Who is the best Venezuelan Fighter ever ??

maybe leo gamez. but bernando pinango has a good shout.

very deep boxing culture just a lot of fall shorters who had promise through.


i know valero will top it if we made a poll. but he was so overated in the truest sense of the word. decent puncher with a high workrate with good amatuer knowledge against fairly weak opponants.

 

Betulio Gonzalez is surely worth a shout...He would be probably the most accomplished and faced some very stiff opposition.

Depends how you feel about some of his questionable fights.

 

Isreal Contreras deserves a mention, if only for waxing Vasquez in one.

Edit: I see Vantage already expressed my point of view regarding Valero, so no need to repeat it.

Second Edit: For me it comes down to Antonio Esperragoza or Betulio Gonzalez. Since I've had Top 100 lists that have included Betulio in the number 100 slot, I think I give him the edge by a slight margin.

 

Good shout!

 

Betulio Gonzales followed closely by Carlos Hernandez. Also rounding out a top five would be Vicente Rondon, Luis Estaba and Antonio Esparragosa. Also one can consider if doing a top 10 the Espana brothers, Vicente Rivas, Pinango, Obel and we'll never know how good Cruz Marcano could have been.

 

I like Carlos Hernandez

 

When i think of venezuelan fighters, two always spring to mind, Jose Luis Garcia
who shattered the stella prospect Ken Norton, Jose looked like a real lean mean gem for awhile, he was really a natural cruiserweight by todays standards, Got good Ink from the ring and Boxing Illustrated, Then Drunk and ate himself into another 25lb, and became a sluggish trailhorse, and fell away...

And Vicente Rondon, who was doing quite well at Lt Heavy ...the reward for that success was to win the WBA world Lt Heavy Title in a fight with Jimmy Dupree,
talk about poisoned Chalice..That meant a unification fight with True Champ Bob Foster...Vicente was frozen with fear and easily despatched by Bob...Vicente was never the same again the Mental Scars ran deep it seems...

But two good fighters from Venezuela...before the rot set in..

 

Man..that Foster ko of Rondon was chilling. Foster was a monster in that fight..I mean execution.

 

I agree with Drew, and Edwin Valero is not relevant.

 

Carlos Hernandez may not have been the greatest champion nor the most dominant out of them but he surely fought the best competition. Valero was arguably not even the best puncher out of Venezuela since Hernandez iced far better competition with his quick, chopping right hand.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpX2SbFuNS8[/ame]


He also put the great Nicolino Locche on the canvas, only to be battered and put down by the light-hitting Argentinian later in the bout:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4-NI8u3a0w[/ame]

6:35

 

Thanks, I've often heard of this knockdown but never saw it until now. Loche was buzzed bad. Didn't catch the time of the round. Was the round legitimately over or was there anything funny? Hernandez also put down Napoles and Perkins in losing efforts.

 

The round begins at 3:50 and ends at around 6:50 in the video so it was probably legit. Locche seemed to recover well considering the way he had gone down, caught on the temple and then on the chin.

Hernandez's chopping right hand almost always seemed to find its mark, even in losing efforts. He was definitely one of the more overlooked contenders around the 135 and 140 lb divisions, nobody seems to mention him when speaking of the legacies of Locche and Napoles.

 

Always felt he belonged in that 100 greatest punchers list Ring mag did a few years back. It was chilling power. Davey Moore - jaw broken and stopped in 7, Teo Cruz - stopped twice in his career - to Mando Ramos on cuts and in 2 rounds to Hernandez, Bunny Grant - stopped twice in his career - at the end of his career in 9 rounds to Clyde Gray and in 2 rounds to hernandez. Also stopped Urbina, Lane, Brown and retired Rosi, who was relatively coming off a very disputed 10 round loss to Carlos Ortiz, whom he had on the deck. Underrated fighter.

 

From what I have seen, Esparragoza for me. I think too Rojas deserves a mention, not least for being the man to beat the brilliant Colombian, Fidel Bassa.