The top 50 featherweights ever (6-7)

No, Barry McGuigan has not been ranked in this list twice, it is the guy he is fighting. This list is getting close to the finishing line, so it''s only legends from here on in. As always, comments, opinions and your own top five verdicts are very welcome.

6. Wilfredo Gomez
The finest super-bantamweight of all time - certainly the highest in this list - Gomez became a big star in an unpopular division at a time, in the early 80s, when heavyweights, middleweights and welterweights were all strong.

Gomez grew up poor in Las Monjas, Puerto Rico, but had a good amateur grounding. He boxed at the Munich Olympics, which seems quite surreal as he would have been 15 at the time (and they complain about the Chinese gymnasts!) He turned professional at 18, drawing his first bout in Panama City, but he won his next 32, winning the WBC super-bantamweight title by knocking out Dong Kyun Yum in just his sixteenth bout.

His aggressive style, combined with a string of 32 knockouts soon made him a star in the United States, appearing at Madison Square Garden and Caesars Palace, he beat some good names some not so good. Carlos Zarate, the former bantamweight champion, had won 52 straight but lasted just five rounds with Gomez, Leo Cruz went in 13, Nicky Perez in five. He then stepped up to face Salvador Sanchez. He later claimed he under-estimated the great Mexican, but was brutally beaten in eight rounds.

He went back to super-bantamweight and continued knocking people out. In fact, he won every bout he had at the weight - apart from that debut draw - by stoppage, his last being against another former bantamweight champion, Lupe Pintor. The death of Sanchez in a car crash robbed Gomez of the chance of a rematch, but he stepped up to featherweight to beat the man who had taken the vacant title, Juan LaPorte. However, the reign was shortlived, as he was stopped in the eleventh of a thriller by Sanchez's last opponent, Azumah Nelson.

7. Eusebio Pedroza
Best known in Britain for being the man to lose the WBA featherweight title on an emotional night at Loftus Road, but Pedroza had a formidable career until that point. Pedroza was making the twentieth defence of the WBA featherweight title that night in West London in 1985, a remarkable run that stretched back to 1978. And longevity is a good marker for a great boxer.

Pedroza had home advantage when he won the title from Cecilio Lastra, of Spain, who had just relieved it from Rafael Ortega, but defences came in Puerto Rico, Japan, the United States, Venezuela, Italy South Korea and even Papua New Guinea.

In any long reign, it is easy to pick holes in some of the opposition, but there were some good names too. Ruben Olivares was stopped in 12 rounds, Juan LaPorte was outpointed, Rocky Lockridge was beaten twice, while Bernard Taylor held him to a draw. On the other side of the coin is the fact that he never faced Danny Lopez or Salvador Sanchez. This was a time that WBC/WBA unification bouts were surprisingly rare.

Against McGuigan, a young, aggressive fighter, he was old for his years and struggling with the weight. All reigns have to end somewhere.

Comments

[Derek Clifton]

I too wrote for Boxing News in the fifties and sixties; for my first coverage of some Royal Air Force boxing news they paid me two and six - a postal order that I still have framed and cherished!

[gezz]

I'm gonna have to take you up on the fact the lightweight division was also one of the strongest in the 80's. Mancini, Boza Edwards Bobby Chacon etc.

[James Fairweather]

It's good to see these two greats positioned so highly. There may be an argument that because Gomez achieved most of his great deeds at super-bantam, rather than feather, he should be lower down the list, but I'm pretty content with his placing. So dominant was he at 122 lbs that, under the rules of this top 50, he richly deserves extremely high status. Apart from Galaxy at super-flyweight and Lopez at straw-weight, both very recently established divisions, it's hard to think of one where it's so easy to pick the number one man in history as it is for Gomez at super-bantam.