Barring Miguel Canto, who is the most skilled mexican fighter of all time?

Purley most skilled, based on film, is Salvador Sanchez, for me.

 

Gilberto Roman comes to mind for me. Absolutely brilliant technician with incredible movement. Some top class names and performances to boot. Highly recommend watching his bouts against (slightly past it) Watanabe (possibly the #1 H2H 115lber imo) and his clinic against Sugar baby Rojas. His bouts against Payakaroon is also very good.

Chucho Castillo is underrated and undermentioned when it comes to skills. One of my favourites to watch. He had a wicked left hand lead, like a gunslinger. His bouts against Olivares are required watching if you care about Mexican boxing history.

Rafael Herrera is another one imo. Great, great punch threader, as @Tin_Ribs would say. Best part? Both Chucho and Herrera fought each other, on film.

Lupe Pintor and Alfonso Zamora were amazing offensive technicians. Zamora especially had amazing punch mechanics and brutal power, alongside a kill or be killed attitude, so his bouts are always fun to watch. Pintor was quite crafty and had an extremely underrated defense. Watch his bouts against Davila, Zarate and of course Gomez.

Daniel Zaragoza was another gritty, crafty technician with an extensive record of amazing fights. A southpaw who was able to mix up orthodox technique with some insane brawling and come out on top. His bouts against Banke, Hatanaka and Tatsuyoshi are required watching.

 

Chavez

 

I think that Ruben Olivares is definitely in the mix for the most skilled Mexican fighter ever.

 

Something significant about Olivares: I believe that Ruben was the fighter that made Cuyo Hernandez. Cuyo trained Zarate and Zamora- that is him fighting Zamora's father on the ring apron after that fight- and I believe that he was involved in the process that created Lupe Pintor. He was the original trainer of Ricardo Lopez, through his amateur career and first 20 odd pro fights. And Nacho Beristein learned from Cuyo and his impact on Mexican boxing cannot be overlooked.

 

Jose Napoles.

 

@McGrain aye it's Saldivar for me as well. Occams Razor that if you're giving up that much height and reach in a very strong division full of historically excellent fighters, you're going to need to be highly skilled to clear it out like he did. Excellent speed, physical strength and heavy handedness on top of being uncommonly accurate a punch picker meant that he wasn't disadvantaged to the same degree as Canto, but I can think of very few fighters who neutered a physical disadvantage so well via technical ability.

One thing that doesn't get mentioned much about him even on the odd times he gets talked about in depth is how good defensively he was in a minimalist sense once he forced an exchange. Had a very technically good compact guard with his chin down that he could counter out of very swiftly and heavily either with textbook punches or more improvised, instinctive shots.

And very good with small, quick adjustments of his feet and upper body to efficiently slip or block an opponent 's punches while not compromising his own position to punch, unlike say, a Tyson. Very spatially aware and adept at coming out of an exchange without taking much punishment or being knocked off point but still quickly putting in a volley of effective shots when in range.

My only relative criticism s would be the occasional tendency to square up in a hurry to get the work in, and maybe not being as completely effective in the back foot, though he was little to no worse in that regard than the likes of Sanchez say on the front foot, or as compromised as a Marquez when forced in an unfavoured direction. It was immensely hard to force that on him anyway until he slowed down somewhat, and I'd back very very few feathers to be able to do that to him often enough to win that way at his best.