Zarate: All time

Trying to remember how Gomez was "ill prepared'? Cervezas & Senoritas?

 

Four pounds overweight at the weigh-in. Inexcusable .

 

Carlos Zarate looked absolutely terrible while fighting Wilfredo Gomez, which was an absolute shock to me. Yet up to that time, Zarate was so dominant as a fighter while cleaning out the bantamweight division. It is true that Zarate went into a heavier weight class while fighting Gomez, but the maximum weight limit of the junior featherweight or super bantamweight class is only four pounds more than that of the bantamweight class. Zarate also may not have looked right, but my feeling is that he simply didn't match up well with Gomez.

Ruben Oliveras, another all-time great in the bantamweight division, was not as consistent as Zarate at 118 pounds. Zarate also was taller. But I feel that Olivares had highly underrated boxing skills which enabled him to be more versatile than Zarate. For instance, Olivares, while past his peak and fighting in a heaver weight division, gave the much taller Alexis Arguello all that he could handle before being stopped in a late round.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Olivares is somehow at the same time in most peoples top ten ever list and still at the very same somehow still underrated.

 

I spoke to Zarate back in Wales a few years ago. He said he'd loved to of fought Olivares.

 

I think he was one of the best. I was a big fan of Lupe Pintor as well. I think he'd give any top bantams a good argument. I often imagine what a fight between him and Chucho Castillo would be like.

 

His legs were gone.

He was far more upright than he had been early on. And he used to torque so much into his punches in his prime. Once those guys lose that ability to bend at the knee's, they go downhill quick. And they sure do not absorb punches with anywhere remotely close to their good old days. Once those knee's go the balance is quickly following & it just changes everything.

Very very few fighters can ever cope with badly deteriorated legs.

 

I'd make Zarate a 3-2 favorite over Olivares