Okay, now we have a hall of greats. Pick one to be the king of boxing in Puerto Rico. Sixto Escobar Wilfred Benitez Tito Trinidad Miguel Cotto Carlos Ortiz (I guess he wins this) Wilfredo Gomez (my personal favorite) Ivan Calderon Jose Torres Wow
Tito is my absolute favorite. Most on the island say Tito or Gomez, but I believe Ortiz to be the greatest given his overall body of work and competition. 1. Ortiz 2. Tito 3. Gomez 4. Benitez (I think 2-4 could go any order) If Cocoa Kid count he’s a firm #5 ahead of Pedro Montanez in 6th. DeJesus, Cotto, Camacho, Rosario, Basora fighting for 7-10 then Calderon, Vazquez Sr., Escalera, Escobar ,Torres, Samuel Serrano probably the closest to the top 10. Then LaPorte, DeLeon, Molina, Gonzalez competing to round off the top 20. lots of excellent fighters from Puerto Rico.
There are four fighters who stand out as the greatest in the island’s history: Carlos Ortiz, Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez and Felix Trinidad. My order would be: 1. Ortiz 2. Gomez 3. Tito 4. Benitez
@ChrisJS, I agree with you re Ortiz. Just wondering from your experiences with Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican fighters, how much location plays a part in how fighters are viewed over there? It’s such a small island that I wouldn’t imagine that being from San Juan or not makes a huge difference to a fighter’s popularity (unlike Mexico where regional differences are more pronounced) but fighters who have predominantly lived on the island versus fighters who ended up settling elsewhere like Ortiz, do you think that influences opinion of them?
Doesn’t really make a big difference if they are on the island. Everything is relatively close. San Juan to the furthest west is two hours, it’s about 45 from Fajardo, 90 mins to Ponce in the south. Naturally, there’s more gyms and therefore participation around San Juan. Tito is from Cupey which is isn’t far, same for Cotto in Caguas. Gomez and Benitez basically from San Juan, with Benitez from Carolina. Bayamon, like 20 mins away. Calderon’s town, Guaynabo, is like 20 away from San Juan too. Tito’s dad lives there for example. Ortiz and Torres popularity probably was affected because they weren’t on the island and not in the local tabloids or on TV, not necessarily that they were viewed as “outsiders” more they weren’t in the public eye on the island. They are certainly viewed as Puerto Rican fighters. I’d say their most popular during their times specifically on the island: 1. Tito 2. Gomez BY far that’s the two and Tito definitely #1 and still most beloved. When you mention him to locals who don’t even follow the sport like that you get “Ahhhh Tito” like they really love him and he makes them proud. A huge part of that is how he always conducted himself and how kind he is and how accessible and that he’s always in a good mood and does great things out of his heart. Then I’d say Cotto #3, with Benitez #4 and Escalera #5. Escalera was very popular. Another one who’s a super happy person and always had time for the people and never drank or did any drugs. His image is like Tito in that regard. Cotto is a lot more reserved and emotionless.
