The candidates: Olivares Zarate Cuevas Lil Red Lopez Zamora Carbajal 135-140 Oscar Medel I guess... someone can include Duran if they want... Or someone else I might have forgotten.
Little red power was also really.insane. seems like he was pushing his punches, yet guys were going to sleep
#10. Carlos Zarate* #09. Michael Carbajal #08. Jose Medel #07. De La Hoya #06. Antonio Avelar #05. Jose Luis Lopez #04. Alfonso Zamora #03. Ruben Olivares #02. Pipino Cuevas #01. Little Red I think that'd be my top ten. *While it seems Zarate is very low, I think he's more of a break-em-down puncher who can close the show, rather than an out and out one-and-done hitter. His skills are almost as much apart of his absurd KO numbers as his power IMO.
Lopez would probably be my choice, in all honesty. Outside of Jackson, I can't think of a guy with more freakish power than Lopez.
Oh shit! I totally forgot about Antonio Avelar. Yeah, he's top 5 IMO. Danny Romero deserves at least honorable mention.
Pipino Cuevas in REED's Opinion... 35 Wins, 31 by KO...10 of 11 Title Defenses by KO, Against an Underrated Crop of Welters... REED
Lopez, Little Red, was not a Mexican. He also had Irish and Native American heritage at least equal to his Mexican heritage. He was born on the Ute reservation in the northeastern corner of Utah. Michael Carbajal was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He has no ties to Mexico. If you had been to one of his fights with Chiquita Gonzalez, you would understand that Mexico does not claim him. Oscar De LaHoya was born and raised in California; he is the embodiment of the term "coconut." He is not a Mexican and, if you understood how much Mexican people hate him because of the Chavez fights, you would know that. Danny Romero is not a Mexican; his wikipedia page lists his nationality as American and his family has probably been in New Mexico for a century or more. The answer to the question posed would probably be Pipino Cuevas, with Jose Luis Lopez in the hunt. If we are talking about pure punching power.
True. If you watch the fight between Paez and R. Ruelas from '92 or so, you see two champion level fighters at war. Paez had some years on him but was still a tough MF who could fight. Ruelas was young and hungry. He looked ready to take over the division. And in the next couple of years along comes a guy who vaporized both of them in under two rounds. Same with Jesse James Leija. Looked like a sturdy champion who had been in with Azuma Nelson and G. Ruelas. He looked like a schoolboy fighting a man when he fought Oscar.
I have no issue with the Cuevas pick, but my thing is that Cuevas put full power into every punch. He looked like he was trying to generate maximum power at all times. With Danny Lopez, the freakish power flowed naturally and looked effortless. He would push an innocuous looking right hand out there, and guys would drop dead.
Pimentel and Ricardo Moreno are right up there imo. They both beat a lot of no marks, Moreno especially, but I've always thought a lot can said about a fighter's power, if not their overall ability, from how they wreck low-level opponents. Avelar is the hardest though imo, just ahead of Cuevas. I don't take Little Red and co into the argument, he'd be first if I did, I think.
