Eder Jofre and Nicolino Locche, forgotten Latin greats

Monzon’s style has a lot to do with his lack of popularity too

 

Brazil isn’t a big boxing nation so doesn’t have the voice that Mexico does when it comes to fan support and backing of certain fighters. There really shouldn’t have any reason to place Chavez ahead of Jofre in an all-time, pound for pound sense. It comes down to popularity. Duran, well, he was probably the greatest overall, in addition he fought in a popular era and was on TV a lot and is very well known so that explains how he’s not from Mexico yet still gets the credit he deserves.

Guys like Napoles, Gavilan etc; true all-time greats, also suffer a little from this too despite fighting so often in America. The fact they were so long ago and not from somewhere like Mexico or even Puerto Rico means they get spoken about less these days. Even though Napoles did fight out of Mexico for so long.

 

Locche is always alive and magnificent in my heart.

 

They’re certainly not forgotten on this forum. They’re mentioned plenty of times here, I’d say. And @ChrisJS literally wrote the book on Jofre.

But I get what you’re saying as a general point.

 

Nicolino Locche is probably up their amongst my favorite fighters, if only for his uniqueness and being somewhat of an oddity.

His style and tactics were boxing's version of a street magic show.

I again watched Locche vs Fuji, the other night, where Fuji played magician's assistant and got sawn in half at his own volition.

 

I guess it has to do with proximity. Mexico and Puerto Rico are literally neighbours of USA, South America is far away and culturally it is very different too, Mexicans may not realize this, but they are more alike to americans than to south americans, in my view anyway, in many aspects.

Also, it is fun to mock Mexico in soccer, but let´s be honest here, they destroy any other latin country in Boxing, they so much superior, so obviously their fighters get more publiticty.

 

Mexico has numbers and it’s so ingrained in their culture. But honestly, Puerto Rico, pound for pound, is ultra competitive. For less than four million people, it’s staggering. Imagine if Puerto Rico was a quarter the population of Mexico even.

 

Oh yeah, Puerto Rico and Panama!
I was thinking more in a numbers aspect and in the major fights, did Puerto Rico won any ? sanchez vs Gomez, Chavez vs Rosario etc

 

Yeah, I’d say of the big fights, Puerto Rico has won plenty.

Rosario-Ramirez were 1-1
Camacho beat Ramirez
Gomez beat Zárate, Pintor
Tito beat Vargas, Oscar, Campas
Benitez beat Palomino
Ortiz beat Torres
Escobar beat Casanova in the first MEX/PR big fight

 

But the best mexicans beat the best puerto ricans.... Anyway, proportionally speaking PR takes the award, I agree with that. Puerto Rico or Panama though ???

 

Around here I feel Locche, Jofre and Monzon all get a lot of praise.

I am looking for that book, but can't find a copy for purchase. Nearest copy is a few hundred miles away in a public library. I'll get my hands on it soon enough.