Oscar De La Hoya: best 1st 5 years of any career ever??

No arguments from me regarding Oscar De La Hoya.

CARLOS ZARATE was no mug either. His first bout was 2nd Feb 1970. On 4th Feb 1975 (after 5 years) he was 32 wins from 32 matches with 31 by KO!

He first won a world title just over a year later, by which time he was 40 wins from 40 matches with 39 by KO!

Perhaps his big oportunities took a little longer than Oscar's but....

 

In my mind Carlos Zarate's career record of 70 matches for 66(63) wins annd 4(2) losses ranks him amongst the very best P4P.

Zarate started his career winning his first 23 bouts by KOs. He had a points win in his 24th bout, and then a further 28 wins by KO. So after 52 matches he was 52 wins, 51 by KO!

Zarate retired with only two losses. Came back. Strung some wins together, and then lost his last two bouts. So at one point he reached 66 wins from 68 matches, with 63 by KO!

 

As I said on the General Forum:

De La Hoya had a very impressive first 5 years, but the titles and weight thing has to be taken into perspective when comparing to fighters of the past.

De La Hoya was in an era with different weigh-in procedures. Compare the number of multi-division champs in recent years and back to the fighters under different rules. Also, he had more titles to choose from. IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO. Fighters before had less titles to choose from.

The two great Sugar Ray's first 5 years were more impressive, despite not having the multi-divisional titles.

Within Leonard's first 5 years, he defeated 3 ATGs (or at least second-tier greats). Two of them, in Wlifred Benitez and Thomas Hearns, were undefeated and in their early 20s. The other, Roberto Duran, was 72-1. Leonard also beat a very good undefeated fighter in Ayub Kalule for the 154 lb. title (an often overlooked win). On ther road to the title, Leonard beat top 10 contenders Johnny Gant, Randy Shields, Pete Ranzany, Andy Price, and top 5 ranked middleweight Marcus Geraldo.

Within 5 years of his pro debut, Robinson was 57-1-1. He beat lightweight champion, future Hall of Famer Sammy Angott 9 MONTHS AFTER TURNING PRO in a non-title bout. Three months later, Robinson beat future Hall of Famer Fritzie Zivic. He repeated the trick 3 months later. He beat Angott again, a few months later. Then beat future Hall of Famer, consensus top 10 all-time middleweight Jake LaMotta later that year the first of 5 times, while giving up 12 pounds. This is all within 2 years of his professional debut.

5-0 against 3 different Hall of Famers, one of them being a reigning champion, and one of them outweighing Ray by 12 pounds.

Within the next year, Robinson split a pair of bouts with Jake LaMotta, and beat consensus top 3 all-time fighter Henry Armstrong (OK, Hank was old, but the Chavez that DLH beat wasn't exactly a spring chicken).

Robinson had a year off of boxing due to the Army. In short time after the year layoff, Robinson beat contender Tommy Bell, beat LaMotta again (spotting Jake 10 lbs), drew with the terrific middleweight Jose Basora (considered a top 10 Puerto Rican fighter all-time by The Ring), and then beat LaMotta again (this time spotting Jake 9 lbs.)

So within 5 years of Robinson's pro debut, he went 9-1 against 4 different Hall of Famers, was 57-1-1 overall, with the loss coming to LaMotta who had 16 pounds on Ray, and the draw coming to an excellent middleweight in Basora who also had a size advantage on Ray.

 

Jeff Fenech had his first bout in Oct 1984 and lost his first in March 1991.

During that six & a half year period he racked up 26 wins and a draw including IBF BW, WBC SBW & WBC FW world titles.

Even the draw in the 1st match against Nelson was an absolute rip-off.

 

Yeah, Fenech's frantic rise in the weight classes was a pure result of his ridiculous weight cutting which he could never maintain for long.

 

Plus he could fight a bit!