By Gerardo Granados: While doing a research related to the pound for pound all time boxer per weight division I noticed something odd. When we talk about the heavyweights, middleweights or welterweights it can become hard to have a consensus on who the greatest of all is and for sure we will spend time discussing without agreeing on a name. But even if the reader can name who is the best on the rest of the weight divisions, many casual fans won’t have a clue and even a few pseudo boxing fans who despise boxers who fight on the lower weight divisions won’t even have any interest to answer.
If I ask who the best heavyweight of all is, I bet many readers will answer Muhammad Ali, I would say the Brown Bomber Joe Louis and the Galveston Giant Jack Johnson are above him.
If I was to ask who the best cruiserweight of all is, I guess we could agree that Evander Holyfield should be the one.
Who the best light heavyweight is? We might need a couple of beers from this weight division down to the light flyweight to discuss it and also to have some fun arguing about it. Who the best lightweight is? I will assure you Roberto Manos de Piedra Duran is the best but I bet some readers will name Benny Leonard or Joe Gans.
As I stated on the opening line I found something odd. No, it is not finding out who is the all-time best strawweight / minimum boxer, because I doubt we would find anyone more deserving than Ricardo Finito Lopez. What I noticed is that The Ring Magazine has never awarded their belt to any strawweight / minimum weight boxer.
Maybe young fight fans aren’t acquainted with Finito so I will tell you why he is considered to be one of the best boxers who ever laced a pair of gloves.
Ricardo Lopez held a total fight record of W51(38)-L0-D1, a title fight record of W25(19)-L0-D1, also former WBC-WBA-WBO minimum and IBF light fly Champion. After a record 12 years as an undefeated world champion Lopez retired and now is a boxing analyst for Mexican TV.
Finito´s notable wins came against WBC-WBA minimum Hideyuki Ohashi, IBF minimum Kyung-Yung Lee, WBC-IBF light fly Saman Sorjaturong, IBF minimum Manny Melchor, WBO minimum Kermin Guardia, WBO minimum Alex Sanchez, WBA minimum – light fly / The Ring Belt light fly Rosendo Alvarez, two times IBF light fly Will Grigsby, two times IBF minimum Ratanapol Sor Vorapin, and IBF minimum Zolani Petelo. His only draw came against Rosendo Alvarez.
Back in March 1998, the WBC Champion Ricardo Finito Lopez with an undefeated record of 47 wins, 36 knockouts and no draws (his twenty-first defense of his title) fought against the undefeated WBA Champion Rosendo Alvarez with a record of 24 wins, 17 knockouts and no draws (fifth defense). A draw was ruled after an accidental headbutt occurred in the eighth round and a cut on Lopez right eye resulted.
I find out that when the Ring Magazine number one and two ranked boxers fight each other, then they are able to win the Ring Belt. So, by the time Lopez and Alvarez fought to that draw, they were ranked one and two respectively by The Ring.
Only eight months later, in November 1998 they fought again, being Finito the winner by split decision in a fight of the year nominee. Hey, if by any chance the reader hasn’t seen this bout, then I strongly suggest searching for it to enjoy a great fight.
On the Ring Magazine special issue of April 1999 “the 1998 in review”, both are ranked one and two. So, if they were still ranked number one and two by the time of their rematch. Then I guess the winner could have been awarded the prestigious Ring Belt.
I wasn’t able to confirm the ranks they had by the time of their rematch, so I cannot confirm to the readers if the winner should have been considered to receive the Ring Belt. But none the less, maybe one of the readers could bring light into the discussion and say if indeed both still were ranked one and two.
If they still were ranked one and two as I suppose. Yes, only speculatively speaking, then Finito Lopez should have won the strawweight / minimum Ring Magazine Belt, becoming the first ever strawweight / minimum boxer to have won it.
I would like to find the answer to this enigma. But what about the reader, can you help out to solve it?