Greatest Bantamweight of all time? Eder Jofre

Zarate, Olivares, and Jofre are the three most logical choices, with Jofre being my person number one.

 

I rate Zarate clearly behind Jofre and Olivares personally.

 

Take a look at the thread i made addressed to you!

 

He has a claim as good as anybody at that weight.

For my money his main rival for the honours is George Dixon.

There is a century separating them.

 

Zarate's KO percentage makes it easy to slightly overrate him, in my opinion.

 

Its subjective, while Jofre is most likely (and imo) better than Zarate, Zarate was very prolific in his own time and era. Its also arguable he never lost at the weight, i personally found the Pintor bout the hardest to judge of any ive seen, still havent gotten around to doing it again!

 

Perhaps Jofre was the best at the weight, but between 1955-75 the lower weight classes, particularly at bantamweight, were as tough as any other twenty year span in history and was full of good to great fighters. And how come no one has made any mention of Manuel Ortiz when talking about great batams?

Ortiz liked to drink, and would blow up to lightweight and take on guys like Lauro Salas, then sweat back down to 118lbs. He could compete with world ranked lightweights carrying a soft belly and defeated many of them as well. Of course, Olivares also drank himself outta the bantam division.

This makes a good case for those who choose Jofre as best, since he was ALWAYS in top shape. At his peak there wasn`t anything this man couldn`t do, and what is especially impressive about the man is that Jofre left the game after a long career, came back a few years later, this time a full division heavier, and defeated some great featherweights easily.

He put an end to the great Vicente Saldivar by knocking him out in four rounds which is an incredible achievement considering his age at the time. In my opinion there is so little seperating Jofre/Olivares/Zarate/Ortiz that on any given night either of these men could have defeated the other. Jofre has a good case for #1, but I wouldn`t argue with anyone who has Olivares or Ortiz there instead.

 

I have Ortiz in my top 5 at the weight, not sure how to rank them moreso as i learn more of their careers. Just havent seen enough footage of Ortiz, but was the best of his era from what i can make of it, elite level bantam of the sport's history, meaning very top tier.

Yeah, Jofre past his best came back and never lost a bout again, Jose Legra being one of his best conquests at feather also.

 

Well-rounded in every aspect of the game.

 

One of the finest,

 

Not from Young Corbetts end thats for sure!

 

Sorry, I do not swing that way!

But seriously he was a phenomenon of the era, an all-time top 50 pound for pound, and easily top 10 118lber in my book.

 

#1 for me. McGovern was a Tyson like fighter at bantam. In his prime, he was a real attack dog with skills.