Carlos Zarate?

Yeah, you should give it a go sometime, it's on youtube. If you're like me though and you try to give every round to a fighter, then you're in for a treat.

 

I know you weren't asking me :smoke, but for what it's worth, I thought he (Zarate) won fairly clearly. It was a shitbox of a fight though, not really representative of either man's talents.

I've seen worse decisions I can tell you.

 

Viewing it live, I also thought Zarate won cleanly, and I don't recall anybody besides the two judges who voted for Lupe thinking otherwise at the time. (Even Pintor was obviously surprised at the verdict going in his favor.) To his eternal credit, a highly motivated Pintor redeemed this controversy to prove himself a worthy champion. Lupe was fortunate to challenge Zarate after Carlos got beaten up by Gomez though. I don't think Pintor would have gotten out of the early rounds against a pre Gomez Zarate.

A real case can be made that Zarate was never legitimately defeated at 118.

 

Funny enough, I just watched it again last night. I thought Zarate showed a lot of class in managing to blunt Fenech's attack somewhat through the first three rounds, but I still find it hard to imagine things getting any better for him had the fight progressed. Fenech still looked as strong and spirited in the 4th round as when the fight began, and he was beginning to inflict some serious damage on Zarate.

 

Zarate is my alltime #1 head to head Bantam.

 

Terrific fighter. I thought he beat Pintor.

 

Carlos Zarate was atypical of the Mexican fighter of the time. Those KO's were misleading as to what he was. Those KO's were no wade in style, but set up cleanly and deftly with an immaculate jab and brutal body blows before he would end a fight. His weaknesses were a poor resume after he won the title and that he was a slow starter. Looking at the former, I believe out of his 9 or 10 defenses, only Paul Ferreri, Albert Davila and Lupe Pintor were deserving of title shots. Cabanela was good, but hadn't won in a year and his last bout was a loss at 126 to Olivares, so that should have ruled him out also. Prior to his title win over the outstanding Rodolfo Martinez he fought and beat excellent talent. Joe Guevara, Nestor jimenez, Alacranito Torres, Orlando Amores, Benicio Sosa and Cesar Deciga were better than most of his title challengers and his stoppage over the rock-jawed Jimmy Martinez was really big at the time. As for starting slow, that was really his bane. Both Martinez and Zamora had him hurt early (in fact, it was said at the time when that loony jumped into the ring during the Zamora fight that Zamora was really rocking him, I'll have to watch that again to verify), Davila was off to a nice early lead and Gomez was all over him all early in their respective fights (I should also point out that Harry Gibbs really let the Gomez fight get out of hand. The only time I ever saw him intimidated by an unruly crowd. Zarate should have been given extra time and Gomez admonished for striking Zarate on the canvas). As for the Pintor fight, I recall at the time noting a close but comforatable win for Zarate and feeling he was robbed because, although it was close there didn't seem to be any doubt at the comfort level. 30 years on down the line I decided to re-watch it and score and amazingly, had it a bit closer. Still had Zarate ahead but 144-142 was a good close fight. All in all, I rate Zarate my #2 bantam, Jofre my #3 and my #1 is Ruben Olivares.

Scartissue

 

Enjoyed that post. very informative!

 

Yeah, Gibbs definitely should have done something against Gomez. He clearly hit Zarate when he was down. I love watching prime Gomez after the fact but he was a very dirty fighter. That made the Sanchez fight that much more enjoyable.

I've scored Pintor -Zarate for each man on different ocassions. I think it depends what you're focusing on and which style you like (kind of like Leonard - Hagler I suppose). I can't call that a robbery.

I rate Olivares, then Zarate, Jofre, Harada a half notch below. Maybe due to lack of film, but the fights I've seen of Jofre (Harada, Medel) haven't convinced me he deserves the top spot.

 

I'll also throw in here, I also don't think Zarate developed his long range boxing abilities to the extent that he could've/should've. I think too often he looked to get close and work inside. I think that was partly his undoing against Gomez as well, and perhaps part of the reason he looked lackluster against Pintor may have been because he was consciously trying to change his style and box more from the outside. He retired right afterwards, so if he really was trying to alter his style, he never gave it enough chance to make it stick.