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...

Eusebio Pedroza and the fight that never happened

Salvador Sanchez has become the "James Dean" of boxing after his death from an auto accident in 1982 and deservedly so.
Sanchez defeated about every great fighter that you could face in defending his WBC featherweight title including Hall of Famers Danny "Little Red" Lopez, Wilfredo Gomez and Azumah Nelson, future champion Juan LaPorte and fighters that had championship ability but came along at the wrong time such as Ruben Castillo and Patrick Ford, but there was one fighter that Sanchez did not face and even though this man wasn't nearly smooth or as classically smooth as Salvador Sanchez, most observers believe that a Salvador Sanchez-Eusebio Pedroza fight would have been a pick-em fight.

Eusebio Pedroza passed away yesterday at 61 from cancer and despite holding the record for featherweight title defenses with 19 successful defenses of his WBA title, entering the boxing hall of fame and many appearances on American television, never seemed to receive the credit that he deserved.
Even though a Sanchez-Pedroza fight was so intriguing to consider and which fighter had the edge, to the best of my knowledge, such a fight was never seriously close to occurring and that fight ranks near the top of my "Best fights that never happened, but could/should have".
Remember, while boxing fans gripe about the four world titles today (myself included), even in the two title era, title unifications rarely happened.
Right off the top of my head, the unification fights that happened in the first half of the 80s during Pedroza and Sanchez's reigns were Michael Spinks-Dwight Muhammad Qawi at light heavyweight, Marvin Hagler's middleweight titles were still unified from the 70s, Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns at welterweight and that was pretty much the slate of unification fights.
In other words, they usually had to be such a big fight that plenty of money was to be made and that meant closed-circuit television or at least HBO in a time where HBO usually only put fights of mainstream interest on their platform- as well known as both fighters were to the American audience, a fight between the two wasn't big enough to reach that level, but was too big for the networks and with Pedroza being promoted by Bob Arum and Sanchez was part of the Don King team, it was caught in the too big to be small and too small to be big trap, which sounds very familiar to the current boxing fan.

The success of Pedroza was surprising when he won the WBA featherweight title in 1978 with a 13th round knockout of Cecilio Lastra when you consider that his previous title challenge at bantamweight ended with a second-round knockout at the hands of Alfonso Zamora.
Even though Zamora ranks as one of the biggest punchers in boxing history, a questionable chin at bantamweight generally doesn't improve at featherweight, so one wouldn't have been questioned had an observer wondered about Pedroza's long term possibilities.

What we didn't know about the lanky (5'8 is taller at 126 pounds) Panamanian was these two factors that would stand out when watching his title defenses.
One of these was that Pedroza "stretched the rules" which like countryman Roberto Duran could be considered "dirty" and the other played along with that factor as Pedroza was a very underrated fighter inside for a fighter that had the build of a boxer that would be better suited to box from long range.
Watching the "Tactics" of Pedroza on television made Pedroza almost a pro wrestling type heel as a fighter that fans watched with hopes that he would be defeated and usually not speaking English is a disadvantage in attracting viewers, but I always thought for Pedroza it was an advantage because he came off so arrogant and almost regal.
Sometimes, when you say nothing it can mean more than saying a lot, and Pedroza used his lack of English to intimidate opponents despite not possessing classic KO power.

Pedroza racked up wins over quality fighters as well with wins over Hall of Famer Ruben Olivares (although Olivares was close to used up by that time), champions Royal Kobayashi, Jorge Lujan, Juan LaPorte, and Rocky Lockridge, and a draw against undefeated Olympian Bernard Taylor, but for all of those wins with the LaPorte win with the two victories over Lockridge looming largest of wins, it was his win over Patrick Ford that might be Pedroza's command performance.
Guyana's Ford had taken Salvador Sanchez to the brink of defeat just six months before in losing a majority decision (the Sanchez-Ford fight also saw one of the most ridiculous cards that I have ever seen- 148-139 for Sanchez) and was thought to be either a live underdog or even a mild favorite to dethrone Pedroza, who had looked very vulnerable in squeaking by Lockridge via a split decision in their first fight.
Instead, Pedroza won every round on two cards, lost just one round on the third in an outing so dominant that Ford's career was essentially broken (Ford would fight just five more times, finishing 3-2, losing to a fighter with an 8-8-1 record and his wins were over opponents with records of 4-4, 6-3 and 1-1) in defeat.

The win over Ford saw Pedroza (who appeared on US television for the first time against Lockridge) begin to upgrade his competition even more as his wins over Laporte, Lockridge II, Lujan, and the Bernard Taylor draw all came after that fight.
Even comparing the two Lockridge wins, Pedroza seems much more in charge and confident in the second, which was after the Ford win, and perhaps that was when Pedroza truly felt that he was a great fighter.

Still, the signs were there for a decline, the close escapes vs Lockridge (unanimous but by one point on two cards), LaPorte (Pedroza fouled LaPorte constantly) and the draw vs Taylor had Pedroza positioned as a great champion that was ready to fall and the team behind Ireland's Barry McGuigan paid Pedroza one million dollars, an all-time featherweight record to give McGuigan the home-court advantage.
The decision was a good call for McGuigan, who dropped Pedroza in the seventh round on his way to a unanimous decision.
Pedroza collected his dollars and took over a year off before a leap to the lightweight division where he lost to Edgar Castro by split decision and after the loss, Pedroza retired for five years before a four-fight comeback in which he won three of four against mediocre competition.

For as great as Eusebio Pedroza was as a champion, it's still the unanswered question- Who would have won had he entered the ring against Salvador Sanchez?
What makes the fight intriguing is that Sanchez wasn't as effective when forced to lead as was shown in his split decision win over Pat Cowdell, who stayed in a fight that he had no business being in by simply refusing to throw first and Pedroza had a two-inch height and a half inch reach advantage and may have been able to force Sanchez to enter the trenches, whereas noted, Pedroza may have pulled everything out of his backpack, roughed Sanchez up as he had never been roughed up in past fights and won a close and likely controversial decision.

Still, something makes me think Sanchez pulls this out and I see it playing out as such-Sanchez does manage to be the aggressor much as he did against Wilfredo Gomez, builds a lead, frustrates Pedroza enough that Pedroza begins the fouling tactics and loses a few points to even out a middle-round rally before the bully begins to accept the outcome with Sanchez winning the later rounds to win the fairly close, but unanimous decision.
I would not say that's the only outcome, just a guess at the most likely one.

Eusebio Pedroza was a great champion and one not always appreciated during his time, but as so many fighters are, would be better remembered after retirement than during his reign.
And again as boxing so often gives its fans, remembered almost as much for the fight that never happened as the fights that actually happened.