Óscar "Chololo" Larios appreciation thread.

Let's put some respect on the damn man's name already. The "little gangsta" was legit.

I was inspired by @Russell and his thread on Antonio Cervantes being underappreciated these days, lucky to be mentioned as just a footnote in the stories of the most famous guys to beat him (Locche, Benítez & Pryor). Larios isn't as great as Cervantes but that if anything places him in an even more dangerous category: good enough in his day to be respected by his peers and considered more than capable of giving anyone in his weight range hell, and good enough to be remembered fondly by fans that were contemporaneous to his era - but unlike Kid P, falling short enough of greatness to not ever make "greatest 1st-nth" shortlists, and to find his page, however dog-eared and well-loved during its time, forgotten about whenever the old dusty tomes of collective memory are hauled onto the big table with a thud for the hobbyists' communal frenzies of recreational evaluation and historical matchmaking.

Over a fifteen year career, he faced (and lost to, but acquitted himself nobly against):

• young prime Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao (hurting Pac especially badly early in round 3, and numerous more times all throughout while also taking hellish punishment himself, getting off the canvas twice and hanging on to see the final bell)
  
• future champ Agapito Sánchez (future champ who also gave Pacquiao a tough fight, which ended up stopped on cuts - as was Sánchez's victory over Larios, except the Pac fight went to a technical draw and Larios went down in the record books as vanquished by TKO)
  
• young prime Jorge Linares (who threw everything but the kitchen sink at Larios for 9½ rounds before at last forcing the stoppage, and was still down on a single judge's card)

...swapped victories in rivalries with:

• Israel Vázquez (going 1-2; all three violent meetings ending in kayo and foreshadowing Izzy's rivalry with Rafa Márquez some years later...in which he also emerged victorious in the original trilogy after being stopped once)
  
• Takahiro Aoh (going 1-1; the underrated Japanese southpaw whose style made him & Larios perfect foils was bigger & fresher and they still went tooth & nail)
  
• Guillermo Jorrín (going 1-1; "Slick Willie" had a decent amateurs reputation & the backing of powerful West Coast promoter Don Chargin, and was the prize "lighter weights" pupil of Freddie Roach for a time before he linked up with Pacquiao - but Jorrín's championship legacy is somewhat tarred: most consider both his title capturing effort via MD over fellow unbeaten Michael Brodie as well as his first defense via UD over Larios to be fairly clear robberies. Brodie never recovered his confidence or a strap; Larios avenged his own unpleasant run-in with a ninety second blitz...)

...and defeated:

• Skinny Hussein (having just one defeat as of then, a close one to Manny Pacquiao, in a dirty & difficult war, on cuts after dropping Pac early; ultimately a 2-time world title challenger and empty-handed despite a very nice résumé and being arguably the more talented Hussein brother)
  
• Wayne McCullough x2 (feisty 2-time Olympian and former bantam champ; effectively halted the still-viable Pocket Rocket's career [though he did briefly unretire a few years later])
  
• Shigero Nakazato x2 (former Oriental & Pacific champ; in all 3-time world title challenger; drew with longtime ranked contender Shoji Kimura in his next fight)
  
• César Soto (iron man who competed in four separate decades, from the eighties until this current one; dealt José Luis Castillo his first professional defeat, by KO and knocked out Agapito Sánchez as well; fought Victor Rabanales in '89 and last saw action less than seven years ago!)
  
• Namchai Saru (23-1 [18] when they fought, 34-1-1 [28] afterwards; ultimately a 2-time world title challenger, never got the job done in the "big ones" but defeated a slew of respectable prospects & journeymen on the SE Asian scene)
• Ángel Chacón (southpaw who represented Puerto Rico at the '92 Olympics, a field that was positively stacked @ flyweight; two-time former world title challenger
  
• Kozo Ishii (former Oriental & Pacific champ; his 3rd world title attempt)
  
• John Lowey (another Olympian, from the UK in Seoul in '88; had previously challenged Érik Morales for a real world title and Kennedy McKinney for a pretender org belt)
  
• Ulises Flores & Marcos Licona, the first two conquerors of Izzy Vázquez (the former via KO1 when he was 9-0; the latter handing Magnifico his second pro defeat, and only ever one by decision)

That's a nice little array. To appreciate Larios, though, you need to go beyond what's on paper (though it really is decent) and watch him. There's a reason he was so popular in his day, and still name-checked by diehard Mexican fans of a certain age (if few else) when recounting the champions of whom they're proudest. The guy was courage personified inside the ring (and by every account is as classy & nice as they come outside).

In the Linares duel - in which he never went down until the very last minute, and even then attempted to rise before Vik Drakulich snipped his agency - Larios was hit cleanly enough and often enough that he suffered a subdural hematoma. It was considered a serious enough medical issue that he was barred from receiving a medical license in the United States, and so he never fought here again. Even so, he got back on the horse just five months later and went on a tear. He fought thrice at home in Mexico and then once in Japan, going in all 4-0 (2) in calendar year 2008 against increasingly credible opposition culled from the rankings of the WBC, first scooping up their Latino title at 130lbs and then returning to featherweight to claim & the interim world title before going for the upgrade to Regular champion against prime unbeaten Takahiro Aoh. Larios came out ahead in a war to become a 2-division world titlist, capping off a glorious eight month stretch that came, improbably, after his career probably ought to have been over. It soon would be, anyways - he entered the ring just once more, attempting his first regular title defense at featherweight, again in Tokyo, with rounds #13-24 going the way of Aoh (whose thrill of revenge was short-lived, as he would soon hot-potato his belt to Elio Rojas, although he did have a second WBC reign at super featherweight - ended by Gamaliel Díaz in 2012. Quick aside in the way of follow-up: Aoh vs. Díaz II, btw, is about to go down a week from Thursday on the Nery vs. Yamanaka II undercard - with nothing but pride on the line. Aoh hasn't competed since Raymundo Beltrán knocked him out in 2015, and Díaz has become an ever more irrelevant gatekeeper, just 2-9-1 since he beat Aoh. This isn't quite "Hill vs. Maske II, over-a-decade-later" territory, but pretty damn close...)

He always could be relied upon to put together fluid and creative punching combinations, sometimes a tad wildly on the back-end and "fattening" in his delivery as they progressed but always with maximum conviction and intelligent placement, often mixing to head & body, and was never afraid to absorb punches to land his own (which got him in trouble a few times but mostly paid dividends for him). He also utilized slips & feints as much as probably any Mexican boxer since Chava Sánchez, making him a thinking man's warrior - and was maybe the greatest protégé (& success) of legendary Mexican coach José "Chepo" Reynoso until Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez came along.

Here, just watch the battle with Pacquiao if you've never seen him. If this doesn't put you on Team Larios, there's no point in me wasting any more verbiage on you.

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You ever get it back?

 

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Well, in the interest of striking a balance somewhere in the narrow, thermal-exhaust-port-of-the-Death-Star gap between actual serious Larios posts (which apparently nobody is really into) and BE's compulsive foreskin obsession, here is a happy medium for a compromise:

Larios' nickname always reminds me of this:

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...okay, a moderately content medium...

 

Yeah, the older, wiser Mexican diehards put him on their VIP campeones pedestal. The kind of guy they grumble about the young cabrónitos ignoring to boost up the likes of Chávez Jr. whom they have no time for.

 

Hooooooly **** ..

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For a 41 year old dude that's been outta the ring for nine years he is in outstanding shape. He recently added me on Facebook and his page is littered with pics of him doing marathons and ****, hiking etc. So he's jacked and the cardio is there...

I bet he could make a splash today at 140 and KTFO of a couple of world ranked but chinny types (thinking like Julius Indongo). I'd be so stoked to see that happen.

For the naysayers, don't forget that Acelino Freitas came back after many years and jumping several weight classes and destroyed a ranked (fringe but ranked) undefeated young lion.

 

Ah, stupid Facebook privacy settings...

Alright, well, now it would be awkward to not download (and then reupload so as to not leave everyone hanging) a pic of two middle-aged sweaty Mexican dudes (one shirtless)...

Eh, I guess there are far more suspect things in my phone's dl folder.

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What a god damn legend.

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His daughter Yareli (aka "Chololita") is a 13-1-1 pro, btw, and has a HUGE opportunity coming up next month, challenging unbeaten Olympian and Top Rank prospect Mikaela Joslin Mayer for the NABF women's super featherweight title.

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http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/803614