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I'm by no means a Loma superfan, but it's still annoying to see people try and put down great boxers just to diminish some guy they don't like. In what universe are Russel, Linares and Rigondeaux not top-level fighters? Other than Loma there's nobody else at their respective weight classes that I would be confident of beating any one of them - if that doesn't count as "elite" then the term is essentially meaningless.
The only one whose "elite" status is questionable is Walters imo, despite what OP asserts I don't think he was ever really p4p material. His advantages were more down to being big for the weight and having a big punch, in terms of actual skills he was relatively crude. Despite his wins over Donaire and Darchinyan being impressive they were more down to size and weight advantages against opponents coming up in weight, when he fought against someone closer to his own size in Marriaga he wasn't anywhere near as impressive. Don't get me wrong, he was decent, but if there was talk of him being p4p it was probably contingent on him beating Loma, and we all know how that went.
The only one whose "elite" status is questionable is Walters imo, despite what OP asserts I don't think he was ever really p4p material. His advantages were more down to being big for the weight and having a big punch, in terms of actual skills he was relatively crude. Despite his wins over Donaire and Darchinyan being impressive they were more down to size and weight advantages against opponents coming up in weight, when he fought against someone closer to his own size in Marriaga he wasn't anywhere near as impressive. Don't get me wrong, he was decent, but if there was talk of him being p4p it was probably contingent on him beating Loma, and we all know how that went.
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