Have some time on my hands this coming week and wanted to do some YouTube exploring of this branch of fighters. I'm thinking 1970s-80s, mostly bantam to lightweight, but it doesn't have to be limited to that. Who were the best? What made them so? And which fights are available that might make good watching?
Enrique Bolanos; his 15 round fight with Ike Williams. Art Aragon, Manuel Ortiz. Mando Ramos has at least a couple on YouTube. Ruben Navarro vs Ken Buchannon. Raul Rojas, Armando Munoz. Albertsons Davila, the Sandoval brothers (Albert and Richard).
Evening Pat. Sounds like you're in for a good week. This era is a little before my time but I have happened on a few and if you are coming to this with little knowledge, you could do worse than have a look at Carlos Palomino (welter) vs Duran and our own John H Stracey, Armando Muniz (like Palomino, a college graduate. So much for the barrio urchin stereotype that we have of Mexican heritage fighters), Bobby Chacon (super feather) against Bazooka Limon (the 4th fight seems to be the one people go craziest about). Palomino's destruction of Stracey is a masterclass in the Mexican art of left hooking to the liver. Must be something in their make up that makes them master that punch in the womb. Sorry that list is a bit sparse. Hopefully some of the others with more knowledge can pad it out a bit.
Also Yacqui Lopez. Although a light heavy, there was enough action in his fights with Saad Muhammad to put some of the little guys to shame.
All excellent suggestions so far: I've seen a few of those, but I need to see what else of Yaqui Lopez is out there since I've seen the fight with Saad (was it the sixth that was round of the year?). And I've seen some of Palomino but not vs. Stracey, so that's an excellent shout. Keep 'em coming folks.
Olivares, Chucho Castillo, Bobby Chacon, etc. You could make a list of 20 fighters, and some of the "really good fighters" won't even be known outside LA. That is how deep the era was.
I definitely need to explore Chucho Castillo more. I looked at him a bit a year or two ago but need to watch more full fights.
