BoxRec

I've decided to go right down to minimum/straw weight today, to showcase arguably the greatest very little man of them all, Ricardo Lopez

He was dominant throughout his career, stopping an impressive 38 of 52 opponents and of those who went the distance, the decisions were decisive and one sided......All except one.
Rosendo Alvarez handed him the only small blemish on his professional record, a 8th round TD, followed by a split decision victory for Lopez. (apparently he was undefeated as an amateur and pro at this point.)

Both bout's had an element of controversy surrounding them,
In the first Lopez was stripped of the WBO title prior to the bout and a controversial WBC Butt ruling, is said to have robbed Alvarez of the win

https://youtu.be/wmSrKvFOT_Q

In the second, Alvarez getting stripped of the WBA title following the unsuccessful weigh-in. Lopez kept the belts but had been stripped of his WBA and WBC titles for deciding to fight Will Grigsby in his next fight

https://youtu.be/snolvE9xlAA

Previous weeks bouts
Week 1 - Leonard/Hearns.- http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=207995
Week 2 - Olivarez/Castillo 1 - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=208158
Week 3 - Emile Griffith vs Nino Benvenuti - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=208339
Week 4 - Salvador Sanchez vs Danny Lopez - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=208467
Week 5 - Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=208651
Week 6 - Henry Armstrong - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=208877
Week 7 - Carlos Monzon - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=209080
Week 8 - Legends of light fly weight -
http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=209294
Week 9 - Basillio/Gavilan - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=209579
Week 10 - Jimmy Young - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=209738


Main thread - http://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f ... e#p4571725

I'm going to sit on the supplementary bouts for a day or so and see if someone would like to suggest a couple. I don't know much about Finito, so I think I picked the best bouts above, as far as being competitive is concerned.
I'll let you guys tell me which fights I could post that demonstrates the man at his very best. I'm sure there's a few dominant masterclasses out there

I think basically with Lopez it's either the Alvarez fights- the second of which was brilliant- or one sided beat down/master classes.

Plan to get back on this challenge.

I've seen the two Alvarez Lopez fights recently and the second was an excellent contest.

Don't really know how good the standard was then whilst Lopez is considered the best Minimumweight ever he seems to be critisized for not moving up when there would have been good fights.

Got to be in my top 5 most overrated fighters ever. Before anyone has a seizure, he was great.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Got to be in my top 5 most overrated fighters ever. Before anyone has a seizure, he was great.

Haven't seen enough to judge, but that's what we can learn here.
His record certainly seems impressive, regardless of the relative strength of opposition, 51-0-1 is a damn fine record but of course there is every chance that is a heavily padded winning run. Julio Cesar Chavez showed us you can accumulate a 51 fight unbeaten record + a few title defenses without ever really stretching yourself and Deontay Wilder is probably on route to do the same now

I'll stick a couple supplementary fights on and give them all a watch over the coming week and get back to you whether I agree if he's over-rated or not

Watched
https://youtu.be/6dT3mf95nwg
First title against Hideyuki Ohashi in Japan. Boxed and moved really well, making Ohashi look pedestrian. Picked his shots well, had good hand speed and power and finished it conclusively

https://youtu.be/pUYNOfVB_Is
The name Saman Sorjaturong jumped off the page on youtube. I'd watched this a couple weeks ago, in the 1995 Ring FOTY KO7 win over Humberto Gonzalez. Lopez made easy work of him, the right hand that dropped him in the 1st was sweet then he just finished the job in the 2nd

https://youtu.be/zXNMr3u55oU
Kyung Yung Lee in Korea
https://youtu.be/-xG_8-vRWUg
Pretty boy Lucas
Both of these were fairly dominant points decisions against fairly limited opposition, the first fought on the back foot boxing nicely the second largely in the role as stalker

I'll update this as I go, but I'm not seeing too many chinks in his armour just yet

davie wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Got to be in my top 5 most overrated fighters ever. Before anyone has a seizure, he was great.

Haven't seen enough to judge, but that's what we can learn here.
His record certainly seems impressive, regardless of the relative strength of opposition, 51-0-1 is a damn fine record but of course there is every chance that is a heavily padded winning run. Julio Cesar Chavez showed us you can accumulate a 51 fight unbeaten record + a few title defenses without ever really stretching yourself and Deontay Wilder is probably on route to do the same now

I'll stick a couple supplementary fights on and give them all a watch over the coming week and get back to you whether I agree if he's over-rated or not

At least by the time Chavez racked up 51 he had wins over the likes of Lockridge, Laporte and Mayweather.

Until he fought Alvarez I don't think Lopez had any wins even on that level, never mind a real marquee win.

Counter-puncher wrote:

davie wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Got to be in my top 5 most overrated fighters ever. Before anyone has a seizure, he was great.

Haven't seen enough to judge, but that's what we can learn here.
His record certainly seems impressive, regardless of the relative strength of opposition, 51-0-1 is a damn fine record but of course there is every chance that is a heavily padded winning run. Julio Cesar Chavez showed us you can accumulate a 51 fight unbeaten record + a few title defenses without ever really stretching yourself and Deontay Wilder is probably on route to do the same now

I'll stick a couple supplementary fights on and give them all a watch over the coming week and get back to you whether I agree if he's over-rated or not

At least by the time Chavez racked up 51 he had wins over the likes of Lockridge, Laporte and Mayweather.

Until he fought Alvarez I don't think Lopez had any wins even on that level, never mind a real marquee win.

I can see why folk would have been frustrated. Looking at the timeline, during Ricardo's reign, you look at the guys who operated at light flyweight, Gonzalez and Carbajal and there is some obvious interesting match ups if he stepped up

How do you think he might have coped with those guys?

That's the frustrating part, I think he boxes their heads off.

davie wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Got to be in my top 5 most overrated fighters ever. Before anyone has a seizure, he was great.

Haven't seen enough to judge, but that's what we can learn here.
His record certainly seems impressive, regardless of the relative strength of opposition, 51-0-1 is a damn fine record but of course there is every chance that is a heavily padded winning run. Julio Cesar Chavez showed us you can accumulate a 51 fight unbeaten record + a few title defenses without ever really stretching yourself and Deontay Wilder is probably on route to do the same now

I'll stick a couple supplementary fights on and give them all a watch over the coming week and get back to you whether I agree if he's over-rated or not

Great talent, probably the best straw ever. I never give a fighter shit for not moving up, but I've seen many people say he's the best Mexican ever and fairly consensus top 5. He might make my top 15. He could have went for carbajal or too sharp for a shot at undeniable legend and he didn't. His resume tops Erik Morales? Maybe on fantasy island.

Lopez vs Alvarez

1. 10 - 9 Lopez
2. 8 - 10 Alvarez
3. 10 - 9 Lopez
4. 10 - 9 Lopez
5. 9 - 10 Alvarez
6. 10 - 9 Lopez
7. 9 - 9 (Alvarez had point deducted due to butt ruling)

66-65 Lopez (I would have had it a draw if not for the butt)

Not the greatest controversy, I can see the reasoning behind the ruling
I would question the corner though, stopping the fight on a cut that didn't look like an inevitable fight-ender.
They obviously thought they were being smart and assumed they were ahead on the cards. Dodgy bastards

The chinks aren't in his armour, it's the resume.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:The chinks aren't in his armour, it's the resume.

Can't argue with that

Still, who has a better minimum weight resume?

davie wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:The chinks aren't in his armour, it's the resume.

Can't argue with that

Still, who has a better minimum weight resume?

I wouldn't say anyone does, but how about Erik Morales? All time Mexicans. He was a book of technique, I liked him. The whole internet thing I almost feel like people historically overrate him p4p to prove their boxing snobness by rating a straw. I think Roman beats him, but the destruction if surjaturong was wicked impressive. It's just such flawed logic to order them by your opinion on h2h. Unless you were never wrong before, like kalan.

Great little fighter in my view. Certainly a top 100 pound per pound ATG. His achievements in boxing are off the chain. Only knock against him was that he didn't step up in class to face the Michael Carbajals, Chiquita Gonzalez, Mark Johnsons and Jorge "Travieso" Arces of the world.

But at his weight class, he was the man. He made about 20 title defenses in that strawweight class and cleaned up the division. Never lost a fight. Great technical skills. He was a complete fighter.

Lopez vs Alvarez 2

1. 10 - 9 Lopez
2. 10 - 9 Lopez
3. 9 - 10 Alvarez
4. 10 - 9 Lopez
5. 10 - 9 Lopez
6. 9 - 10 Alvarez
7. 10 - 9 Lopez
8. 10 - 10 Even
9. 10 - 9 Lopez
10. 10 - 9 Lopez
11. 9 - 10 Alvarez
12. 10 - 10 Even

Really good scrap

I had read this a bit ago about Lopez and Humberto Gonzalez


Thought it was worth posting.

http://www.ringtv.com/415655-shared-enm ... rdo-lopez/

Naandrew wrote:I had read this a bit ago


Thought it was worth posting.

http://www.ringtv.com/415655-shared-enm ... rdo-lopez/

Didn't realise they were in the same gym.

I thing it would have made a great fight.

It certainly looks like Lopez was protected to a degree.

but when you consider Gonzalez competed at 108 for over a decade and weighed in as low as 106 at times, you have to say it's a 2 way thing.
If he really wanted it there's no reason he couldn't have shed a couple more pounds and fought him at strawweight

davie wrote:Watched
https://youtu.be/6dT3mf95nwg
First title against Hideyuki Ohashi in Japan. Boxed and moved really well, making Ohashi look pedestrian. Picked his shots well, had good hand speed and power and finished it conclusively

https://youtu.be/pUYNOfVB_Is
The name Saman Sorjaturong jumped off the page on youtube. I'd watched this a couple weeks ago, in the 1995 Ring FOTY KO7 win over Humberto Gonzalez. Lopez made easy work of him, the right hand that dropped him in the 1st was sweet then he just finished the job in the 2nd

https://youtu.be/zXNMr3u55oU
Kyung Yung Lee in Korea
https://youtu.be/-xG_8-vRWUg
Pretty boy Lucas
Both of these were fairly dominant points decisions against fairly limited opposition, the first fought on the back foot boxing nicely the second largely in the role as stalker

I'll update this as I go, but I'm not seeing too many chinks in his armour just yet

He was amazing. Just wish he had fought a couple of those already mentioned.