Odd title. Odd topic. I can only think of two men who were notable (and in some locale, at least, notorious) for having the upper hand against fighters from a place — a city, a country … it could be a state or even a particular famous gym that produced top talent. Perhaps, probably, there are more, which you can help with. I guess the best way to illustrate what I’m talking about is to discuss the examples: David Love: At a time when Philadelphia middleweights were all the rage, a guy from San Diego took them to school. Love, a good but not great fighter (somewhere between journeyman and contender, I’d venture, maybe something of a gatekeeper but at worst a tough out for most anyone at 160), beat Willie “The Worm” Monroe and Bobby “Boogaloo” Watts, both by stoppage in four rounds. Then he bested Bennie Briscoe over 10 rounds. Consider that Marvin Hagler himself went 3-2 against the aforementioned on his way up (with one bad decision going against him) and it gives you an idea of what this meant at the time. Even if you grant him the bad verdict, he didn’t run a clean sweep. Yet Love beat them all. A young Curtis Parker finally turned the tide for Philly honor, stopping Love in nine. But until that fight Love earned quite the reputation for his ownership of the City of Brotherly Love. Roger Mayweather: He was so good against fighters from Mexico that he earned the nickname “The Mexican Assassin” because he absolutely gunned down a ton of good fighters from south of the border. That is until Julio Cesar Chavez, arguably the best Mexican fighter of all time, came along to put him in his place. Still, he collected quite a few scalps and was probably equally feared and respected from Cancun to Mexicali, and all points in between. So that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. Are there others who were good enough, for a time at least, to charge property taxes on boxers from a particular locale because he absolutely owned them?
A flyweight triangle from the late '70s through the early '80s: Miguel Canto fought six bouts against Japanese fighters and went 6-0. Three wins vs. Shoji Oguma, and he also beat challengers Susumu Hanagata, Kimio Furesawa, and Jiro Takada. His only knockout win in a world title fight was in the defense against Takada. He finally lost his title to Chan-hee Park from South Korea. Park had a strong record against fighters from Mexico, 3-0-1 (the draw a rematch with Canto). Not as impressive against Canto's mark, but three of those four fights came against world champions, so going undefeated was a pretty good outcome. With the title out of Canto's hands, a Japanese fighter now had a chance to win it. Shoji Oguma was an underdog going into his matchup with Park, but one thing he had going for him was a 4-0 record to that stage against South Korean opponents. He scored a shocking KO of Park and then successfully defended the belt three times, each against a fighter from South Korea (two rematches with Park, and one defense against ex-LFW champ Sung-jun Kim). Somewhat poetically, he lost the belt to a man from Mexico, but even on the downside of his career he managed one more win against a Korean opponent, bringing his final record against South Korea to 9-0 (of those nine wins, six came against men who held a world title at some point).
Canelo vs the UK So far he's defeated the below; Matthew Hatton Ryan Rhodes Amir Khan Liam Smith Rocky Fielding Callum Smith Billy Joe Saunders
Manny Pacquiao had a reputation of beating Mexican fighters for a time, and was even called the Mexicutioner.
Before Too Sharp, before Manny and before Roger Mayweather, the original 'Mexican Assassin' was Jimmy Robertson. He beat a long line of Mexicans in California and to make it worse, he would revel in it to the Press. With him rubbing their noses in it, the Mexican nationals and Chicano both were arriving in droves at his fights to see him get beat. Finally, Rodolfo Gonzalez and then Chango Carmona stopped his momentum.
Jimmy Mclarnin had the nickname "The Jew Killer" Jung Koo Chang was 5-0 against Japanese fighters in title fights.
Japanese featherweight Shig Kaneko went 10-0 v Filipino fighters, including 4 wins over Flash Elorde. During the 1950s there was a French-Algerian fighter named Guy Gracia who became known as the scourge of British lightweights for his victories over them on their home soil. I looked at his record and it was 10-5-2 against British lightweights. However, some of his wins were quite notable over the top dogs of the day such as 2 wins over Dave Charnley, Spider Kelly, Sammy McCarthy, and Joe Lucy. Even wins over British based South Africans such as Johnny Van Rensburg and Willie Toweel. I'd love to see how he was perceived in Boxing News at the time.
I think Ricardo Lopez pretty much owned most of Asia during his reign. Beat Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Thai fighters.
