stick him ahead of the four immediately below him here and arguably of a few in the lower reaches of this top 50 as well.

I can only assume that his place in the Hall of Fame in Canastota is at least partly attributable to his wider impact on the game and on Ireland. If we look at boxing accomplishments, pure and simple, Barry is neither a Hall of Fame class featherweight nor a Top 30 one, great though the memories are that he provided.

[Crashing Dashing Kid]

Come on Ron.... the suspense is bloody killing me!

[Crashing Dashing Kid]

Mr Lewis, can we really rate McGuigan above the likes of Marquez, Dixon, Dundee & Driscoll when all he ever achieved was a win over an aged champion who was afraid to fight unification bouts in case he lost to stronger fighters? In 20 defences Pedroza's toughest opponents were smaller fighters like Lockridge, Kobyashi & Olivares and though he fought around the globe this was against carefully picked opponents often at the expense of stronger opponents elsewhere. Pedroza made an error of judgement with Barry, that is all. George Dixon and Driscoll are giants of the fight game who had they been born in the era of McGuigan with all it's advantages, would surely have swept him aside with the minimum of effort. To suggest otherwise goes against all the evidence of those boxing writers and historians who went before you. McGuigan was a good fighter and a fantastic role model to a troubled nation - and a worthy champ - but he was never an immortal of boxing like Driscoll, Dixon or even Dundee.