I have him in my top 10. Becerra was a complete beast from 1958-1959. My Grandfather fought Becerra during this period. This content is protected
1. George Dixon 2. Carlos Zarate 3. Éder Jofre 4. Manuel Ortiz 5. Jose Bercera 6. Ruben Oliares 7. Raúl Macías 8. Alfonso Zamora 9. Lionel Rose 10. Raúl Pérez
I am working out my Bantam (and other lighter divisions currently), so I don’t have a complete list...he is clearly not too 10 by any measurable I see? I doubt he will make very many or any top 20’s. But I am still looking and learning... @Flea Man can you school us a little bit here?
Good fighter. He’s a bit like a southpaw Manuel Ortiz, pretty well versed technically but at his best pressuring and digging to the body. Quite spotty though, and didn’t have a chin befitting a Mexican great. He’s probably just outside the top 20 at bantam for me. No shame in that as historically it’s one of the deeper divisions.
He was a superb boxer and very well rounded fighter. IMO a great style to watch. As far as his standing in history? He’d be a top 20 Bantamweight IMO but length of reign was too short to be considered top 10 for me though his level was arguably good enough in the sense that head to head Id say he’s probably one of the top 10. Id say among great Mexicans he could also belong just inside the top 20. I don’t think he ever full recovered mentally from the death of Walt Ingrim and was KO’d by Eloy Sanchez in a non-title fight and retired young. I don’t think anybody ever really found out exactly why he retired early. He was a very private man. Some of the fighters he beat on the way up to the title were excellent like German Ohm, Jose Medel, Dwight Hawkins. Here’s a good piece on that golden era of 50s Mexican bantamweights http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/wail900_cuoco.htm
I’m still working on no.2, but it will definitely be up this week. No.1 will be much easier so I hope (thank god!) that it will all be finished next week. Then I’m moving on.....to the 105-108lbers ;-)
Thanks for the link. I just skimmed it, but nice long read. I will definitely sit and look at this this evening.
He's not a top ten bantamweight, that's bonkers. Top twenty is probably pushing it too. He was an excellent fighter though, one who's talents stand up on film despite the question marks around him. The second Halimi fight was a belting performance against a very good fighter who was never beaten that way by anyone else. The equally good Macias seems to have been legitimately outhustled by Halimi, so what Becerra did to him twice is damn impressive. The first fight is meant to be a classic too. Becerra was a really well-schooled boxer-puncher in what became the typical Mexican-style mould furthered by Olivares, Herrera, Chucho and the Hernandez and Romanza-trained fighters. A very patient and crafty pressuring counterpuncher with a great left hand who could really whack, especially to the body. He and Macias were important figures in establishing Mexican bantams on the world stage and driving up the popularity of the sport in their home country. His career overall is tricky to weigh up though, and the early retirement partly brought on by the shocking defeat against Eloy Sanchez really hurts his standing. He was supposedly a quiet, humble guy who was never really invested in the sport despite how popular he was, and you'd have to imagine that the tragic ending to the Walt Ingram fight had a deep effect on him. He had some notable wins on the way up over the likes of Medel, D'Agata, German Ohm (who also beat him) as well as the Halimi wins but really had to scrape by Yonekura in his other successful title defence, who wasn't anything special from what I gather. Its a shame that he never hung around for a longer time to re-establish himself after the Sanchez disaster, but his heart must not have been in it, which is fair enough. Had he gotten by Sanchez, he would have had probably had to face Jofre anyway. That would've been a big boost for Jofre's ledger but bad news for Becerra. Watching the Halimi fight again, I'm reminded a bit of Chiquita Gonzalez when he opted to box rather than pressure; the pleasing hooking style but sometimes slightly wide, winging punches that left him susceptible to straight punches down the pipe. Patient and more measured though than Humberto.
