Two very underrated Mexican champions at the smaller weight class long overdue for the HOF. Both known for their boxing finesse and counterpunching. Roman arguably being one of the best fighters at Super Flyweight while Castillo has fought more known opposition in his weigh class. In terms of skills and resume who was the greater/better fighter in your view? Gilberto Roman (54-6-1, 35 KOs) WBC Super Flyweight champ with wins such as Jiro Watanabe, Santos Laciar, Sugar Baby Rojas, Antonio Avelar. Chucho Castillo (47-17-2, 23 KOs) Undisputed, WBA, WBC Bantamweight champ with wins including Ruben Olivares, Rafael Herrera, Jesus Pimental, Jose Medel, Bernardo Caraballo.
There isn't much in it, but Roman edges it for me. The Olivares win means that perhaps Castillo edges it purely on win resume, though it was a cut in a close fight and he lost the series, whilst Roman was much more dominant and imo, just that bit better, p4p.
I thought Chucho got the best of Rose with his feet, volume and sneaky counter-punching. With that in mind, I'm also thinking that Roman had his hands full with Laciar, who is imo, a similar, but smaller, and inferior fighter to Chucho. I think rose might get beaten in this one and on a really good night, it might be as close as you'd expect. It'd be a very cool fight to watch though, Roman's boxing was awesome, it was like Miguel Canto and Ricardo Lopez mixed together.
At BW, where Roman is unproven, I may make Castillo a very narrow favourite. As for the question posed in the OP, I think Roman was the greater/better fighter p4p, though again only very narrowly.
Ah, my bad Roman was a champion for a lot longer, and his own resume isn't too bad. Watanabe and Laciar are the standout wins, and Montero, Kong, Rojas and Avelar are very good in their own right. Castillo resume is definitely better though imo. He's got Olivares, Herrera, Medel, and Pimental as his standouts, but a bunch of other very good wins. Carraballo was an excellent fighter, and some of his countrymen, usually vying for his Mexican Title were formidable opponents, like Raul Cruz, Edmundo Esparza and Miguel Castro. So I think give it to Chucho. Plus, I'm not sure if Roman would've kept his title long if he had a guy like Olivares wanting it back.
Yeah, I think i agree, with the Olivares victory, Castillo has slightly the better win resume and fair point on Roman not having a monster like Olivares to contend with. Factoring in dominance, even allowing for quality of opposition, and based on footage, I think Roman was the better and greater fighter, by the narrowest of margins. I think we're both on the same page that there's not much in it.
I also like Castillo's wins over Rogelio Lara, Yoshio Nakane, Memo Tellez and Waldemir Pinto. Just a great counter-puncher, who came along in the midst of some great fighters. My vote goes to Castillo.
Castillo's single win over Olivares gives him the edge IMO although Roman was the more dominant champ overall. Roman didn't get the chance to face Khaosai Galaxy while they were both title holders but something tells me that he most likely loses especially considering the other big hitters that he fell short against such as Konadu and Moon.
