Top Ten Mexican Fighters- Part Two

    Ramon Malpica asked for this list and I've put the Cavaliers and Devils off to the side to make this one for him.

We finish the top ten Mexican boxers of all-time with the top five.

The ranking from six through ten with honorable mentions here.

For the purposes of this list- Here are the ground rules.

I am looking at Canelo Alvarez's body of work as if he announced his retirement today and never returned to the ring.

Canelo will have several opportunities to move higher on this list as his career continues, but for now, I am going on what is, not what could happen in the future.

This is also a list that relies heavily on who you defeated and when you defeated them along with nuances such as Marco Antonio Barrera's final loss to Amir Khan doesn't cost him a lot because of the natural weight differential and Canelo Alvarez's KO win over Khan doesn't gain him very much for the same reason.

Also, I did not include the great welterweight Jose Napoles on this list because even though he fought out of Mexico, he was of Cuban Heritage.

Had I included "Mantaquilla", he certainly would have resided in the top ten.

This is not a list of who would have beaten whom in a mystical tournament of peak fighters without weight advantages

You want that in the future?

Perhaps it can be arranged.

On with the countdown in full Casey Kasem voice with the rankings of 1-5 and I expect some controversy here.

1: Julio Cesar Chavez

Chavez was, at one time or another, the best fighter in three different weight divisions, defeated fourteen boxers that were champions at one time, and won his first eighty-seven matches before a draw with Pernell Whitaker.

A ferocious body puncher, Chavez didn't get hit as much as you would think for an aggressive fighter.

Chavez holds the record for title fight wins (31) and title defenses (27 combining all his title reigns) and known for his rock-like chin, Chavez could stand toe to toe or break a retreating boxer down.

About the only bad things that you could say about Chavez were that late in his career, he was more willing to surrender when times were tough ( losses to Oscar De La Hoya and Kostya Tszyu ended with Chavez ending fights in his corner) and the officials helped in his miracle win over Meldrick Taylor (the famous Richard Steele stoppage with two seconds to go) and the draw with Pernell Whitaker (which Whitaker easily deserved the decision).

On the full body of work, Chavez gets the top spot, but some of the other top five have a strong case as well.

2: Ruben Olivares

Rockabye Ruben has a case as the greatest bantamweight ever (although someone below can make an argument) and won the featherweight title on two occasions as well.

A devastating puncher with either hand with 79 of his 89 victories by knockout, Olivares was undefeated in his first sixty-one fights (Olivares did have one draw during this stretch) before winning the world (both WBA and WBC) titles with a 1969 fifth-round knockout of Lionel Rose.

Olivares suffered his first loss by 14th round knockout to Chu Cho Castillo ( listed in Honorable Mention) after decisioning Castillo in the first fight of their trilogy held from April 1970-April 1971 but won the title back from Castillo in their third fight.

The savage battles against Castillo drained Olivares and he was never quite the same fighter after those fights as he defended the title twice before losing to Rafael Herrera in the eighth round.

After losing a majority decision to Herrera in their rematch, Olivares moved up to featherweight, skipping the junior featherweight division.

Olivares won the vacant WBA title but was knocked out by a young Alexis Arguello in his first defense in the thirteenth round.

Two fights later, Olivares massacred a weight-drained Bobby Chacon (the win over Chacon would be the only win over a Hall of Famer for Olivares) in two rounds to win the WBC version of the title but lost in his first defense to David "Poison" Kotey via a split decision.

Olivares would be stopped by Danny "Little Red" Lopez in his next fight and began to decline with losses to Chacon in a rematch, Jose Cervantes and to Eusebio Pedroza in his final attempt to regain the title, although he did have a second-round knockout over future lightweight champion Jose Luis Ramirez.

3: Salvador Sanchez

Had Sanchez not passed away at only 23, Sanchez might have been tops on this list.

Sanchez defended his WBC featherweight crown on nine occasions, defeating a Hall of Famer in Danny "Little Red" Lopez to win his title, stopping Lopez again in their rematch, and defeated two other Hall members by knockout during his reign in Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson.

Legendary for his stamina, Sanchez's heart rate returned to normal during the one minute between rounds and he stopped four opponents between the tenth and fifteenth rounds during his time as champion.

An accurate counterpuncher, Sanchez wasn't always comfortable leading, but could when needed as when he jumped on Wilfredo Gomez and almost ended their anticipated meeting in the first round.

Only Sanchez's death kept him from number one on the list as his passing at 23 kept him from possible fights against WBA champion Eusebio Pedroza in what would have likely been an awkward meshing of styles and possibly Julio Cesar Chavez in what might have been the greatest fight in Mexican boxing history.

Sanchez was only three years older than Chavez and it's likely that the two could have met more than once at junior lightweight or lightweight.

4: Juan Manuel Marquez

A champion at featherweight, junior lightweight, and lightweight, Marquez was hurt more than any of these great fighters by unfavorable judging.

Marquez lost six times after a debut loss by disqualification and all were arguable except for a clear loss to Floyd Mayweather.

One could argue that Marquez won all of the first three fights against Manny Pacquiao ( a draw, split decision, and majority decision, was robbed against Freddie Norwood and Chris John (in John's native Indonesia) and his split decision loss to Timothy Bradley could have been given to either man.

Marquez started his career as a speedy boxer-puncher that threw lots of combinations, ended it as more of an aggressive brawler, and was so good that he was shamelessly ducked for two years by Naseem Hamed as the WBO's mandatory challenger.

Marquez defeated nine fighters that held world titles, holds a win over Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera (which was the difference between their 4th and 6th ranking), and his memorable KO win over certain Hall inductee Manny Pacquiao.

With a few breaks, Marquez could have been number one on the list.

5: Carlos Zarate

Zarate and Ruben Olivares each have a case for best bantamweight ever.

Carrying top-notch power with either fist, Zarate didn't fight as long as Olivares, but his KO percentage is even more impressive with 63 of his 66 wins inside the scheduled distance, his nine defenses of his WBC title outshined Olivares as well (Olivares successfully defended four times) and who could forget his non-unification/unification win over then-WBA champion Alfonso Zamora by fourth-round knockout in Los Angeles?

So, why Olivares second and Zarate fifth?

Zarate never defeated a Hall of Famer, lost two of his three biggest fights in his prime, a fifth-round knockout loss to Wilfredo Gomez that made Gomez a star in an attempt to win the junior featherweight crown and a split decision loss to Lupe Pintor that was a terrible decision by the judges, and his petulant retirement at age 28 rather than fight Pintor again, all work against Zarate. 

Zarate did defeat three fighters that held a championship with his title victory over Rodolfo Martinez, his aforementioned win over Alfonso Zamora, and a title defense over Alberto Davila, who would win his title in 1983.

Zarate would come back seven years later to win ten fights in a row against lesser competition other than a fifth-round knockout over top ten rated Richard Savage, before losing to Hall of Famers Jeff Fenech and Daniel Zaragoza at age 37, retiring for good at age 38, but the retirement cost him plenty of his prime and he could have moved higher on the list with a revenge win over Pintor and maybe a win over WBA champion Jeff Chandler.

If I had to pick a winner of a Zarate-Olivares fight, I think I'd pick Zarate.

But picking the better career, I select Olivares by a sliver.

I hope you enjoyed reading this and thanks to Ramon Malpica for the idea.

If you like this and want similar posts in the future, let me know and spread the word on boxing social media...

Top Ten Mexican Fighters-Part One

  Ramon Malpica recently asked me to write about my opinions on the top ten Mexican fighters of All-Time with the ascension of Canelo Alvarez to arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and Ramon wanted to see where I stack Canelo on the all-time list.

I'm not usually happy with ranking active fighters on any all-time lists.

It is hard to do when you don't know how a fighter will finish a career and so much can change over an active fighter's time in the ring.

For the purposes of this list- Here are the ground rules.

I am looking at Canelo Alvarez's body of work as if he announced his retirement today and never returned to the ring.

Canelo will have several opportunities to move higher on this list as his career continues, but for now, I am going on what is, not what could happen in the future.

This is also a list that relies heavily on who you defeated and when you defeated them along with nuances such as Marco Antonio Barrera's final loss to Amir Khan doesn't cost him a lot because of the natural weight differential and Canelo Alvarez's KO win over Khan doesn't gain him very much for the same reason.

Also, I did not include the great welterweight Jose Napoles on this list because even though he fought out of Mexico, he was of Cuban Heritage.

Had I included "Mantaquilla", he certainly would have resided in the top ten.

This is not a list of who would have beaten whom in a mystical tournament of peak fighters without weight advantages

You want that in the future?

Perhaps it can be arranged.

On with the countdown in full Casey Kasem voice with the rankings of 6-10 and I expect some controversy here.

6: Marco Antonio Barrera

Barrera's career spanned two styles, first as a walk-down murderous puncher and then as a smoother boxer-puncher that could transition into boxing or as an aggressive fighter.

Barrera's three fights with Erik Morales and his two (especially the first) with Kennedy McKinney have to take a back seat to very few for exciting action.

Barrera fought any fighter that you could think of in his career, win or lose, and ducked no one.

Three legitimate world titles from 122-130 pounds, wins over Hall of Famers Erik Morales (twice), Prince Naseem Hamed, and Johnny Tapia, arguable losses to Morales (in fight one) and Juan Manuel Marquez, and fighting Manny Pacquiao twice makes the case for Barrera ahead of Canelo by a hair.

I don't think that it will end up this way, but for now (and I'll explain why) Barrera gets the edge.

7: Canelo Alvarez

A fighter that continues to improve and get better, Canelo Alvarez has wins over two Hall of Famers in an aging Shane Mosley and a small for division Miguel Cotto with a controversial win over eventual Hall of Famer Gennady Golovkin with his only loss to Hall member Floyd Mayweather.

Canelo has fought about anyone that you can think of from 154-175 and with one notable blip has not ducked anyone.

Alvarez has been mildly overrated as a puncher and underrated for his boxing skills but based on the body of work, I hold two things against him that could even out over time.

The first is that he has been very fortunate in his career in getting the benefit of the doubt from judges.

I thought he lost both fights to Gennady Golovkin, although the second was much closer than the first, I thought he lost to Erislandy Lara (but Lara's lack of aggression hurt himself on the cards), and if not for a late knockdown, may have lost to Austin Trout.

The other flaw- I do hold it against him that he didn't fight Gennady Golovkin in GGG's prime as he should have.

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya used every reason from mood rings to small rings to duck GGG after Canelo's great victory over Miguel Cotto.

Canelo was too small, needed time to adjust to the weight, threatened Golovkin constantly that if he scheduled fights and got cut, etc, he might not get a Canelo chance and faced with losing the biggest payday of his career, Golovkin lost the edge that he always held of being in the ring often and keeping his skills sharp.

You can argue that Golovkin traded his advantages for dollars and I'd agree, but the games that took two years to make their fight happen is the major black mark on Canelo's career (even more than Clenbuterol) and considering that many think he lost both fights anyway- the "What If" Canelo had fought Golovkin at his best can never go away.

Canelo has been dominating since the Golovkin fights, is coming into his best days as a fighter and I'd favor him against anyone right now from 160-175 except for Artur Beterbiev, so I'd expect upward movement in the future.

8: Vincente Saldivar

A rare southpaw that liked to brawl. Saldivar has been the forgotten star by many, but he held the unified (WBA and WBC) featherweight titles, defending them eight times before retiring, and then came out of retirement to defeat former (and future) WBC champion Jose Legra, Saldivar would take the WBC title back from Legra's conqueror Johnny Famechon.

Saldivar would lose the title in his first defense and fight only twice more to finish his career.

Saldivar defeated Hall of Famer Sugar Ramos to win his title and also holds a win over another Hall of Famer in Ismael Laguna, but while his competition was world-class, he lacks any other great wins.

A great fighter that would have been remembered by more, if he had been born a little later with the 126-pound division developing great depth in the 70s.

9: Miguel Canto

The slick boxing Canto didn't provide many knockouts (15 in 61 wins), but he rarely was hit, and for fans that enjoy the art of boxing, Canto was certainly a practitioner of that art.

Canto defeated six fighters during his title that would hold a flyweight title during their career and made fourteen title defenses before losing the title to Chan-Hee Park.

Canto would draw with Park in the rematch and never challenge for the title again (although he would beat a future champion in Gabriel Bernal before retirement), but his beautiful boxing style and 14 defenses play in his favor.

The downside? Canto never defeated a fellow Hall member although he holds wins over Shoji Oguma and Betulio Gonzalez, both of whom have a lesser case for enshrinement.

10: Erik Morales

I really wanted to pick Pipino Cuevas here and his ten title defense reign at welterweight made me consider it.

However, Cuevas never defeated a Hall of Famer, and despite ruining the career of Angel Espada, who before he ran into Cuevas, was thought to be headed in the Hall's direction, Pipino lost his biggest fights (to Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran).

Morales fought all the best of his era (except for Juan Manuel Marquez), defeated three Hall of Famers Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera (Morales fought each man three times, finishing 1-2 against both men) and Daniel Zaragoza, and was one of the more exciting fighters of his time.

Add in Morales five other victories over once or future champions and despite a to this day inexplicable loss to the pedestrian Zahir Raheem, I gave Morales a reluctant edge over my childhood favorite, Cuevas.

Honorable Mention- Alphabetical Order.

Note-Cuevas, Lopez, Pintor, and Zaragoza are members of the Hall of Fame.

Chu Cho Castillo- Never defended his WBC bantamweight title, but his three-fight series (1-2) against Ruben Olivares was one of the best rivalries in Mexican boxing history.  

Had there been never been an Olivares, could have been an all-time great.

Jose Luis Castillo- A two-time lightweight champion, put on the best fight that I've ever seen against Diego Corrales, knocked out Corrales in the rematch, and I STILL think he beat Floyd Mayweather in their first fight.

Pipino Cuevas- Ten title defenses, crunching puncher, and arguably the best Mexican boxer ever at 147 pounds or above before Canelo Alvarez.

Ricardo Lopez- 51-0-1 and two division titles, but never beat anyone remotely of Hall of Fame-caliber. 

A great fighter, but hurt by his competition.

Lupe Pintor- Overshadowed by two Hall of Famers in predecessor Carlos Zarate (who Pintor defeated via an awful decision) and fellow champion at the time in American Jeff Chandler.

Pintor defended his bantamweight title eight times, would win a junior featherweight crown, and his 14th round loss to Wilfredo Gomez might have been the best fight of the 80s-which says a lot!

Daniel Zaragoza- a two-division champion, Zaragoza defended his 122-pound title nine times over two reigns and holds a win over Mexican legend Carlos Zarate.

Look for the top five later this week!

My Top Ten Baseball Movies-1-5

My top ten baseball movies conclude today with my top five films.
Keep in mind that these are just what I like and my list may be far different than yours!
Again, please remember that documentaries are not rated.

1) The Natural
You could have taken any of these films and asked on a particular day, which is my favorite and gotten a different answer, but upon careful thought-The Natural wins this.
The film perfectly captures its time (1939) and the surroundings make one think of the parks of the time like the Polo Grounds and Ebbetts Field.
Robert Redford plays like an actual player and swings like Ted Williams and that gives you first place in my rankings!
Darren McGavin is great in an uncredited role as gambler Gus as one of the villains.
Interesting Note: The film was made at Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium, which hosted minor league baseball teams, but is better known as the home of the two time AFL champion Buffalo Bills from 1960-1972.

2) Major League
Major League was going to be a favorite of mine as soon as the film was written to include the Indians and not only was it funny with so many lines that trail baseball fields to this day, but it had so many younger actors that would become stars in both television and film.
Plus it has all of those shots of 1980's Cleveland, even though the film was made in Milwaukee!
Margaret Whitton (who recently passed away) should have been a much bigger star after her tremendous portrayal of the nasty owner of the Tribe-Rachel Phelps.
Interesting Note: The original ending was to have Rachel Phelps tell Lou Brown that her persona' was a charade to motivate the team and she never intended to move the team to Miami.
Screenings preferred Phelps as the villain and the ending was changed.

3) Field of Dreams
This movie features lots of great performances from Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan among others and every son has to be touched at one time or the other by the 'catch scene" at the end of the movie.
Similar to For the Love of the Game, another Costner vehicle, baseball is what ties all the film together.
It may be overly sentimental, but if you ever played baseball with your dad-it gets you every time.
Interesting Note: Ray Liotta played Shoeless Joe Jackson as a righthanded batter when he actually was a lefty swinger.
The people involved with the film decided to lose a little historical accuracy to gain with Liotta looking like a legitimate player batting his natural righthanded stance.

4) Eight Men Out
The only film that is based on a real team, the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
It tells the story reasonably accurately and the baseball holds up as well.
The young stars of the film (Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, and D.B.Sweeney) all look like real ballplayers.
The only downside is the bad guy gamblers that set the scandal up are pretty much the stereotypical bad guys without any fleshing out.
Interesting Note: D.B.Sweeney actually played pro baseball briefly with the Kenosha Twins.

5) Mr.Baseball
I'm not the biggest Tom Selleck fan in the world, but he was perfect for this role as a former major league star with faded skills that carries his name to the Chunichi Dragons of the NPB in Japan.
The story is based on former Expo Warren Cromartie's Japanese career and it explains many of the differences between Japanese baseball and American.
It's not drop-dead hilarious overall, but if you are a hardcore seamhead, this film is worth a look.
Interesting Note: The love interest of Selleck in the film (Aya Takanashi) is reported to have left show business after this film.

Hope you enjoyed this two-part series.
I might do another one sometime maybe with other sports films.

My Top Ten Baseball Movies:6-10

I'm back with a post that was going to go up while I was gone, but wifi woes on the final night of my trip waxed that board for me.
I'll be dropping road trip posts later this week on Augusta, Kannapolis, Winston-Salem, and Danville along with all the usual stories from the road.
Until then, enjoy this and the final part of the feature that I'll post later today or Wednesday!


Movies, like so many things, are subjective.
We all have things that touch us, things that we know may not be great art, but make us howl with laughter and others that just are entertaining for other reasons.

Considering that, this and a future post with my top five choices for baseball films are subjective.
Documentaries are not included as there may be a future list for sports documentaries.
Your list may not rank with mine and some may make you wonder just what I'm thinking, but lists are usually fun to make, so here go my favorite baseball movies from 6 through 10!

6) Bull Durham
                          This might be lower than many have it rated, but it's still a fun movie.
Kevin Costner hits well as the aging vagabond "hired gun" that those of us on the minor league scene see all the time-especially in AA baseball and Tim Robbins as the young wild fireballer offers inspired work as well, although he does look a little older for the role than I'd like.
I've never been much of a Susan Sarandon fan, so that might have kept this out of the top five.
Interesting note; In some of the game action, you'll see Hagerstown Suns uniforms and players against the Durham Bulls, but they are usually announced as the Peninsula Pilots!

7) A League of Their Own
The story of the short-lived women's baseball league didn't make a lot of mistakes in the surroundings, although I would have preferred that they just used the actual name of P.K.Wrigley instead of the pseudonym "Walter Harvey" for the league founder (and Cubs owner) played by Garry Marshall.
Lots of ladies in this movie went onto major and minor roles in television and films even on the opposing team as Tea' Leoni and Janet Jones (Mrs.Wayne Gretzky) were on the rival Racine team.
Geena Davis was sensational in her role, but Tom Hanks as "Jimmy Dugan" (based on Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx, who actually managed in the league) stole every scene he was in.
Love the little kid dancing around pointing at Dugan and taunting him with "You're gonna lose, you stink" before being drilled by a thrown glove! Got him, indeed!!
Interesting Note: Geena Davis says that the film has baseball, but not baseballs as they used spongy baseballs to not hit the cameramen

8) Major League II
This sequel isn't quite as good as the original mainly for two reasons.
One is the Indians home field moved from decrepit "Cleveland Stadium" (the filming was actually in Milwaukee County Stadium) to the unnamed stadium (This was Baltimore's Camden Yards).
Camden was a much better stadium, but its quality takes away a little from the grit of the original.
The other? The new characters (except one) didn't really make the cut for me, although Omar Epps was good enough replacing Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes.
I did think Jack Parkman (David Keith) was great as the villain of the film, Randy Quaid was hilarious as the angry fan and it still had several great scenes that I love and recite even now.
Interesting note: The movie never acknowledges the new stadium, even though the Indians had moved to Jacobs Field when this film was released.

9) Bad News Bears-1976
Ahead of its time in dealing with the hypocrisy of little league baseball, this film had so many things that were funny, yet offensive and a word for word remake couldn't be made today, which is why the remake despite having Billy Bob Thornton isn't nearly as good.
It's funny with a few flaws. Kelly Leak is said to be 13 or 14 in the movie (which is too old for little league play) and it's not hard to see Jackie Earle Haley isn't hitting the ball and Tatum O'Neal is clearly a boy pitching in a wig for her scenes.
Still, the kids are a riot and Walter Matthau was the perfect casting as the burned-out manager...
Interesting Note: Yankee pitcher Joey Turner was played by Brandon Cruz, who a few years earlier had been "Eddie" as the child star in the TV series "Courtship of Eddie's Father". 

10) Bad News Bears-Breaking Training
Even though this movie doesn't quite match the original, I can't help myself to watch it almost every time that MLB network shows it and that's a lot.
It's different because it lacks the social commentary, but it has many scenes that you remember to this day-Who hasn't done the "let them play" chant from the big game at least once in everyday life?
Combine that with cheesy current gold shill William Devane coaching in an old army jacket and you have a funny film.
Besides the real star is my beloved Astrodome with shots of the stadium inside and out along with those great 1970's Astros uniforms with the rainbow stripes and Astros of the age!
Name another movie that you get this-"Look, guys, it's Bob Watson and Cesar Cedeno"!!!
Interesting Note: Brett Marx as third baseman "Jimmie Feldman" is the grandson of "Gummo" Marx.

Bonus: Cobb
Tommy Lee Jones is terrific as the older Ty Cobb, but the baseball segments really show his age and take away from the film a bit.
Robert Wuhl has never been a favorite and that might be what kept Cobb out of my top ten.
Still, some great lines and Lou Myers as Willie, who quits as an employee of Cobb's owns his few scenes in the film,
Jones and Myers's scenes together alone are enough to watch this film if you never have watched it previously!

Honorable Mention-No particular order.
61-The Mantle/Maris story is told well and the casting of the pair is excellent. Just missed.

The Sandlot-Some would put this far higher, but it doesn't bring the nostalgia to me that Breaking Training does.

The Rookie-Dennis Quaid is great as Jim Morris, but a little too much time in Texas and not enough in the minors hurt its grade.

For the Love of the Game-More of a love story wrapped around a baseball game, but enough baseball to make it watchable.
Kevin Costner and John C.Reilly are great as aging and grizzled batterymates.

The Scout-Albert Brooks is my pick as the underrated comic genius of my time and he carries Brendan Fraser (who is a little better than normal here) to a pretty decent film with tons of cameos from baseball celebrities.