Rank these 8 Mexican bantamweight greats

Hi Jel,

The era was before my time and so my rankings are based entirely on retrospectively studying their records, reading about them and watching some footage. I don't have much to add on fights between them beyond yours and Scar's observations, my thoughts are:

Olivares didn't look the same beast vs Herrera as he did vs Rose. I suspect with more money, fame and time between bouts, he partied, put weight on and struggled to get back down to 118lbs, which negatively impacted his performances.

Castillo vs Herrera 2 was a fantastic bout.

Zarate deserved the decision vs Pintor.

 

Had Olivares been in the same era as Pintor there is no way Pintor could have gotten past him.

 

Olivares
Zarate
Castillo
Pintor
Herrera
Zamora
Martinez
Anaya

 

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Some of the stand-out fights of the era I have seen were the Zamora-Sandoval fight, Zamora-Zarate of course, the Martinez-Famoso Gomez bout and the aforementioned Olivares-Valentin Galeano non-title. Some fights I have been intrigued with that I never saw was the Rogelio Lara-Julio Guerrero bout, which sounds like Foreman-Lyle in the writeup on the bout, the Herrera-Cesar Deciga bout and a bout that is a bit earlier than this era but has always intrigued me was the Chucho Castillo-Jesus Pimental 12 rounder, which sounds like a counter-punching clinic displayed by Castillo. And I would be remiss by not adding Venice Borkorsor's attempts at the title with Herrera and Martinez. There are snippets and partials on the fights but I want to see them all in their entirety.

 

The Herrera-Borkorsor fight is interesting, and I forget now how I scored it. As the rounds built, Borkorsor's left cross (southpaw) just couldn't miss, increasingly so. Generally regarded as a bad decision.

 

To expand into it a bit, i wonder how Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Rafa Marquez, Israel Vazquez and Erik Morales would have done in the mentioned era.

They added a bit of "salsa extra picante" to the history of the Bantamweights in Mexico and would surely been difficult propositions for most of those guys.

 

I'm probably in the minority here but I'd swap Zarate and Olivares. Athis best at 118 I think he could have taken Olivares.
Not that I'm extremely confident,,,,,

 

Great thread, Jel! What a ****ing group. Cheers!

 

Have to tell you, though, Antonio. I feel Mab, EM and Dynamita all peaked at 126

 

I know and its true.,

 

Hi Buddy.
Very good thread, as to the rankings I would also have Olivares as my No 1, a strange anomaly that has been puzzling me since I joined, and it is related to Ruben, in all the years I followed his fights, mainly in BN in the beginning, then on to the tele, if we were lucky, I have never heard or seen him referred to as " El Puas " am I alone ? sorry to insert something so trite in your excellent post.
stay safe Jel, chat soon .