We had a very good post some weeks back about over forty years old fighters. As I recall Archie Moore won hands down. So how about the other side? Who do you guys think were the top under 21 years old fighters? I'm thinking Floyd Patterson, Wilfred Benetiz, and Mike Tyson would be worthy of mention. What do you think?
Dec, you forgot Saensak Muangsurin who won the WBC Light welterweight title in his third pro fight in 1975, lost it in his second defense, avenged the loss, and defended it seven more times before losing it to Sang Hyun Kim.
Interesting stuff, I'm not that familiar with some of the Asian fighters mentioned so thanks for the input. I believe that Leon Spinks was like 24 or 25 when he beat Ali however.
Jeff Fenech won a world title in his seventh proffesional fight. Alexis Argello started out very young as well as alot of South and Central American fighters.
The best of them, for me, has to be Wilfred Benitez. A world champ at 17 for christsakes. A great counterpunching technician out of the top drawer, and with good power, at such an early age. I remember him beating our own Maurice Hope to become a 3 weight world champ. It's incredible to think he was still only 22/3 at the time with wins against great fighters like Cervantes and Palomino and a chessmatch loss to one of the ATG WWs in Leonard before then.
