The complete and honest guide to every boxing weight class

[!! Anorak]

**** me, Joe Strong's getting more replies in his concert thread.

[!! Anorak]

FEATHERWEIGHT - RING ****ZINE RATINGS
CHAMPION: Vacant
1. Nicholas Walters
2. Vasyl Lomachenko
3. Gary Russell Jr.
4. Abner Mares
5. Lee Selby
6. Jhonny Gonzalez
7. Simpiwe Vetyeka
8. Darnell Negroson
9. Julio Jesus "Mucho Mucho Mucho" Beanez
10.Joey "Bog Eye" O'Leary, the Down Syndrome Demolisher

Now, historically featherweight is not only one of the original divisions, dating back to the late 1880s, but its also been one of the most exciting and distinguished for many years, including recent history.

Sadly, you look at the list above, and for some reason it's entered a real slack period. In fact, most of these guys are seen on prime time TV about as often as Weltschmerz's seen at an AA meeting.

It's such a so-so division right now that I've replaced 7-10 with three fictitious fighters I invented, and it probably makes the division twice as good. (Should you care, it's really Evgeny Gradovich, Jesus Cuellar and Jayson Velez).

I've obviously heard of Walters and Mares, but haven't seen 'em, and, really, this whole thing is again symptomatic of how boxing as a whole isn't grabbing people - or me, at any rate. Too many fighters where a "natural" match up is right there, and instead they'll say stuff like "this Chris Algeri looks a tough test.... maybe after that Paulie Malignaggi could stretch me?"

Sure, I get it. It's a BUSINESS. But the biggest disgrace of recent times wasn't even that the "fight of the century" took 15 years to make, but that the undercard was stacked with ****ty one-sided bouts. What better way to get people hooked on the sport than with fights that aren't remotely competitive? When I lay down money, I expect something in return. If I paid a ********** nine times for a blowie and all she gave me was a ten second suckle, I wouldn't pay her a tenth time.

I love the sport, obviously, but in recent times it's started to turn me off. And these poor ****ing midgets - all of whom only have a ten-inch reach advantage on New England - are the ones taking the brunt of that ennui.

Sole exception here for me is Jhonny Gonzalez. Old for the division now, of course, but I've seen this guy in some terrifically exciting fights over the years, and have been watching him for probably over a decade. A real favourite (favorite, Fat Yanks) of mine - I mucho mucho like him.


VERDICT: Give a fuck

I just watched a featherweight fight where the fourth-ranked feather faced the second-ranked Jr. Feather, who was stepping up. It was like a competition to decide the best midget, or which one of them would make Beercules back down in a bar fight.

Rounds were hard to score, as it featured two dwarves windmilling with no obvious effect. If a normal guy hit you right on the chin with fifty straight punches, you'd go down, but these two fuggen BETAS keep right on at it. I did score it for Leo Santa Claus, but I can't tell you how much by, as that would have involved me giving a shit. Here's the highlights of the bout:



What intrigued me in this fight - and intigrigues me in many fights, to be serious for a moment - is the psychological ebb and flow. When people in NSB talk about fights, it's all about what they can learn from a boxrec account, or how that person has done in their last bout, etc. People don't take into account the mental state of a person going into a fight, which is where 90% of it really takes place, and why an elite fighter can get taken out by an overlooked journeyman, etc. I've even been able to "call" fights before the boxers have entered the ring, just due to the look on the combatants' faces... sometimes they just KNOW. (For example, I knew the winner - if not the exact outcome - of Tarver-Jones Jr. II and Calzaghe-Lacy. As soon as Jeff "LOL" Lacy started his ringwalk, you could see he was mentally not at the races. I knew even before he'd stepped through the ropes I was gonna have some NSB LOLZ that night).

Incidentally, a saw an American broadcast with adverts in... every single commercial break had an advert for food.

Just stating the facts.

[BOXEO _]

I just watched a featherweight fight where the fourth-ranked feather faced the second-ranked Jr. Feather, who was stepping up. It was like a competition to decide the best midget, or which one of them would make Beercules back down in a bar fight.

Rounds were hard to score, as it featured two dwarves windmilling with no obvious effect. If a normal guy hit you right on the chin with fifty straight punches, you'd go down, but these two fuggen BETAS keep right on at it. I did score it for Leo Santa Claus, but I can't tell you how much by, as that would have involved me giving a shit. Here's the highlights of the bout:



What intrigued me in this fight - and intigrigues me in many fights, to be serious for a moment - is the psychological ebb and flow. When people in NSB talk about fights, it's all about what they can learn from a boxrec account, or how that person has done in their last bout, etc. People don't take into account the mental state of a person going into a fight, which is where 90% of it really takes place, and why an elite fighter can get taken out by an overlooked journeyman, etc. I've even been able to "call" fights before the boxers have entered the ring, just due to the look on the combatants' faces... sometimes they just KNOW. (For example, I knew the winner - if not the exact outcome - of Tarver-Jones Jr. II and Calzaghe-Lacy. As soon as Jeff "LOL" Lacy started his ringwalk, you could see he was mentally not at the races. I knew even before he'd stepped through the ropes I was gonna have some NSB LOLZ that night).

Incidentally, a saw an American broadcast with adverts in... every single commercial break had an advert for food.

Just stating the facts.

An old fart named Larry Merchant once said: "The Featherweight division is a gift that keeps giving to boxing" and he's absolutely right.


126 is freakin stacked right now.


Walters

Russell Jr

Santa Cruz

Frampton

Selby

Lomachenko

Mares

Cuellar

Castellanos


Now all we need is for these guys to actually fight each other, lol.

[!! Anorak]

I didn't mind it when it was people like Barrera, Pi.. er, Pacquaio, Marquez or Hamed.

But these guys? It's like a Who's Who of Who Gives A Fuck.

[BOXEO _]

I didn't mind it when it was people like Barrera, Pi.. er, Pacquaio, Marquez or Hamed.

But these guys? It's like a Who's Who of Who Gives A Fuck.

Were those guys great at 126? I wasn't a boxing fan back then.

Do you think those four would whip all of today's crop of 126 pounders? Some of these guys have serious talent.

[!! Anorak]

God knows tbh. I don't really watch midgets.

[BOXEO _]

[BrometheusBob.]

ATG thread. I am hardly worthy of posting in it.

EDIT: Virtually everything cracked me up in this thread.

EDIT: I did not agree on p4p business though . I don't think of it as an opportunity to consider imaginary fights if boxers of vastly different sizes were the same height, weight whatever. I see it as an assessment of how good they are of a boxer, how good their resume is etc in the context that makes sense for them, compared with the same assessment made of boxers in different classes. (Not to say there is one, irrefutable way to perform this assessment.)

Perhaps the point would be more clear with a wide disparity in skill level. Could you honestly say, with a straight face, that Chavez Jr is a better boxer or has a better resume than Rigondeaux, Gonzalez etc? Clearly not I hope, which is why they deserve higher p4p ratings even though Chavez Jr would probably manhandle them if they were to fight. But the h2h matchups are not interesting to me, because they are completely different sized people. I don't evaluate people based on hypothetical fights across many weight classes, but rather based on what they can do and have done in their respective weight divisions.

I mean, the fact that you were even able to make assessments of the boxers of each weight class, without putting the heavyweights as the best, shows that you understand this idea. I'm sure all of the HWs you shat on could beat any of the 112lbers, but who cares? They are still doodoo in the context that they fight in, which is the standard we should hold them to.

EDIT: Meh, didn't mean to rant. But I did mean what I said.

[-Hyperion-]

From Wankopedia:



Apparently he's the current WBA interim champion. WTF?? You need INTERIM champions? How many strawweights are there in the world to need an INTERIM champion?

Actually, I've just checked - according to boxrec there are 268 active dwarves.

This is why Ricardo Lopez-Ivan Calderon-Roman Gonzalez and the so called historical monsters of the looow weight classes are overrated as hell....competition is not deep, and mostly crap, their resumes are crap and they have at least a controversial fight against their best opponents(Lopez with Alvarez and didn't fight Gonzalez/Carabajal, Calderun struggled and got dropped by a bunch of club fighters, Gonzalez arguably lost to a green Estrada.....but the hipsters of boxing have him rated #2 p4p )....not as bad as women's boxing but close.....

[!! Anorak]

BrometheusBob, I agree with your statement. I think we're saying the same thing, just in a different way, really.

It's funny you should bring up Chavez Jr actually, as he built his career on being big for the weight.