Top 10 greatest fighters from Central & South America

1. Duran
2. Jofre
3. Monzon
4. Arguello
5. Cervantes
6. Al Brown
7. Perez
8. Chocolatito
9. Pedroza
10. Laguna or Locche

 

1 Duran
2 Monzon
3 Jofre
4 Arguello
5 Panama Al Brown
6 Pascual Perez
7 Locche
8 Pedroza
9 Cervantes
10 Laguna or Roman González

 

At least in honorable mentions I would find room for Betulio Gonzalez, Bernardo Caraballo and Antonio Amaya

 

Good idea for a thread. I think there's a lot of room for interpretation, given the long history of great fighters coming from south and central America.

1.) Roberto Duran
2.) Alexis Arguello
3.) Eder Jofre
4.) Carlos Monzon
5.) Panama Al Brown
6.) Pascaul Perez
7.) Roman Gonzalez
8.) Antonio Cervantes
9.) Eusebio Pedroza
10.) Sergio Martinez

For anyone rating Monzon above Jofre, I'd be interested in hearing the rationale. I don't mean that disrespectfully, I really want to know. While Monzon did have an extended period of dominance with a then record breaking 14 defenses, Jofre was the legit champ in 2 divisions, with bonus points for his stint as NBA champ before winning the lineal title.

 

We have 8 of the same fighter on our respective lists, in mostly the same order too. I think you're overreacting.

I think all of those guys are great. I think Martinez is great too. The problem is, when you're doing a top 10 you only have 10 spots. That means some great fighters get excluded.

If you think a two division titlist with a Fighter of the Year award and Kayo of the Year award, plus a lengthy, dominant reign and several years in the Ring top 5 pound for pound doesn't merit even an honorable mention, you might be the one who is hard to take seriously.

 

You're right that Pavlik's grasp on the title was slipping, due to injuries and substance abuse. Martinez was also fortunate that Pavlik sliced up really badly after his mid-round surge, allowing Martinez to regain momentum and bank enough rounds to take the nod.

A younger, fresher Pavlik would have been too dangerous. But at the same time, Martinez got shafted by bad refereeing in the Kermit Cintron fight. If Sergio had won that fight via KO7, he might have never gone to 160. He might have racked up title defenses against guys his own size at 154 leading up to a classic trilogy with Canelo. Who knows?

This is for sure though. If Martinez did stay at 154 he would have faced all the scary guys at the division, like Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara, etc. And if his fragile knees held up, he probably would have beaten them all, as well as Cotto. He probably would have split the series with Canelo 2-1 for either guy.

Although Martinez always gave off a weird, metrosexual vibe, and he was jokingly called 'Sexy Sergio' on this site back in the day, he was anything but a pampered star. When he was champion it was a rare, bizarre period where the alphabet wannabe champions were happy to duck the real top dog who could barely find anyone willing to fight. On top of that, Sergio is also a sentimental favorite of mine because it was a beautiful thing when he trounced Chavez Jr. after Jose Sulaiman of the WBC had publicly bet a reporter that Chavez would win. When Sergio won it was a giant middle finger to the corrupt boxing establishment.

 

I think the quality of opposition in respect to their reigns is closer than it appears. Harada at bantamweight is also far better than anything Monzon faced at Middleweight in addition to which those fights were razor-thin decisions which many feel were either way type fights. I’d contend that Medel in his peak when Jofre faced him was arguably just as good a fighter as was Valdez.

The names of Benvenuti, Griffith, Napoles stand out but they were either faded, much smaller or both. Still they are good wins but some of the wins Jofre scored like Caraballo & Caldwell were so much superior to the likes of Boggs, Bouttier, Licata for example.

I think Jofre’s career pre title was stronger than Monzón’s and he gains far more style points. I think it’s close based on Monzón at Middleweight and Jofre at bantamweight and I can see the case for Monzon based on accomplishment but Jofre’s Featherweight run and performance at an advanced age give him the edge. Monzon was using seeing off older fighters whereas Jofre’s career he was almost always facing younger men.