Most underrated fighters in history

A few notables I can think of:

1. Rodolofo Gonzalez: Lightweight champ of the mid 70s, overshadowed during his reign by Duran. Excellent offensive technician. Stylewise, fought a lot like Chocolatito does currently. On his best day, would beat a lot of lightweights in history who have more recognizable names.

2. Ismael Laguna: Like Gonzalez, Laguna is overshadowed by Duran, since both are Panamanian. Laguna was a MASTERFUL technician and counterpuncher with a piston jab, very fast hands, and great chin/toughness underneath his skills. His clinic against Carlos Ortiz in their first fight, and against Mando Ramos are amongst some of the finest boxing displays in history.

3. Antonio Cervantes: When people discuss junior welters they always mention Pryor, Chavez, Tszyu, and leave off Cervantes. This is a man who dominated 140 through most of the 70s and beat DeJesus up worse than Duran ever did. Was one of the originally very tall junior welters at 5'10, and had a great jab, fast hands, and a potent right hand. I'd pick him over Tszyu, and I think him vs Chavez is close to a pick em.

4. Sumbu Kalambay: Kalambay is probably underrated cause he's best known for being starched with by Nunn in the first round. People forget the MASTER CLASS he put on in first McCallum fight, and he also put on a master class against Barkley, and Collins. One of the better pure boxers middleweight has seen.

Others?

 

Even though us hardcore fans recognize him, Pernell Whitaker is CRIMINALLY underrated by casuals.


Daniel Zaragoza and Ivan Calderon come to mind.

 

I was more talking fighters who are underrated by hardcores.

Casuals know NOTHING about NOTHING! They know of Floyd, Tyson, Oscar, Holyfield, and Pacquiao. That's about it. Oh, and most of them know of Leonard and Duran.

Casual's opinions are irrelevant.

I will say though, it's annoying as FUCCCKKK when Stephen Gay Smith gets on ESPN and always calls Floyd "The best defensive fighter in history, BAR NONE!"

Hardcores who remember Whitaker must listen to that statement and laugh. Prime-for-prime, Whitaker was a much harder target to hit than Floyd.

 

Disagree. Pernell Whitaker is one of those fighters that you either never heard of, or you rate highly. There's no other option.

 

Agreed. As defensively great as Floyd is, he doesn't compare with Whitaker.

Underrated fighters (by hardcore):

Hopkins
Calzaghe

 

Pacquiao is underrated by the hardcore of the hardcore: the Boxing elitists.

If Pacquiao were fighting in the 40s and 50s instead of in the past 15 years, he would be rated universally in the top 3 or 5 all time. His rating suffers from contemporaryfighteritis

I mean people talk about Armstrong winning titles in featherweight, Lightweight and Welterweight

Pacquiao came from flyweight to Jnr Middleweight and beat everyone there is to beat not named Mayweather.

 

Can you not make this thread about FLOYD.....Pacquiao is NOT underrated...he is one of the TOP 30 fighters of ALL TIME...that's good enough...."If Pacquiao is top 3-5 all time..then that also makes Floyd top 3-5 all time"...no...you don't see LaMotta up there with Robinson...beating the man doesn't make you the man...

anyway Floyd is also TOp 30 all time....him n Pac will forever be attach to each other...if one is #23 the other should be #22 or #24...just like Duran is always #7...and SRL is somewhere around #9 or 11

 

Unfuckinbelievable.

I could make a thread saying "Who's the slowest fighter of all time?" and he'd say "Hard to tell. Floyd made all his opponents look slow."

Pacquiao isn't underrated by anybody. He's universally regarded at this point as a top 20-ish atg.

Sly's agenda here is to put Pac on the Duran/Robinson/Leonard level in order to boost Floyd.

Pac would A LOT better on Floyd's resume had Floyd not ducked him in 09-10.

 

Most of the underrated guys are ones there is limited footage of like Eder Jofre.

 

Cesar Bazan and Casamayor

 

:limp:

 

It's not about Floyd.

It's about Pac. He's legitimately a top 5 all time fighter not just a top 20.

 

I remember reading somewhere that Dwight Muhammad Qawi would get out-boxed pretty easily by Chad Dawson.

So yeah, Dwight Muhammad Qawi gets my vote.

 

I dont think it is farfetched to have pacquaio in the top 5 ever. I personnaly wouldnt, but What he did is rather unprecedented.

As for the question, Qawi comes to mind.

 

Qawi woulda beaten Dawson so bad that Chad woulda stopped stuttering.

 

marcellus johnson

 

Hopkins, Calz, and Pac can't be underrated by hardcores. They both have haters and groupies but both are always mentioned.

I mentioned guys like Laguna and Cervantes because they're Hofmers who rarely get mentioned.

Antonio Esparagoza is another underrated fighter. His beating of Stevie Cruz to win the title is a beautiful clinic to watch.

 

this brings a smile to my face, knowing i was there to watch the great juan manuel marquez knock him dead with one punch. and to see erik morales whip him as well.

 

Simon Brown because he's remembered for the BOXER KNOCKED OUT AND STILL PUNCHING VIDEO against Vincent Pettway

[video=youtube;5wNrB_V3PFc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wNrB_V3PFc[/video]

 

I think Roy is pretty underated by hardcores. He rarely cracks top 10 lists and I think he's easily top 5. Easily best fighter I've seen since I stated watching boxing in the mid 90's.

 

Pbf is maybe underrated at 130. My guess is most will remember him from his time as a cherry-picking welterweight where he never really competed in full fledged manner, instead facing other guys who moved up or shorter opponents of questionable worth. But at 130 and to some extent 135 pbf took on some of his division's top opponents and beat them in impressive fashion.

 

Floyd's the best junior lightweight of all time. I've always said that. 135-154, he's overrated in many matchups. But at 130 he was a phenomenal fighter.

 

Roy is gonna continue to be underrated by the this new generation of fans who started watching boxing cause of Floyd.

In hindsight, he should have never moved back to light heavy. I wish he had just fought Lewis. It would have been a no-lose situation for him. Had Lewis KO'd him, so what? It wouldn't have affected his legacy at all. And by some minor miracle, had he actually BEATEN Lewis, he'd have gone down as the GOAT.

 

I still think Ezzard charles is underrated. You usually see him borderline top ten, he ought to be considered GOAT

 

Midgets such as Fighting Harada rarely get mentioned.

Ruben Olivares could be one too. People remember that he lost to Arguello but it was a very close fight (and one of the best fights ever, IMO) and Olivares had drank himself past his prime at that time. At one point his record was 61-0-1

 

Even above your favourite Duran?

 

Good shout

 

As good as Charles was, i have a problem calling him the goat, since he lost the biggest fight of his life against marciano, who was barely bigger than him, and was rather average ( i know some will violently disagree, but to me, marciano couldnt hold the jockstrap of a frazier). Sure he was past his prime, and not in is best weight class, but still, i would think that the best fighter ever would overcome these disavantage against a marciano level boxer