Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

  It's time for another series of tributes, and we start with an underrated all-time great in his field.

Goodbye to Dennis Condrey at the age of 74.

"Loverboy" Dennis Condrey was part of the greatest tag team in the history of professional wrestling (my opinion) with partner "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton and manager Jim Cornette to comprise the Midnight Express.

Condrey was a veteran of the three Tennessee territories before getting his big break in 1983 with Mid-South Wrestling, with Eaton and Cornette using the name "Midnight Express" for their team, which Condrey and Randy Rose had used before the move to Mid-South.

Condrey and Eaton would win and lose the NWA world tag team titles against the Rock N Roll Express before Condrey's famous 1987 disappearance, which would lead to Stan Lane as Condrey's replacement in the Midnight Express.

Condrey returned to wrestling with Randy Rose in the AWA, winning the dying federation's tag team titles as the original Midnight Express before moving to the NWA with their famous studio attack on the Jim Cornette version of the Express.

Goodbye to Miguel Canto at the age of 78.

The long-time holder of the WBC flyweight title in the 1970s, Canto defended his title fourteen times from 1975 to 1979.

Known for his silky smooth boxing, Canto lacked any type of power and scored only fifteen knockouts in his sixty-one victories.

Canto lost his title in South Korea to Chan-Hee Park in 1979 but nearly regained it in the rematch, also in South Korea, drawing with Park in a controversial decision.

Goodbye to Claude Lemieux at the age of 60.

The scrappy and controversial Lemieux was known for his ability to get under his opponents' skin and for his excellent play in the postseason.

Lemieux won four Stanley Cups, two with New Jersey and one each with Colorado and Montreal, and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP for the 1995 champion Devils.

Lemieux was an underrated scorer, scoring 25 goals or more nine times in his career, with a high of 41 in 1991-92 with New Jersey.

Lemieux scored 379 goals in his career, with eighty more in postseason play.

Goodbye to John Garrett at the age of 74.

Garrett played for four teams in the WHA and three others after the merger with the NHL and finished his WHA career with a record of 148-151, the most losses for a goaltender in league history.

Garrett became an analyst after his retirement with the Vancouver Canucks. In recent years, Garrett covered other teams for Rogers Sportsnet.

Goodbye to Stacey King at the age of 59.

An All-American at Oklahoma, where he led the Sooners to the National title game. King was a firsr round draft choice by the Chicago Bulls in 1989.

King would play for three championship teams with the Bulls and would play for four other teams before retiring in 1999.

King has spent the last twenty years in various roles with the Bulls local broadcast team as a beloved figure in the Chicago area.

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!