How does Ruben Olivares & Carlos Zarate fare against today's Bantamweights?

Are you kidding me? Inoue would mop the floor with them...........Right?

 

They both KO Inoue

 

Olivares wasn't even able to clean out the BW division he actually fought in, he went 6-3 against contenders at BW.

 

I'm not trying to diss Olivares who was an excellent fighter with ATG power, but Inoue is currently 7-0 (6) in primary world title fights at BW, is 8-0 (7) vs Ring rated contenders at BW (more wins than Olivares without three losses) and has beaten the current Ring #2, #3 and #4 fighters (he's #1) KOing every opponent he has faced at BW. If you look at The Ring 1971 annual ratings, Olivares had only beaten the #2 and #5 contenders, and he was 1-1 with the #5 while the #3 would beat him only months later.

 

I don't know if he would have. He didn't have the best chin out of anybody to ever grace BW, and Donaire could really, really punch. Even at 36. Herrera was a decent puncher, but he didn't have the same kind of ammunition Donaire did. Rodriguez is going to be a tough night for almost anybody and I don't think people of his time would be shocked if he dropped a fight to the #3, given that he did a couple of times. If Olivares were to fight everybody Inoue has so far at BW, or at least all 8 contenders, would he be 8-0? I don't think so. I'd guess maybe 6-2, 7-1 at best. I'm not saying he couldn't be great now, but based on what he did in his own time he couldn't be as great as Inoue actually is.

Inoue beat a longer list of Ring rated contenders than Olivares in a longer career at the top level without losing once. It is what it is.

 

They bulldoze Inoue's opponents, as for Inoue himself I think they are competitive fights.

That division was more than a little bit stronger than the one available today. Though of course when he started super fly and super bantam were not widely contested, if you added Chocolatito and Estrada and Angelo Leo and Fulton we might have something on our hands.

 

Strongest era stuff is such a cope. Why would boxing be the only sport in the entire world that saw athletes become worse 50 years later? Come on. The reality is, in Inoue's era he was more dominant and more consistent against a longer list of contenders than Olivares. There's no need for headcanon or eyetest larping. Inoue was better against his era for a longer period of time than Olivares, while being more dominant, and against higher rated fighters.

 

Just to give an idea of how fast sports advance:

"A WICKEDLY FAST fastball isn’t the anomaly it once was. A decade ago, major league pitchers threw a grand total of just 196 triple-digit fastballs in a single season. Last year, they collectively threw 1,017." And that was in 2018.

In 2002, the average fastball was 88.5 mph. In 2022 it has been 94.9, and has gotten faster every single year since 2012 except 2018.

A 100mph fastball is hit 3x less likely to be hit than a 95mph fastball, by the way.

https://sportsnaut.com/fastest-pitch-ever-mlb-history/

 

You have to look at Olivares' career in the context of the time he was fighting and the person we know he is with the power of hindsight.

He absolutely despised training and for a man who was fighting up to 10 times in a calendar year during his prime that is going against the the level of opposition he was, you are going to have occasions where you at the very least struggle if not pick up a loss.

At his peak he is the best bantamweight and one of the best fighters I have ever seen on film.

 

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried. Do you even bother to watch fighters from other era's

 

Okay, how about I make you a Kirk's Championships prediction bet. We both predict the full October schedule and whoever has the better correct % wins. If I win you change your pfp to Inoue with "Inoue is the best BW" in your description and if you win (lol) I change my photo to Olivares with "Olivares>Inoue"