One of my Twitter followers (I'd happily give him credit if I knew his name) read my annual tweet boosting these two fighters and asked about the lesser-known of the two.
That led to the idea of making the case for Argentina's Santos Laciar and while my other choice, former welterweight, and junior middleweight champion Donald Curry of Texas is better known to voters, I'm willing to wager that few have even seen Laciar fight on YouTube, let alone in his day.
Santos Laciar won championships in two divisions (flyweight and junior bantam), made eleven defenses at flyweight (all during his second of two flyweight reigns), and fought eleven fighters who either were at the time, had been in the past or would be in the future, titleholders ( defeating seven of them), defeated Hilario Zapata, who is currently in the hall and split three bouts with Gilberto Roman (each man won one fight and their first fight was a draw) for the WBC (and linear) junior bantamweight title, who made eleven defenses of his own at 115 pounds before dying in an automobile accident.
Santos Laciar fought over 100 times in compiling a record of 79-10-11 (yes, 11 draws mostly accumulated at the start of his career) with 31 knockouts.
The Laciar reign at flyweight (he held the WBA title) looks even better when you consider his eleven defenses came to an end only when Laciar had cleaned out the division to move up in weight and that during his over three-year reign that the WBC version (the IBF and WBO didn't exist yet) was held by a whopping seven boxers, one of which (Prudencio Cardona) was knocked out by Laciar.
Laciar defended his titles around the world including France, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, and Italy, so he was not a fighter that hid in his native Argentina, where Laciar would make only four of his eleven defenses at home.
Laciar was fighting ten-round bouts in his fifth pro bout, which wasn't uncommon in the lighter-weight divisions in the 1970s, and collected his first of those eleven draws.
Laciar was a fun and entertaining fighter to watch as he fought in a suffocating and aggressive style that wore down opponents often scoring stoppages late in fights in the still 15-round era.
And his chin was strong and sturdy as he was never stopped in any of his ten losses via knockout or even via cut.
Laciar was even nicknamed the "little Galindez" for his bull-like rushes that reminded many of Laciar's countryman the two-time WBA light heavyweight champion and 2002 HOF inductee, Victor Galindez.
All of these things considered, what's the problem in getting Laciar enshrined in the Hall?
To start, many of the voters have never even seen Laciar fight to my knowledge only two of his fights were ever televised in the United States, neither of those on network television, and both of those came at the end of his career- his title loss to Sugar Baby Rojas in Miami and his loss to Roman in their third bout at the Forum in Inglewood.
The lack of exposure is understandable as there had not been an American champion at flyweight since Frankie Genaro in 1931 (there would not be one until Danny Romero in 1995) and the division was essentially ignored by American networks because of the lack of an American presence.
Laciar's junior bantamweight reign also was not of interest for television other than to the then-fledgling regional cable networks with the division only starting in 1980 and again lacked American contenders (there wouldn't be an American champion (until the late 1990s when greats like Johnny Tapia and Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson along with power-punching Danny Romero) to match Laciar against.
The only other mark that I could imagine being held against Laciar could be competition.
Despite Laciar's record against boxers that held championships, I think among those voters that haven't really looked into his record, it hurts him that he only fought one boxer in the hall (a 15-round decision over Hilario Zapata), although if Gilberto Roman not perished, he might have been on his way to HOF consideration.
In my opinion, the deck is stacked against fighters like Laciar, who often have to wait until fighters of his age reach the "Old-Timers' portion, which was changed to having their last bout no later than 1988 (Laciar's last match was in 1990).
Two great champions at light flyweight and flyweight never received the votes to get in without the voting base that recognized their greatness in the Modern category in Japan's Yoko Gushiken and Masao Ohba would have likely never been inducted without the Old Timers category and Laciar may have to wait until then for his induction.
Waiting until the day that the Old-Timers division expands its eligibility standards strikes me as unfair to Santos Laciar, who is more than qualified for induction, but is being held out by a system and its voters that handicap his entry by more famous, more exposed, and sometimes even with lighter resume's boxers.
Sometimes, it's about more than just a great career, it's about getting the right people to see your career.
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