At the risk of boxing blasphemy

[JazMerkin]

I don't know if this is response to what I said in the other thread, but he was pretty special. Now I don't rate him as highly as others do precisely because I don't believe his opposition is on the same level as other ATGs.

Part of the problem is the definition of P4P. Most people know seem to see this as 'the guy who can jump weight classes & beat people' probably in response to the acheivements of Jones, Mayweather & Pacquiao. However, it originally means the guy who, if all boxers were hypothetically at the same weight & all things being equal, would have been the best. Lopez certainly filled this, however, he just wasn't physically big enough to go above Light-Flyweight, in fact he didn't look that big for the weight class.

In terms of opposition, he beat Rosendo Alvarez who will almost certainly end up in Canastota although he's not a 1st ballot, & Saman Sorjatung, Alex Sanchez & Will Grigsby are all credible opponents, however in the end his opposition let him down. I would have loved to see him against Calderon, who's probably the only HoF Minimumweight.

To really see how good he was, you need to actually see him in action, the guy is close to the perfect fighter, however for me his lack of real tough competition holds him back from being more than a Top 30 ATG when compared to a lot of other fighters.

[ClubberLang]

I don't know if this is response to what I said in the other thread, but he was pretty special. Now I don't rate him as highly as others do precisely because I don't believe his opposition is on the same level as other ATGs.

Part of the problem is the definition of P4P. Most people know seem to see this as 'the guy who can jump weight classes & beat people' probably in response to the acheivements of Jones, Mayweather & Pacquiao. However, it originally means the guy who, if all boxers were hypothetically at the same weight & all things being equal, would have been the best. Lopez certainly filled this, however, he just wasn't physically big enough to go above Light-Flyweight, in fact he didn't look that big for the weight class.

In terms of opposition, he beat Rosendo Alvarez who will almost certainly end up in Canastota although he's not a 1st ballot, & Saman Sorjatung, Alex Sanchez & Will Grigsby are all credible opponents, however in the end his opposition let him down. I would have loved to see him against Calderon, who's probably the only HoF Minimumweight.

To really see how good he was, you need to actually see him in action, the guy is close to the perfect fighter, however for me his lack of real tough competition holds him back from being more than a Top 30 ATG when compared to a lot of other fighters.

Agree with much of this. I wish he would have fought two other all-time greats who were contemporaries of his in Chiquita Gonzalez and Carbajal. I'd feel more comfortable about his all-time status with one or both of those on his resume. Not sure why he never fought either of those guys; the Gonzalez fight in particular would have been huge in Mexico.