Were The 2000’s To Early 2010’s A Golden Age For Punchers Around 118-126?

[franciscojavier]

I keep thinking about this, in the first 13 years or so of the 21st century you have a large abundance of huge punchers in this weight range, which typically is not the case. Off the top of my head:Daniel Ponce de León, Jhonny González, JuanMa López, Tim Austin, Rafael Márquez, Israel Vásquez, Orlando Salido, Gerry Peñalosa, plus some more names I’m forgetting. Also, you had 4 fighters who are not thought of today as big punchers because they moved up but had absolute dynamite in their gloves at 126(Robert Guerrero, Jorge Linares, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Mikey García), and Nonito Donaire moving up to spark some guys when he was still at his peak. Some accomplished more than others, but most of them fought each other and a lot of my personal favorite fights involve 1 or both fighters from this list.

What are your thoughts on that era and what are other periods of lower weight class punchers you look back at fondly?

[gilgamesh]

Well the late 70's and early 80's definitely had a slow of monstrous punchers in this weight range.

Carlos Zarate
Ruben Olivares
Alfonso Zamora
Wilfredo Gomez
Danny Lopez
Bobby Chacon

Not all of these guys fought each other, but a lot of 'em did. There were other great fighters around their weight range at the time, but these guys were the monstrous hitters of their era. And to be honest they were even bigger hitters than the modern era guys.

I think the majority of all Zamora fights ended in KO one way or another. Same with Zarate I think.

Wilfredo Gomez had a sh*t of title defenses by KO at 122, and is the all time most dominant champ at the weight.

That being said I have a huge fondness for the record you mention, and you I always thought it was a damn shame we never got Rafael Marquez vs Jhonny Gonzalez at 118. That's one of the biggest fights from the era I didn't get that I wanted to see.

[franciscojavier]

Oh yeah the 70’s/80’s era was insane. Throw in Lupe Pintor as well. Also one of my favorite obscure champions ever, Jaime Garza, who was 40-0 with 38 KO’s before suffering his first defeat that changed him forever(kind of like Zamora actually)

[gilgamesh]

Oh yeah the 70’s/80’s era was insane. Throw in Lupe Pintor as well. Also one of my favorite obscure champions ever, Jaime Garza, who was 40-0 with 38 KO’s before suffering his first defeat that changed him forever(kind of like Zamora actually)

Yes Zamora was 29-0 with 29 KO's at one point, and I believe he ended his career at 33-5 with 32 KO's. I'm going off the top of my head here, but I think that's right.

[Ambling Alp II]

A lot of huge punchers mentioned. Lots of guys that were fun to watch. Probably some other era that we aren't thinking of was pretty good too.

[gilgamesh]

A lot of huge punchers mentioned. Lots of guys that were fun to watch. Probably some other era that we aren't thinking of was pretty good too.

There are definitely other great eras, and great fighters from this weight range, but I can't think of many other eras where there were so many big punchers all gathered in the same weight class at the same time. Usually there'll be 1 or 2 big bangers, and a variety of other fight styles.

These 2 eras had a lot of action fighters that were big hitters. A rare treat for fight fans when a lot of those types come along at the same time because the fights between any of them are bound to be fireworks.