Ruben Olivares - As great as Monzon?

There was a lot of talk at the time before the Herrera fight of Olivares moving up to fight Saldivar. Man, when one thinks of it now, what a mega-fight that would have been with Olivares reigning at 118 to take on Saldivar at 126 with both being Mexican idols. Wow!

 

Hey Russ, it still blows me away that say 1978 is now 40 bloody years ago. To a young fella who is the same age now as I was in 1978 , 1938 was the equivalent to me.

Makes one think a bit about mortality unfortunately hahaha

 

Here is Saldivar vs my Dad's favourite Aussie fighter, Johnny Famechon.

I think Fammo was pretty unlucky in this one.

Funnily enough an Aussie vs a Mexican faced each other in Rome.

Cheers All.

This content is protected

 

Olivares WAS kicking the crap out of Arguello in this fight. But imo part of this is Arguello looking somewhat raw.

Reading Giudice's book on AA now. We need a a good book on Olivares.

 

Simply superb

 

Wow is right

 

Someone had to say it. Arguello was about 5 years and one weight division away from his destructive best and was green against Olivares. Of course this wasn't exactly anything like the best version of Olivares either.

Chacon said he was the best he ever fought. I'd have him a bit behind Monzon but he'd be around a top 50 fighter i think.

 

Y'know, I agree to a point that a fighter evolves over a period of time, and some slower than others. But when you consider also that this was Arguello's 40th pro fight (or as we call it today, a whole career), he had been fighting since 1968 and had already engaged Ernesto Marcel, Jose Legra, Art Hafey, Famoso Gomez, Valentin Galeano, Raul Mora and Enrique Garcia, he probably wasn't getting much better at 126. I would call his prime probably 130, even 135. But what kept him in check throughout the fight with Olivares was that whirlwind attack by Ruben and there was no apparent let-up. Olivares was in great shape, he started the 13th the same way he left off in the 12th, by raining blows on AA from all angles until walking into that shot in the 13th. He really had fought a masterpiece until that chance meeting with AA's hook. And what we know about AA now as his career unfolded, regardless of that meeting of leather upon bone, one has to admit that was some performance by Ruben.

 

No ,he is a top 3 bantam imo, for me no 2 ,just behind Jofre.He is definitely on a par with Monzon.

 

A lot of excellent posts in this thread, it's hard to add anything further really. Another thing about Olivares was the manner in which he bulldozed his way through a very tough, competitive division before he even won the title without any of the banana skins that would've been expected of most fighters. Medel, Burruni, Samurai, Gomez, Kanazawa. If you were a bit faded or past your best you were either horribly beaten or brutally knocked out, similar to what Chavez did to guys like Martinez and Ruben Castillo years later.

As an aside, I think Ruben is slightly overrated when it comes to pure two-fisted one shot ko power, great puncher though he was. Guys like Jofre and Medel were at least as good imo and probably had more one-punch ko wins over good contender types. More two-handed where Olivares was very left-hand heavy I think, though still a punishing hitter with his right. This in addition to his greater resilience is what makes me think that Jofre would've ridden a slow start and several tough moments to ko Ruben late on in a back and forth probable classic.

I think Saldivar would've punched holes in him eventually as long as he gave him due respect and wasn't too careless. Too heavy handed, accurate and overwhelming down the stretch. Great at cutting off the ring too if Olivares tried to move like he did against Arguello.

Monzon was more consistent obviously but Olivares fought and beat better fighters in his respective division and above.

 

I could only imagine how Great Olivares would have been had he mantained his conditioning. Duran and Chavez supposedly partied almost as hard as Ruben but I heard Ruben was the King. He was a great fighter!

 

Great tribute, my born and raised wife from Mexico recalls the Oliveres greatness; she was aware, at the time, of his 'highlife' life style. After Herrera dispatched Castillo (using a triple left hook I'd NEVER seen in my life) my late bud and I thought he had the tools to beat Rueben. Lo and behold, we picked up the newspaper in early 72 and there was Oliveres (page 4?), belly down and covered in blood while Herrera was on his fan's shoulders, blowing kisses to the crowd wearing a sombrero!
Obviously Herrera didn't have the resume/body of work to warrant Oliveres's HOF status but your thread brought back, in part, memories of when boxing was GREAT!
Great post!
JOhnWilliamCOLtrane.