Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan
Again, let me state why I think "all-time" lists are entirely subjective and cases can be made for many fighters included in some lists and left off others.

You rank Chavez 15th on your list, while Trinidad, Gomez and Benitez are all out of your top 40. And yet, I've stated in other posts where I think Chavez's record is very much overrated, as is his standings on your all-time list.

You list as your first factor for rating fighters being: "Quality of Opposition."
Let's see a few facts:

1. Chavez's opponents cumulative records was a losing record through Chavez's first 45 fights (45 fights!!).

2. Here's a sampling of some of Chavez's opponents records very much into his career:

a) 45th opponent: 1-6-0 record
b) 52nd opponent: 1-12-0 record
c) 67th opponent: 0-0-0 record
d) 80th opponent: 1-0-0 record

Fighting bums at this stage in your career?!? Hmmmm.....

3. Chavez's first 37 fights were ALL in Mexico. His 38th fight? He fought the "great" Jerry Lewis (the boxer, not the comedian) in California. Chavez had already KO'ed Lewis less than two months earlier in Mexico, when Lewis was 6-3-0 at the time. Not exactly a stretch. Chavez's first quality opponent outside of Mexico came a little later.

Let's talk about opponents winning percentage. Trinidad, who you rated as 49th, fought opponents with a combined winning percentage of 84.3% throughout his famed 44-fight career.

By contrast, Chavez's opponents winning percentage by his 44th fight was a measly 46.5%. He later improved on those numbers as he continued to pad his record.

As far as Wilfredo Gomez being 63rd, that just leads me to believe you have some serious gaps in your knowledge of Latin boxers, of which Puerto Rico has more than its share of champs. Very few boxers in history can boast a higher KO percentage than Wilfredo "Bazooka" Gomez throughout his career. His KO over Carlos Zarate, undefeated and a rising Mexican superstar at the time, is an all-time classic. And his two losses were to Salvador Sanchez and Azumah Nelson, all-time greats in their own right.
Chavez was brought up a different way to many fighters now a days. He learnt his trade properly before moving up in class. As for your 'facts' if you were using boxrec to put Chavez's career opponents together, the figures will be wrong, as many of his more obscure opponents have incomplete records.

As for a direct comparison, Chavez was a World class fighter from 1984 to 1998 and during the period of 1986 to 1993, he was in the argument for being the best in the world. Trinidad on the other hand was World class from 1993 to 2001, and became a contender for the best fighter in the world from 1999 to 2001...

As for Gomez, the thing that really hurts him, is the fight that was supposed to make him a superstar (Sanchez), he lost, and he never really recovered from that fight.