Rank these 8 Mexican bantamweight greats

Between 1969 and 1979, the world bantamweight championship was more or less the national property of Mexico. Starting with Ruben Olivares' crushing defeat of Lionel Rose and ending with Lupe Pintor's controversial win over Carlos Zarate, the world title (particularly the WBC version) seemed to be fought for as part of a round robin tournament between Mexican 118 pounders.

In the early 70s, after Olivares' original ascension to the top, you had El Puas, Chuco Castillo and Rafael Herrera all doing battle against each other. Once Olivares moved north to Featherweight, Herrera continued on by doing battle with Rodolfo Martinez and Romeo Anaya. By the mid-70s, Martinez continued the lineage before Alfonso Zamora and Carlos Zarate took over. And once Zarate had proven his superiority, Zarate and Pintor did battle for the national/world title with Pintor continuing Mexico's dominance into the 80s.

So, given their many fights and title reigns, in what order would you place the aforementioned fighters in terms of bantamweight greatness?

A reminder of the fighters, in rough chronological order:
Ruben Olivares
Chuco Castillo
Rafael Herrera
Rodolfo Martinez
Romeo Anaya
Alfonso Zamora
Carlos Zarate
Lupe Pintor

 

Nice. I was expecting to see Olivares on top and Anaya at the bottom - the rest of the list is much more nebulous, isn't it?

 

Bumping this from a few years back.

Any thoughts on the order?

Also, what about the great fights these boxers had against each other and also fighting for the bantamweight title against other opposition.

What were the best battles?

 

Thanks Greg and Scar.

I had the same top 4 in the same order and also Anaya at the bottom of the 8. I think you can make an argument for any order for 5, 6 and 7. I personally like Pintor a lot but he was a bit fortunate to get the nod over Zarate to win the title in the first place and I think he came right at the end of that great era so didn’t have quite as tough competition as Martinez or Zamora, perhaps.

What an incredible era it was. I wish I’d been around to experience it at the time.

@scartissue - not meaning to be presumptuous, but do you have any particular special memories of that era of Mexican bantams?

 

Well, yes, that’s true. Pintor’s title reign went on until the end of 1982 or effectively until he challenged Gomez at super bantam but I see that final title change between Zarate and Pintor as being the natural end point of Mexico’s dominance of the era and that level of competition between Mexican fighters at the weight.

 

As I said in my reply to @Greg Price99 and @scartissue, I see a top 4 of Olivares, Zarate, Herrera and Castillo so the only difference is you’ve slotted Pintor in the middle. As much as I like him, I’m not sure Pintor’s title reign would have lasted as long if he had been competing with the bantams of the earlier 70s like Olivares, Castillo and Herrera.

But all the fighters who held the title were tremendous in their way, even if we all agree that Olivares was the best of them and Anaya was the least of them.

 

@Greg Price99, @scartissue and @AntonioMartin1:

What about the fights they had against each other or even against non-Mexican opposition?

Any particular favourites?