If Juan Marquez Is Numero Uno, Where Does Ricardo Lopez Rank?

International Boxing Federation light flyweight (108 pounds) titlist Ricardo Lopez sat on his stool before the eighth round of the last fight of his illustrious professional career.

Seemingly in trouble despite having dominated his opponent, Lopez's cut man dabbed a vaseline-like substance into a deep gash near the furthest, outside corner of the Mexican's left eye -- even as a thick river of blood spilled from another chasm over the right eye on his forehead.

"You're the champion of the world," the cornerman told the aging champion. "You're the best."

With that, the 35-year-old veteran went out and executed as he had so many times before.

Already ahead by four points on two of the judges' cards, and by eight -- a virtual shutout -- on that of the third, Lopez drove Zolani Petelo backward with an overhand right, then fired a left hook-uppercut to the head of his South African rival.

The last punch dropped Petelo to his knees, where the fighter remained while 81-year-old veteran referee, Arthur Mercante, delivered a 10-count signaling Lopez's fourth straight win and his second consecutive knockout before a screaming crowd at New York's Madison Square Garden.

The defense was the fourth straight for Lopez, who improved to 51-0-1 with his 38th knockout during a fight that took place on Sept. 29, 2001 -- 18 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- on the undercard of a 12th-round knockout by Bernard Hopkins over Puerto Rico's Felix Trinidad.

"Ricardo Lopez was a beautiful, beautiful fighter. He did everything right. There were very few flaws in his arsenal," said boxing writer Robert Morales, who has covered the sport for the Los Angeles Daily News for nearly two decades. "He's one of those guys that, if you look at him as a trainer, you say, 'That's how I want my fighter to look.' "

Lopez would retire during an emotional press conference in Mexico City 14 months later, ending a career that comprised a total of 24 title defenses -- including 21 while holding the World Boxing Council title at the straw weight (105 pounds) weight class, which is the lowest in boxing.

But while Mexican gladiators such as Juan Manuel Marquez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales are often mentioned as the country's premiere fighters, there are those who argue that Lopez's diminutive stature has denied him of his rightful place among them.

"I think that the only problem was that Lopez did fight at 105 pounds, and maybe a couple at 108 at the end of his career," said Robert Morales. "The reason he probably never gets the props that he should is that people will always wonder just how much talent and competition there was at 105 pounds. And in a sense, that's a legitimate question."



Lopez never, for example, got a chance to fight former Olympian and Arizona native, Michael Carbajal, a former light flyweight champion who retired as World Boxing Organization champion with a record of 49-4 with 33 knockouts.

"No matter how great your skills and technique are, you still need that dance partner -- that fighter that can press you to your limits and make for a great fight," said Doug Fischer, co-editor of RingTV.com. "But Don King had Lopez, and Bob Arum had Carbajal, and they were feuding at the time. If he gets that fight, and wins it, he's an all-time great."

Pushed by FanHouse to name his top five Latino boxers, all-time, Morales bravely listed Roberto Duran, Salvador Sanchez, Alexis Arguello, Julio Cesar Chavez and Wilfredo Gomez "because I know who they fought and I can assess the competition that they faced," he said.

Morales hinted that Lopez, a 2007 Hall of Fame inductee, could probably slide in at sixth, even though that would put him ahead of countrymen such as Barrera, Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez, the latter of whom is considered among the sport's best, pound-for-pound, entering Saturday's clash with undefeated Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

"The only reason he wouldn't quite make my top five is that I just don't know quite how good his level of competition was," said Morales. "Throughout his career, he was fighting guys who were 105 pounds that none of us really ever saw before except for maybe a handful of guys."

"Finito" Lopez began his career on Jan. 18, 1985, with his first of eight straight knockouts -- this one being in the third round against Rogelio Hernandez in Morelos, Mexico. That run would include another third-round KO, four second-round stoppages, and one each in the first and fifth.

In March 1998, Lopez had battled to a draw with then-unbeaten Nicaraguan, Rosendo Alvarez, but in their November rematch, he won a split decision that began his career-ending four-bout winning streak.

"To an extent, Lopez had Alvarez, but most of the guys he fought were from Thailand, Japan, Puerto Rico, Mexico. Some of the guys he knocked out were bad-asses. But no one necessarily knew that his opponents were tough guys," said Fischer.

"You could say that he's definitely the greatest straw weight of all time," Fischer said. "But again, the only thing that would keep me from saying Lopez is an all-time great is that he didn't fight Carbajal."

Two of the premiere latino fighters were Duran and Julio Cesar Chavez, whose hallmark fights include dethroning champions and former U.S. Olympic gold medalists Sugar Ray Leonard, and, Meldrick Taylor, respectively, during their memorable, trademark victories.

"Guys like Duran and Chavez, those guys had incredible competition to fight throughout their careers, and we don't know that Lopez really had that. There just isn't any way to gauge any of these 105-pounders, which is the problem. If you go down his record, how many of those guys have you ever heard of?" said Morales.

"That said, Ricardo Lopez has the skills that you would want any fighter to have. He wasn't a wild fighter, threw punches from the shoulder, and had a 73-percent knockout ratio," said Morales. "It's not like he was Willie Pep with a 27-percent knockout ratio, this guy could do it all."