Graziano vs Zale III was a short but violent affair. This would conclude one of, if not the most, action packed and violent trilogy in boxing history and would solidify both men as legends in the sport. The fight had been postponed one day because of rain. Graziano was a 12 to 5 favorite. Zale decked Graziano with a left hook for a 3-count in the first round. Graziano was hurt by a right in the second round but came back and hurt Zale with his own right. In the third round, Zale dropped Graziano for a seven-count with a left hook. Shortly after getting up, Graziano was knocked out cold by a left hook to the jaw and counted out. Zale became the third boxer to regain the World Middleweight Championship. Stanley Ketchel and Al Hostak were the other two.
Zale had a monster left hook, it was the catalyst and conclusion of every single knockdown and knockout in this fight. Round 1's knockdown was caused by a leaping left hook. Absolutely stunning in slow-motion. Graziano rallied back valiantly in round 2. Round 3's knockdown was started with a left hook which landed when Graziano was against the ropes, it badly wobbled him. Graziano tried to get away but Zale pummeled his body then put him down with another left hook. Against all odds, Graziano got up but he was spent. Zale finished him off with a right to the body, and then, you guessed it, a left hook to the chin.
Tony Zale looks on after knocking Rocky Graziano out in the rubbermatch.
The Graziano vs Zale fights were so brutal and violent that years later Graziano commented he would wake up in a cold sweat having had the recurring nightmare of being back in the ring with Zale. Here are some great photos from their trilogy.
Tony Zale is probably the greatest body puncher in boxing history, Billy Soose once commented that being hit in the body by Tony Zale felt like being stuck in the side with a hot poker. Here Tony Zale is seen landing a brutal body shot to Graziano, you can see the agony on Graziano's face.
The blood pours down Graziano's face and his eye is swollen shut. Rocky Graziano's corner actually had to press a coin against his eye to break the skin and restore his vision. After all of this, he goes out there and stops Zale, that tells you all you need to know about Rocky Graziano, if that isn't tough as nails then I don't know what the f... is.
Rocky Graziano vs Tony Janiro. This fight really showed what kind of fighter Graziano was, his corner told him to box the boxer Janiro, and Graziano listened to his corner and lost the first nine rounds. So Graziano returns to his corner and says, " I don't want to be no boxer", so Graziano comes out in round 10, pins Janiro in the corner and knocks him out. He wasn't a boxer, he was a slugger.
Graziano knocks out Al "Bummy" Davis, don't let David's nickname fool you, he was no bum, he had one of the greatest left hooks in the business, but Graziano was one of the hardest punchers in history.
As a fan, I love Rocky Graziano, his personality, his action packed style, he was tough as beef jerky, when you stepped in the ring with him, you knew you were in a fight.
Eusebio Pedroza, aka "El Alacran" or "The Scorpion." He was a Panamanian featherweight, one of the most dominant fighters in boxing history, WBA featherweight champion for some 7 years, making 19 defenses of his title, that my friends is dominance. In his prime, on any given night he could probably beat just about any featherweight in history, a truly consummate campaigner over 15 rounds, with seemingly endless stamina and who tended to drag his opponents into deep waters and drown them, almost all of them wilting, with some succumbing in the championship rounds, he was great at ramping up his output as a fight wore on. He was exceptional. Not a huge puncher, but his workrate was insane, good boxer, terrific bodypuncher, superb stamina, good ring general, calm under fire the entire fight. He was the real McCoy, you don't defend your title 19 times if you're not.
Eusebio Pedroza: Looking Back at a World Champion When A World Title Still Meant Something in Boxing.
Panama, birthplace of Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Duran, the former lightweight king and conqueror of a prime Sugar Ray Leonard. Mr. Duran, though legendary and most recognizable, is but one of many fighting sons borne from the womb of the Central American nation. Many panameno were weaned in the blood, sweat, and tears of the fight game. Before and after their collective hero donned a pair of gloves Panamanian pugilists have fought to carve out an enriched experience and bathe themselves in boxing glory. One of those men was a lanky Afro-Panamanian by the name of Eusebio Pedroza.
Among the rickety shacks of Panama City’s Maracon district, shacks originally designed for workers of the Panama Canal, Eusebio grew up. He was spindly throughout his physical development and that size eventually proved useful, as many of his opponents in the paid ranks would find out.
When he finally did turn pro in April of 1973, he reeled off nine straight victories against less-than-spectacular competition. In his tenth professional bout, he bit off more than he could chew in a more experienced Colombian featherweight named Alfonso Perez, who was 16-0-2, 11 KO’s at the time. Perez bowled over the lanky Panamanian in three.
“El Alacran” kept moving, however, gradually facing better competition and learning on the job. Pedroza managed a five-fight win-streak after his initial defeat before he got the call for a title shot against bantamweight Alfonso Zamora, a significantly shorter but very powerful Mexican fighter who had not let a single opponent see the final bell. Unfortunately for the green challenger, he wasn’t the one to break up the knockout streak, as he was flattened in the second round by a pinpoint right hand that was thrown behind a stiff jab to the body and then followed up with picturesque left hook. Amazingly, Eusebio beat the count of ten after the vicious combo but his legs, giving the appearance of a newborn horse trying to get its gallop right, was in no shape to continue and the referee stopped the bout.
A mere three months later, Eusebio did slightly better, lasting six rounds with undefeated Venezuelan, Oscar Arnal. Not much is known of Arnal, but like Zamora, he seemed to have had some solid pop in his punches. Oscar Arnal finished his career with a mark of 24 kayos in 30 wins.
Most men can’t cope with loss, especially when it happens in such devastating fashion, but despite the roadblocks, the Panama City native wasn’t discouraged. In fact, he was spurred on by defeat and sped forward towards title town, overcoming three Latin pugilists before WBA featherweight champion and Spanish southpaw, Cecilio Lastra, issued him a contract. Both men signed and the match was set for April 15th, 1978 in Gimnasio Nuevo Panama, Panama City, Panama.
The bell sounded for Pedroza’s second attempt at gold and from the get-go Eusebio was the boss, jabbing regularly and circling to his opponent’s right in an effort to stay away from the left hand power of the champion. The strategy was an excellent one and pressed Lastra into engaging, allowing for counter-punching opportunities. One of these opportunities presented itself in round four when the champion tried to land a straight left. The ill-intended punch was avoided and met with an accurate and strong left hook on the point of the chin, putting Lastra down. The Spaniard was not in serious trouble, however, and continued to fight in a similar manner which preceded the knockdown.
In round five, the Panamanian began to put his length to use over the 5’5” titleholder, as he mixed in many lead right hands which were not only too long to be countered, but also too quick. Pedroza repeated his success over and over, round after round.
In the latter stages of the fight the challenger changed pace, boxing as well as pressing. This gave him a clearer advantage than he had had before and in the thirteenth segment, after an exchange by both men, Pedroza landed a stinging right and left uppercut which put the champion to a knee. Looking distraught and winded, Lastra stayed down until he was nearly counted out. The in-ring moderator hesitated briefly after assessing the Spaniard’s condition, but allowed the match to continue. “El Alacran” rushed over, seized the moment and never relented, punishing the WBA’s belt-wearer. Cecilio made frequent attempts at tying his taller foe up to stem the fistic tide, but his grapple tries bore little fruit. Eusebio kept throwing strikes and eventually found a clean one at range, a powerful right hand.
The punch rocked Lastra and forced him to the canvass once again. The champion, proving his mettle, found the will power to get up just as he had done before, but the ref had seen enough and halted the contest. Pedroza, overjoyed by his newfound recognition as champion, jumped up and down until his corner men hauled him off and paraded him around the ring.
With that triumph, “The Scorpion” joined Roberto Duran and Jorge Lujan as then-current Panamanian titleholders. The three continued winning together until 1980, when Duran lost the rematch to Sugar Ray Leonard and Lujan dropped a split decision to undefeated Puerto Rican, Julian Solis. Pedroza was the only one to not have his streak interrupted, as he overcame Mexican journeyman, Ernesto Herrera; Puerto Rican veteran, Enrique Solis; former Arguello and Gomez victim, Royal Kobayashi; Panamanian youngster, Hector Carrasquilla; faded Mexican legend, Ruben Olivares; Papua New Guinea native, Johnny Aba; 5’0” Japanese battler, Spider Nemoto; Argentine aggressor, Juan Domingo Malvarez; the inexperienced, Sa-Wang Kim; and undefeated American prospect, Rocky Lockridge.
The Lockridge fight was the biggest test he had at that stage of his tenure as WBA champion, and the most controversial of his title defenses up until that point. Rocky Lockridge seemed to win most of the first ten rounds, but Pedroza rallied late and came away with split decision verdict. It wasn’t just the scoring which rubbed some people the wrong way though. Rocky’s promoter Bob Arum and manager Lou Duva accused the champion of taking a foreign substance during the fight. The video footage confirmed that something was indeed placed in Pedroza’s mouth by his manager Santiago Del Rio, but Pedroza rebutted the accusations telling an interviewer: “I take some ice in my mouth between rounds. I don’t need anything during a fight. I am in too good condition to have to take anything like that.” Eusebio took a urine test afterwards to help dissolve any suspicion.
Despite what had happened in New Jersey against the American upstart in Lockridge, the belt holder racked up ten title defenses in a little over two years; a stellar number by almost anyone’s measure, especially in comparison to that of most modern champions. Pedroza kept his foot on the gas afterwards, facing some of his best competition to date. In succession he faced Pat Ford, Carlos Pinango, Bashew Sibaca, Juan Laporte, Rudy Alpizar, Bernard Taylor, and Rocky Lockridge in a rematch. He scored victories over all but Alpizar (no contest) and Taylor.
Eusebio’s fistic exhibition against the aforementioned Pat Ford may have been his showcase bout. Ford displayed substantial pugilistic wherewithal when he managed a majority decision loss against Salvador Sanchez, the highly touted featherweight whose life was struck short by a car accident. “The Scorpion” handled Ford significantly easier than Sanchez did, highlighting his entire repertoire of boxing goodies: jabbing, moving, slipping, landing clean power punches, and showing us all his renown ring generalship. The scorecards reflected Pedroza’s dominance. He won by the margins of 120-109, 120-113, and 118-113.
His title defenses against steel-chinned Juan Laporte and top-notch boxer Bernard Taylor were violent struggles. Pedroza managed a close points verdict versus the Puerto Rican, but he had to settle for a stalemate against the sprightly young American.
The historical reign continued as the dark-skinned featherweight pressed on, albeit against lesser opposition than before (maybe as the result of a couple scares). Pedroza went on to decision Rocky Lockridge in a rematch; won by a wide margin on the cards in his bout with Jose Caba; had little problem outboxing the undefeated Venezuelan, Angel Mayor; TKO’d the tough American ring veteran in Gerald Hayes; and outclassed former bantamweight champion and fellow countryman Jorge Lujan before traveling to the United Kingdom and entering the squared circle to pit wits with Irish phenom, Barry “The Clones Cyclone” McGuigan.
By this time, Pedroza was “the man” at 126 and had been since Salvador Sanchez’s tragic passing. McGuigan came in as the number four rated contender, largely based on his bettering of Juan Laporte over ten rounds; but what the Irishman was really made of was a serious question that was yet to be answered. In front of a raucous crowd of twenty-six-thousand, both men sought to verify their standing.
Bell ringing and a torrential downpour of cheers filled the air to start the fifteen-round featherweight championship contest. From second number one “The Clones Cyclone” assumed the role of aggressor and “El Alacran” took ample opportunity to exploit the size of the ring, which was the largest available. Eusebio jabbed and moved; Barry tried offsetting the champion’s long left hand with a jab of his own. The first segment ended with both fighters active, but with little in the way of picking a clear winner. The second was a different story. McGuigan, as focused as a sniper waiting for his target, found Pedroza repeatedly with power shots, one of which was a left hook that the Panamanian seemed be bothered by.
Pedroza went about reversing his fortune in the next go-round, popping his jab on the challenger’s face and connecting with bolo punches. It looked as if titleholder’s experience was starting to show but the challenger fought back hard. They fought tit for tat through most of seven rounds until McGuigan unleashed a wicked right hand-left hook combination that Pedroza never saw coming. The defending belt holder was sent sideways to the floor and was visibly hurt. Pedroza regained his composure as fast as he could and he beat the count of eight. The 5’6” brawler pounced like a tiger when the referee waved the boxers forth, landing a number of quality strikes to the champion’s head. It wasn’t enough though. Like the gritty and determined battler he was, Pedroza not only made it to the foreclosure of the round, he fought back and bounced a few power shots off of Barry’s face.
Panama’s own persisted in landing in the following segments. The problem was, none of it deterred the rugged challenger. McGuigan kept marching forward with unfettered concentration and proceeded to land the more telling wallops until the final bell had sounded. When the scorecards were read, a new featherweight champion had been crowned, but “The Scorpion’s” $1 million dollar payday helped quell the loss of his alphabet strap and the ending of his much talked about run.
With money in the bank and a warm welcome home, Eusebio settled in and took it easy before thinking about pairing up with another professional. When he did decide that boxing was worth another try, after an entire year of absence, he moved up to lightweight and suffered a split decision loss to 21-1, 13 KO’s, Edgar Castro. This prompted a five year layoff and a similar return to 135, where he gave it one last go before being retired for the final time by Mauro Gutierrez, a Mexican journeyman.
After the allure of the unbridled ferocity of boxing left his veins, Pedroza was enshrined in Canastota, New York, the home of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. The former champion’s post-boxing career also saw him hold various positions within the Panamanian government, one of which was the chief of general services. This position entailed providing utilities to the poor of his nation, a situation he was all too familiar with growing up.
In summary: slander has been leveled against Eusebio for being a dirty fighter. Truth be told, he could be (see his bout with Laporte). But that doesn’t encapsulate the totality of his remarkable ability. Pedroza was much more than that. Being dirty doesn’t get you nineteen consecutive title defenses, nor does it allow one to stand atop a good division for years. It can’t account for his record of 41-6-1,25 KO’s, or his innate defensive radar which allowed him to slip so many punches. What about his quick hands and feet? How about his accuracy?
His craft is served justice by focusing on all of his fistic tools. The man could win with all and he could win with some, but most importantly, he won.
One fight of Pedroza's that I want to talk about is his first fight with Rocky Lockridge, at the time Lockridge was unbeaten, Lockridge was one heck of fighter that would give anybody a rough time, his style was to straight up come forward and brutalized you. Any time you fought Rocky Lockridge you were going to have a rough night on your hands, he was a dangerous opponent, he could punch like heck and he was going to throw some hard leather at your head and body, everything he threw had bad intentions on it, and you'd better be able to take it or else you weren't going to last long with him. This fight really epitomizes how great Eusebio Pedroza was. The first 5 or so rounds belonged to Lockridge, he came right at Pedroza with no fear, throwing everything he had at him, his head, his body, pushing him up against the ropes, bullying him around throwing everything and the kitchen sink at him. Pedroza ate a few shots from Lockridge, but he stayed calm, and when Lockridge started to become exhausted, Pedroza turned it on and started picking Lockridge apart with uppercuts, body shots, Pedroza was a punching machine, and he won the fight on a split decision. Some people consider this a controversial outcome, but I think Pedroza rightfully won the fight, it was a beautiful display of the sweet science from Pedroza.
Eusebio Pedroza (right) and Rocky Lockridge during their first encounter.
Unsung 20th Century Fights: Eusebio Pedroza vs Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge became infamous as a meme, but his boxing career had some memorable nights and great fights, including one in 1980 against Eusebio Pedroza.
If you ask people today, most would recognize Rocky Lockridge by face more than by name. A heartfelt outpour of contrition was made light of in a meme that proliferated throughout the internet for the better part of a decade.
Yet long before his infamy, Lockridge was building a reputation as a gladiator in the boxing ring, and he faced a huge challenge against WBA lightweight champion Eusebio Pedroza in his first career title bout.
On Oct. 4, 1980, Pedroza was riding high on a two-and-a-half year run as the top dog at 126 lbs, and woke up with no intention to relinquish his crown the morning of the fight.
Pedroza and Lockridge fought a 15-round fight in a tale of two halves, as a strong start from Lockridge was withstood and countered by a fantastic close from Pedroza. In front of a packed house in Vernon Township, NJ., Lockridge had his hometown fans behind him. But were the judges too?
The Fight
The first five rounds sung a Lockridge song. Save for a second round that was very close to call, Rocky did not let his 5’6” frame hinder him from exerting his prowess against the 5’9” Pedroza. Lockridge led with his head both physically and tactically, burying his forehead into Pedroza’s chest and muscling him around the ring.
Lockridge took the inside early and began with jabs to the body that scored in waves. Pedroza tried to counter this with bounce to his step and ring movement, but one thing led to another and next thing you know, Lockridge found ways to box the Panamanian champion into the corners and show off his hand speed.
Pedroza showed good instincts while getting very low in his stance, dodging punches and not seeming to be bothered by the plethora of punches that Lockridg was landing. While he showed retaliatory hand speed, his punches did not have much behind them, whereas Lockridge was able to catch him flush with several straight rights and hooks in that span. While Pedroza began to show range with his punches in round five, it was a one sided affair heading into round six.
Slowly but surely, the tide began to turn. Flicking his jab with consistency and getting aggressive himself with shoves (some bordering on illegal) Pedroza woke up to his physical advantages and stole round six. Lockridge would not sit down while Pedroza caught a second win, convincingly earning rounds seven and eight behind a 1-2 combination in the seventh that prompted Pedroza to throw feints to try and get him off kilter.
From the tail end of round eight, a sharp vicissitude in fortune took place, as Pedroza started making the New Jersey native whiff on punches. Perhaps he was tired. Perhaps his combinations were starting to become predictable. One way or the other, Pedroza turned the fight around and utterly dominated from rounds nine to 14.
The ninth round was far and away the most convincing three-minute period of the fight. Pedroza found a new point of attack – sweeping hooks to Lockridge’s body. Soon, his wingspan advantage became plain to see, and Pedroza punished Rocky’s rib cages.
Additionally, Pedroza began fancying short uppercuts to the navel and chin, picking his spots and peppering the contender with shot after shot. Lockridge became very sloppy in round 10, and could not pick up the pace in round 11. After Pedroza outpointed Lockridge in round 12, the latter had pride kick in, and with it more zap to his punches.
Pedroza remained more active in round 13 but his punches were not connecting. They were thrown onto a shell of a defense. Lockridge did not take advantage with counters, but a strong right hand was quite literally enough to give him the round, as points were hard to come by.
The two split the last two rounds on my cards and their fate was left to the judges. All three apparently watched completely different fights, as Rodolfo Hill scored the fight 149-139 Pedroza. Harold Letterman had less cracks in his spectacles, giving a 144-142 nod to Lockridge and Stanley Christodoulou scored it 147-141 Pedroza, giving the Panamanian another successful title defense.
Takeaway
It would be easy to fall into the hypnotic fervor of the crowd and play-by-play announcers calling the fight in favor of Lockridge. However, objectivity leans toward a draw or slight favor to Lockridge. Either way, a Pedroza victory warranted no “this is a travesty” censure.
Pedroza defended the lineal featherweight championship nine more times over the span of five years after his fight with Lockridge. He would see the latter once again in 1983, securing a unanimous decision win and putting off any doubts about his first win at the start of the decade. He lost the titles in 1985 to Barry McGuigan and would never fight in a championship bout again, ending his career at 41-6-1 (25 KO) en route to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Lockridge went 13-1 in between his first and second fights with Pedroza. After two failed attempts at featherweight supremacy, he would achieve a career feat, knocking out then-WBA and The Ring junior lightweight champion Roger Mayweather in one round, handing him his first-ever professional defeat.
However, his misfortune with the judges would continue after that, as epic battles against legends Wilfredo Gomez and Julio Cesar Chavez stripped Lockridge of his championships via two controversial majority decisions. He’d earn another title at 130 lbs — this time the IBF championship — in 1987 against Barry Michael before a string of four losses in his last seven fights ended his career at a respectable 44-9 (36 KO).
The subject of his viral meme cry came on a 2010 episode of the A&E television series “Intervention,” where his family attempted to help the former champion get back on his feet after battles with homelessness and substance abuse. He passed away on Feb. 7, 2019, but should be remembered for his days as a well-spoken, hard-nosed champion.
The highlights from Pedroza vs Lockridge I. Pedroza's masterful slipping, sliding and rolling was lost on American viewers. Punches may have looked like they landed on Pedroza, but in slo-mo, you see they just rolled off him as he slid with the punch to take away all its effect, and then come back with short counters.
Lockridge threw a lot of big looking shots and had Pedroza up against the ropes a lot, but didn't land much at all. Meanwhile, Pedroza was tattooing Rocky with little counter uppercuts and hooks on the inside.
I just want to say that Rocky Lockridge is also one of my favorite fighters, loved watching his brutality, he was a guy that meant business when he stepped in the ring, I'll profile him later in the thread.
In a weight class filled with outstanding fighters, Eusebio Pedroza was one of the greatest featherweights of all-time.
The Panamanian held the WBA featherweight title for over seven years, making a division record 19 successful title defenses.
Pedroza honed his skills fighting at home before journeying to Mexico in his 16th fight. He was knocked out in two rounds when he challenged Alfonso Zamora for the WBA bantamweight title.
In his next fight, he was also stopped. He had been knocked out in three of his 17 fights and looked anything but special.
However, he regrouped, moved up to featherweight and, in the spring of 1978, in what he calls his proudest moment in boxing, unseated WBA titlist Cecilio Lastra.
During his title reign, Pedroza was a virtual staple on free US television, beating several past or future champions including Royal Kobayashi (RTD 13), Ruben Olivares (TKO 12) and Juan LaPorte (PTS 15).
Pedroza was nicknamed ‘El Alacr├ín’ (‘The Scorpion’) because of his cerebral skills and ring savvy. Pedroza was big for the weight, standing 5-foot-8. He employed a solid jab and was blessed with extraordinary stamina, excelling in the championship rounds.
Noted boxing historian Lee Groves was quick to talk up Pedroza’s unparalleled championship round know-how.
“Pedroza was one of history’s best stretch-drive fighters,” said Groves. “Everyone knew that rounds 11 through 15 was Pedroza’s turf. He seemed to draw strength from his opponents’ weakness and, once he sensed that weakness, he put the hammer down.
“During his subsequent reign, he scored six more knockouts in and beyond round 10. In that respect, Pedroza was a truth machine; if a challenger failed to give it 100 percent during training, Pedroza would expose those shortcomings in most graphic fashion. He didn’t knock you out most times but he emptied your gas tank like few others could.”
The silky-smooth boxing skills Pedroza exhibited throughout his career were often employed on the road. He retained his title on four continents, with 13 of his title defenses taking place outside of Panama.
Pedroza considers his final defense against Jorge Lujan, who had beaten Zamora for the same bantamweight title Pedroza had challenged for several years previous, as his best performance. Pedroza outpointed his Colombian adversary over 15 rounds.
Pedroza would lose a rousing fight to Barry McGuigan in the summer of 1985. He didn’t retire, instead fighting sparingly over the next few years. The magic was no longer there and he retired in the fall of 1992 with a record of 41-6-1, 25 knockouts.
Like most, Pedroza wishes he had been able to fight Salvador Sanchez; however, the Mexican’s sudden passing in car accident in 1982 prevented that bout taking place.
One of the most frequently asked questions among experts in the early-1980s was who would prevail in a unification contest between the pair.
“Both were so great that there really isn’t a wrong answer,” said Groves. “Given the esteem Sanchez deservedly inspires, that’s a tribute to just how great Pedroza was.”
Pedroza was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. His cousin Rafael briefly held the WBA junior bantamweight title in the early-’80s.
Today, Pedroza, 59, lives in Panama City with his family.
He graciously agreed to speak with RingTV.com about the best he faced in 10 key categories.
BEST JAB – Rocky Lockridge – He was a very fast boxer and had great movements.
BEST DEFENSE – Barry McGuigan – His youth and strong body made him a tough opponent.
BEST CHIN – Lockridge – Lockridge, as well as ├üngel Mayor, had a great chin. They endured much punishment.
FASTEST HANDS – Jorge “Mocho” Luj├ín – Besides his speed, he was calculating and clever boxer.
FASTEST FEET – Bernard Taylor – He was the only one that I think could match my speed.
SMARTEST – Luj├ín – I would call him the most complete boxer I faced. His movements and trickery made him a dangerous boxer. Besides he already knew my boxing.
STRONGEST – McGuigan – His body was very strong and very tough.
BEST PUNCHER – Orlando Amores – He was the only one who could knock me down three times.
BEST SKILLS – Jorge “Mocho” Luj├ín – Because of his method and style of combat. He could fight going in reverse and he also was a great counterpuncher. He never despaired. Because of that and many more, he was a controversial, technical and dangerous boxer.
BEST OVERALL – Lockridge – He has all the qualities together: speed, punch and good boxing. That’s why he was such a difficult opponent.
After holding the WBA featherweight title for seven years, 19 defenses, the great Eusebio Pedroza was finally dethroned by Barry McGuigan in 1985.
Barry McGuigan knocks Eusebio Pedroza down during their fight.
BARRY MCGUIGAN REMEMBERS EUSEBIO PEDROZA, THE CHAMPION WITH WHOM HE MADE HISTORY
If you saw the fight live you’ll never forget it.
On June 8, 1985, amid astonishing scenes, Ireland’s Barry McGuigan won the WBA featherweight championship from legendary Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza at Loftus Road soccer stadium in London. The 26,000 fans in attendance created a cauldron-like atmosphere, McGuigan’s father sang Danny Boy during pre-fight pageantry, there was an epic battle, a decisive knockdown and, ultimately, a changing of the guard.
When news broke yesterday that Pedroza had succumbed to cancer at the age of 62, that intense prizefight, which McGuigan won by 15-round unanimous decision, entered the mind almost instantly. Although the two Hall of Famers never became close, the customary respect that comes when two top professionals thrash it out over the championship distance remains unwavering to this day.
“I knew he was critically ill with cancer, but I’m really sad about it,” said McGuigan, who still sounded audibly upset over the phone having heard the news only hours earlier. “He was a hero in Panama and I hope he gets a hero’s send off because he deserves it.
“Pedroza was a great champion and a great fighter. Being in Panama, he couldn’t secure a big television deal; that just wasn’t possible for him in those days, so he became a globetrotter. He boxed in America, Italy, France, Japan, just everywhere, what an incredible fighter he was.
“He was also one of the longest reigning featherweight champions of all time with 19 defenses. In fact, the week of our fight Larry Holmes (then heavyweight champion) rang me up and said, excuse the language, ‘Don’t let him f__kin’ beat ya!’ Larry had 20 defenses (laughs).”
McGuigan was a superstar fighter during this period and the bout would generate record numbers.
“It was the first live broadcast on the BBC with 19 million people watching on television,” recalled the former champion “That’s the biggest audience to watch a fight (live in the U.K.) and you’ll never get a bigger one because there’s 500 channels now.
“But it was the whole occasion. Northern Ireland was in the middle of a real crisis; there was trouble and death everywhere, and I was trying to bring people together. There were members from both sides who didn’t think I was sincere, but now, almost 35 years later, I think even the hardest of those critics know that I really wanted to give everyone hope.”
And he did.
Pedroza, who was 29 years old at the time, had his best moments in the first half of the contest, but the challenger was constantly closing the gap and suffocating the veteran champion. Instinctively, “The Clones Cyclone” knew that when he did find the target he had to make it count.
“Pedroza was a better fighter technically, but I could punch harder and I had pace,” McGuigan recalled. “He could do all that lovely lateral movement, use his feet, and you couldn’t hit him, but previous opponents didn’t put it on him the way I could put it on him.
“Look, I was a maybe a bit lucky to fight Pedroza when I did, but the knockdown in Round 7 was crucial. I was closing in on him, he was clipping me with counters and everything else, but I nailed him in the seventh. That was a critical moment, then I had him out on his feet in the ninth and he was gone in the 13th. It’s just that his powers of recovery were absolutely remarkable.
“It was just such an honor to share the ring with him. God rest him.”
I didn't know anybody was still interested in boxing. I stopped following it when Rocky Marciano died in that plane crash years ago and have not heard anyone even talk about it anymore.
@tommyrusty7 said:
I didn't know anybody was still interested in boxing. I stopped following it when Rocky Marciano died in that plane crash years ago and have not heard anyone even talk about it anymore.
It has a huge following, you'd be surprised. This thread a dedication to @thisistheshow, he was my boxing talk buddy.
@tommyrusty7 said:
Interesting, I used to follow it back in the 50s but have not lately and don't know any of the boxers now.
Don't feel bad, most people don't know who the boxers are today. It has a big following but it's not followed like it was back then, during the days of Marciano, those were the good old days. 👍
I want to mention another Eusebio Pedroza fight real fast, his fight with Juan LaPorte. If you're not familiar with Juan LaPorte, just put it this way, if you watched featherweight boxing in the 80's there's no way you didn't see Juan LaPorte. He was tough as nails, he knocked out the dangerous Rocky Lockridge, but he's more known for his losses, going the distance and losing to the following:
Salvador Sanchez
Eusebio Pedroza
Wilfredo Gomez
Barry McGuigan
Julion Cesar Chavez
Azumah Nelson
Kosta Tszyu
He wasn't stopped until he retired in his corner at the age of 35 against Zack Padilla. If that's not a murderers row of opponents at 126 there's no such thing. A tip of the hat to an underappreciated warrior, that defined the term.
I'd like to see what he could do today. Anyway, Pedroza and LaPorte mixed it up in 1982, and this one was a knockdown, drag out. Pedroza hit LaPorte with low blows more than a few times, and elbows, but it didn't even matter to LaPorte, he was made of iron. This fight really demonstrates the punishment that boxers have to take, both guys really beat the crap out of each other, all over their bodies. I can still see Pedroza loading up those kidney shots and letting them rip with everything he had, just a brutal back and forth fight. Eusebio Pedroza won the fight by unanimous decision, but the decision was later overturned and declared a no-bout. Here are the highlights.
One final word about Eusebio Pedroza, he didn't reign as WBA featherweight champion for seven years and make 19 title defenses by accident, in his prime he was hard as heck to beat. He was a smart, great fighter, and had a reputation for getting stronger in the later rounds of a fight.
“Everyone knew that rounds 11 through 15 was Pedroza’s turf,” Lee Groves, a boxing historian, told Ring magazine in an interview for an article about Pedroza. “He seemed to draw strength from his opponents’ weaknesses, and once he sensed that weakness, he put the hammer down."
I want to post one more article about Pedroza, a closer look at the kind of fighter and man he was.
A CHAMP WITH LOTS OF CLOUT
EUSEBIO PEDROZA IS A LORD OF TWO RINGS: HE'S WBA FEATHERWEIGHT KING AND A MEMBER OF PANAMA'S SENATE
On a hot and humid Panamanian Sunday, the jeep of the legislador—the junior senator, as we might call him—swerves to avoid the live cockerels, bounces past the dead cars and arrives at the Softball game in the dusty hamlet of Buenos Aires. At this precise instant a hapless outfielder, backing up to make a catch, disappears into the surrounding rain forest. The crowd goes wild as Villa Unida takes a 2-1 lead over Deportiva Alvarado, and for the moment the visiting politico is badly upstaged.
But only for a moment. The game is abruptly stopped. Tardy as he may be, the serious-looking visitor must throw out the "first" ball. And then there are ladies in hair rollers to be complimented and village elders to be conversed with in low, confidential tones, and finally, of course, there is a speech to be given. The P.A. system blares out an entirely unnecessary introduction—unnecessary because everybody knows who is honoring the village today. He's not merely a member of Panama's Legislative Assembly; he's El Campéon Mundial de Peso Pluma himself, Eusebio Pedroza, the WBA's featherweight champion and, statistically at least, the most successful professional boxer in the world. Furthermore, he's quite likely the only champ anywhere who is an elected representative of the people.
Awesome has become a cheap word, but it is hard to find another that adequately describes Pedroza's boxing achievements. He won his title with a 13th-round knockout of Spain's Cecilio Lastra on April 15, 1978 and has successfully defended it 19 times, which ties him with heavyweight champ Larry Holmes (who won his title in June 1978) for longest run by a champion since Joe Louis's 24 straight defenses from 1937 to '48. The Panamanian's overall record is 38-3-1, with one no-contest and 23 KOs, and he hasn't lost in nine years. In London on June 8 Pedroza will put his title on the line again, against Barry McGuigan of Northern Ireland. If Pedroza wins, he will be one shy of Abe Attell's record for successful defenses by a featherweight, set between 1906 and 1912.
For all this, his countrymen worry that Pedroza is less interested in his ring performance than in his political career. Indeed, only seven weeks before the McGuigan fight Pedroza weighed 144 pounds, 18 more than the featherweight maximum. Instead of training at the Pascual Gonzalez gym in downtown Panama City, he had taken two days off for "senatorial duties."
"I had to go to the assembly to do a different type of fighting," says the champion, who was talked into becoming a candidate as an alternate legislador for the Revolutionary Democratic Party early last year and was elected in May 1984, "People in the legislature are educated; you have lawyers, engineers, doctors. But the problems we debate are basic. I must fight for my people, the things they need and want in my district."
Now it is Pedroza's two trainers who seem to be looking for a fight on a sultry afternoon. They have been working with him ever since he turned pro, and now they are boiling angry about his absence from the gym. Both are out of Caledonia, Panama City's Harlem; both are descendants of Jamaicans who came to Panama to help build the canal; and both are in their 70s. Lyonel Hoyte is a giant of a man with a face carved like a Dahomey juju mask, while Henry Douglas, who is always called Matty Baby, is Hoyte's perfect foil. Matty Baby is small and bouncy and always wears a flat leather applejack cap set at a degree of jauntiness not seen anywhere since Jackie Coogan was the Kid. The pair look malevolently at the champ. "He behind" says Matty Baby.
"He not ready" agrees Lyonel.
"His leg not well," says Matty.
Recently, you learn, Pedroza had been rousted out of bed at 4 a.m. by his sister-in-law. A thief was breaking into one of the champ's cars. He stopped the audacious constituent with a single shot—not his favorite left jab but the 9-mm kind, from an Uzi machine pistol, the kind of heavy-duty armament that suddenly appeared in the hands of U.S. Secret Service agents when John W. Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan. "This man must thank God he alive with just a wounded knee," says Matty Baby, "but my fighter pull a muscle in his left leg running him down." All the same, sparring to a 100-watt rendition of Madonna's Material Girl Pedroza looks fast and supple, and when he begins to work over the heavy bag, it is clear that he can still hit with power.
Later, in the locker room, Pedroza speaks again of his unhappiness at being an unsung hero outside of Panama. "Why, at last, am I getting attention?" he asks. "When I was screaming to fight Little Red Lopez, Wilfredo Gomez, Azumah Nelson, Salvador Sanchez, where was the press then? Where were the promoters?" Earlier, his manager, 50-year-old Santiago del Rio, had his own complaints to make. "This is the toughest fighter in the world," he declared, and then paused for effect and added, "to promote.
"He should have made far more money. Salvador Sanchez made more out of four fights than Eusebio has in all his great career. But he is shy, gets homesick, won't meet people. He likes to arrive in a place Wednesday for a Saturday fight. If planes had gyms in them, he'd arrive a half hour before the bout. If he'd only head up to New York for a while.... Wouldn't writers see him in restaurants there? Wouldn't every little thing he did make the papers?"
Actually, only seven of Pedroza's defenses have been in Panama. He made his sixth defense, against John Aloa, in November 1979, almost halfway around the world from home, in Port Moresby, New Guinea. "Fifteen hundred cops," recalls his manager, "500 of them with German shepherds, holding back guys carrying lances and wearing grass skirts."
At home in Panama City's middle-class Los Pinos district with his wife, Rosa Amalia, and his two daughters, Yuleiska and Yemajara, Pedroza makes no bones about why he has traveled like a wild goose. He needed the cash, and until recently his division had not attracted big-money interest. After Pedroza won his title, promoter Don King signed the new champ to a three-fight deal worth a modest $350,000. But even this unexceptional sum failed to materialize—the contract became void when there were no TV takers after three months. "I have had to be a good soldier," Pedroza says, "and go where the battle is. Even to a place like Port Moresby, full of Indios, some civilized, some savages, the strangest place I have been in my whole life, a place where much blood had been shed. But I told myself, 'He who is with God is safe.' "
Such devout expressions are rarely far from the champion's lips, and now and then you have to remind yourself that Pedroza has been vilified at times as an especially dirty fighter who has benefited from some extraordinary decisions. There was, for instance, the strange business of his 10th defense, against Rocky Lockridge in October 1980 in McAfee, N.J. One judge, Rodolph Hill of Panama, scored the fight 149-139 in his countryman's favor, while the other two judges had it much closer, 144-142 and 146-141. In Pedroza's 14th defense, against Juan LaPorte of the U.S., this time in Atlantic City, he had two rounds taken away for hitting after the bell and for using his elbows. Though his win by a unanimous decision was subsequently overturned, and the fight was declared "no bout," Pedroza kept his title. There were more noisy recriminations when he fought to a draw (and thus retained the title) against Bernard Taylor before the challenger's home crowd in Charlotte. N.C. in October 1982. And the following year, in a bout in Saint-Vincent, Italy, he was warned repeatedly for kidney and rabbit punches when he fought Jose Caba of the Dominican Republic.
Pedroza listens to a summary of these events with equanimity. "You have to do what you can when you feel the pressure," he says. "That's being a pro. Myself, if I want to be a crybaby, I go to the nursery, I don't show it in the ring. All those stories about me were started up in North America, when I fought Lockridge and LaPorte. And if I'm dirty, where did I learn the tricks but up north? I don't hear them calling Hagler dirty. But he has a very, uh, technical way of using his head, he's sort of loose with his thumbs, he knows how to use his elbows, the butts of his hands, his laces. But I don't want to go on about that. It's part of boxing."
It is also clear that no mere repertoire of dirty tricks could have carried Pedroza through 19 defenses. In Panama City, 52-year-old Alfonso Castillo is the doyen of boxing journalists. Castillo has been a columnist for La Rep√∫blica, a national newspaper, for 28 years and has missed only two of Pedroza's fights. "Sure," says Castillo, "he'll defend what he's got with everything he's got. He'll use every trick. Others do the same. But remember, he is also a most complete boxer. He can brawl as well as box and still maintain his distance. But watch the way he delivers the left jab. He leans right back, as if he were throwing the javelin. His reach is so long. He'll study his man for maybe two or three rounds, then let down his guard just so that he can counterpunch, like Ali." But like other knowledgeable Panamanians, Castillo is aware of how politics are taking over much of Pedroza's life. "When he fought Angel Mayor in Venezuela last May," says the columnist, "he only trained 14 days. He has trouble making weight, and that might be weakening his punch. His last honest-to-God KO was back in December '81."
Should Castillo's forebodings about the bout with McGuigan prove correct, there is one fellow townsman of Pedroza's who will not buy black crepe to hang on his door. "People here are proud of Eusebio," Castillo says, "but when Roberto Duran announced last month that he would return to the ring, there was an earthquake in Panama."
To be brutally frank, however, Pedroza's more famous compatriot looks as if he could cause an earthquake just by sitting down—and as if his next match should be against a sumo wrestler. Duran certainly looked that way last month while relaxing at home after a tour of Latin America with Felicidad, his" 11-piece salsa band. As he drank white wine with a dozen cronies, watching a bloody shootout in a Mexican movie on TV, his pendulous belly hung over his red shorts. Duran must now weigh more than 200 pounds, even though he intends to return to the ring as soon as this fall. "Pedroza, who is he?" Duran shouted, as his cohorts sniggered. "He has fought nobody! And those he has fought have not pressured him!"
For his part, Pedroza is not a member of the local chapter of the Duran fan club, though he chooses his words far more carefully. "It is ambition that kills men," Pedroza says, "and it still hurts Duran. He has done much damage to himself. You have to be calm to be a human." Pedroza was far from calm recently when he read in El Tiempo, a Colombian newspaper, the headline DURAN: PEDROZA IS ENVIOUS OF ME.
"Eusebio has always been in Duran's shadow," says del Rio. "Panama is a small city. If Pedroza stayed out at a nightclub until 3 a.m., the next night Duran would be out till four. Back when Duran was due to fight Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal, Pedroza was working out in New York, so I took him up to Canada just to help a fellow countryman. But Duran wouldn't say hello, he wouldn't run or spar with Eusebio. Wouldn't remain in the same gym. Eusebio is quiet and a gentleman, but this time I had to cool him down."
So it goes. Pedroza buys his-and-hers BMWs to supplement the family Mercedes; Duran announces he will take a weekend in New York. Pedroza buys a $35,000 diamond-studded Rolex, Duran orders a $500,000 sound system. Duran is clearly ahead on gold chains, Pedroza on dignity.
Indeed, Pedroza has something that Duran seems to have missed. By some immutable rule, boxers' homes are aglitter with trophies that exude a kind of exuberant vulgarity. But in Pedroza's den, pride of place goes to a series of framed photographs that show him in the company of the late president of his country. General Omar Torrijos Herrera, the champion's political mentor as well as friend. It was Torrijos who negotiated a treaty with the U.S. that would give Panama control of the Panama Canal and who improved the economy of this country of two million citizens. Like Pedroza, some of Torrijos' methods were not universally admired, but undeniably, like Pedroza, he inspired pride and a new sense of independence among his countrymen. But in 1981, four years after the treaty was signed, Torrijos was killed in a mysterious air crash. "You see I have his picture everywhere," says the fighter. "I live with his ideals. That is why people say I am shy. It is because I carry my country on my shoulders when I speak. I am not scared, but I must refine my words, I must commit no error.
"Here now, in Panama, my General would say there is no luz larga, far vision. Even in boxing I think I will be the last of the great Latin champions. To be blunt, I believe that 95 percent of the aspirants are drug addicts. They have no future. I am not really a politician but, like Omar, a realist. Panama is still elitist. Poverty is worse in this city now than when I was young."
As you get to know Pedroza better, you realize the depths of his emotionalism, how much of a facade is the dour face. Now his thoughts have led him to his boyhood in Mara√±ón, in the tumbledown shacks built for the canal workers, and to his father ("a simple laborer") and mother, who, not uncharacteristically, hated to see him fight. He recalls his last defeat, on July 11, 1976 in Caracas, when Oscar Arnal broke his jaw in the third round, and he fought on to the sixth. "When my mother saw me with the jaw," he recalls painfully. "she said, 'Leave the fighting, for God's sake, leave it.' She made soup for me to suck through a straw. My jaws were closed, wired up. She would give it to me very quickly and then leave. One day I followed her into the back of the house. I saw her sitting there, crying."
And then, suddenly, Pedroza's own head has dropped into his hands, and he is sobbing convulsively. When he recovers, he repeats that yes, yes, when he retires he will go into politics full-time. "I know," he says. "I am not so foolish as to think that all those votes in the last election would have come to me if I had not been champion. But I will show the people I have a warm heart for them also."
The phone rings. Panamanian President Nicolàs Ardito Barletta wants to know if there is a firm date yet for the McGuigan fight. As the champion speaks to him, reality returns. Politics will have to wait, he agrees when he hangs up. Six thousand miles away, a deeply committed, explosive young Irishman is waiting for perhaps the last of the great Latinos. He is not concerned in the least about the next election day in Panama.
Next up, Carlos Zarate. This guy was an absolute wrecking ball, you can just look at his record and tell that, 63 knockouts in 70 fights. Zarate really did the basics well. Very well. He was economical and patient but was very accurate and hit like hell, he's ranked number 21 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers of all-time list. He was also a murderous bodypuncher. He wasn’t the quickest and he could be hit but he wasn’t what you'd call slow or a catcher. He had good positioning and footwork. Again, he was very good at the basics. Great fighter, one of my favorites. I'd consider him a textbook pressure boxer-puncher. As already mentioned he was very good at the basic skills, actually very underrated as a technician since he was mostly known as a puncher. Knew how to cut off the ring and stalk his opponents, threw great body shots and never wasted any punches. He wasn't exactly a one hit KO artist but he threw very hard accurate punches that eventually wore down the opponent. He wasn't easy to hurt either, and at one point in his career, Zarate was 52-0 with 51 KO, like I said, he was a wrecking ball.
The All-Time Great Bantamweights: No 9: Carlos Zarate
9. Carlos Zarate 66-4 (63 KOs)
It’s 1977. Muhammad Ali is a bit past his prime, Carlos Monzon is nearing the end of his but is in the midst of a undefeated streak of over 80 fights. Roberto Duran is in his peak years, although no one has a clue about what he will go on to achieve and just how legendary he will become. The light heavyweight division is in bloom in a way it hasn’t been since the 1940s, and flyweight champ Miguel Canto is the purest boxer in the world, able to stand in the rain without getting wet. Ten stone teenage prodigy Wilfred Benitez could walk on water and no one would be surprised.
Yet 'Boxing Illustrated' has Carlos Zarate at the top of its pound-for-pound list, demonstrating the stature of the world bantamweight champion. He is perceived to be a monster, so much so that the respected publication deemed him the most likely to come out on top if all fighters were the same size.
It's not too far-fetched a notion either.
The Mexican had a jab like a battering ram. He was fairly straight up, but knew how to use his legs to establish first the range (the jab came after that) and how to avoid those that were brave enough to throw back. Those that were really brave? By the end of the most punk rock year in recorded history, Zarate was undefeated in 47 fights. Only one man had heard the final bell such was Zarate’s power.
The scariest thing is that Zarate didn’t need to throw the kitchen sink at his opponents. His game was built on the foundations of that jab, of carefully placed body work, of combinations that were efficient rather than flashy. He was an adept counter puncher, but one of those that would get off first in exchanges rather than slipping left and right. These were skills built from when he was still a little boy, forced by his older brother - a policeman - to box in order to channel the violence he had demonstrated on the streets of Mexico City.
Zarate had been arrested more than once by beating up grown men in street fights. His brother's intervention saw a natural fighter cultivated into a cerebral and deadly boxer-puncher. Measured, thoughtful, strategic, monstrous. A 5’8 bantam in the time of same-day weigh ins. And when he did throw the kitchen sink at his man? A literal sink might have been preferable.
Not only was Zarate naturally powerfully and technically proficient, he was also very difficult to hurt, and even harder to dissuade once stung as his brilliant paisano Rodolfo Gonzalez found out in 1976. Martinez, a switch hitter who could punch with either hand, had only lost thrice in 46 bouts, two of those to another great in Mexican bantam Rafael Herrera. He’d avenged that loss to take the WBC title before making three successful defences of his own, including a decision win over the terrifying Thai Venice Borkorsor after dragging himself off the canvas twice.
Using all of this experience to try and befuddle Zarate, Martinez kept himself in the bout and even seemed to get a leg up when he briefly stunned Zarate with a left cross in the third round only to find himself dropped on to his backside two rounds later.
Orthodox, southpaw, moving, pressuring, Martinez could not budge Zarate off from his path. With punches coming back ever more frequently, the champion wilted under the challenger’s devastating blows in nine rounds.
Zarate’s era was not a great one. His contemporaries ranged from proven world class such as Filipino tough guy Fernando Cabanela (rescued in three) and technically brilliant Alberto Davila, who gave Zarate a good test before being broken down in eight. Then there were those that were arguably world class, such as tough as nails Commonwealth bantam champ Paul Ferreri, who was pulled out in 12, and the excellent amateur and European class Juan Francisco Rodriguez who signalled no mas in five after being gutted by Zarate’s body blows.
Among Zarate's other victims was undefeated Brazilian Danilo Batista, who went on to achieve absolutely nothing in the sport after being stopped in six, an unheralded boxer who nevertheless passed the eye test; Orlando Amores was a world class flyweight, but Zarate dismissed him as an 118lber with a hefty left hook in two.
John Mensah Kpalogo, the ring moniker of one John Kodjo Mensan, another Zarate victim, lays right down at the wrong end of the spectrum. An apparently lauded fighter out of Togo who allegedly had 45 wins to his name, boxrec can only account for three. Is Boxrec the be-all-and-end-all of boxing records? As a historian who has unearthed previously unlisted bouts through his own research of primary sources, I can categorically state that it is not.
But watch the African challenge Zarate, and you will doubt he even won the fights Boxrec credits him with - that the Mexico-based World Boxing Council fed their native hero this abysmal challenger should say more about the governing body than the fighter, but within a reign that didn’t feature much in the way of world class opposition it must be noted all the same.
Nevertheless, Zarate still belongs in the all-time bantam top 10. Davila, Martinez, Cabanela, Ferreri, were all top 10 bantamweight challengers or title holders. That his greatest win came above the bantam limit to avoid heavy sanctioning fees from both the green belt and the WBA shouldn’t sour it at all.
The Battle of the Z Boys
The then 22-year old Alfonso Zamora had been Mexico’s representative in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. A silver medallist, Zamora showed none of his amateur pedigree as a pro prospect. A T-Rex armed bulldozer, the diminutive Mexico City native blasted through all 29 of his opponents, and his record was not a manufactured one either: future all-time great featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza was wasted inside two, deaf-mute Ali impersonator Thanomchit Sukhothai offered some resistance before getting annihilated in four rounds, and South Korean hero Soo-Hwan Hong gave Zamora a 12-round dogfight only after being knocked out in four rounds in their first shootout.
Zamora’s offensive potency was undeniable. He was seemingly the heir apparent to the greatest Mexican fighter that had ever lived up to that point (fellow bantamweight champ Ruben Olivares) with a longer knockout streak than even Zarate had ever managed.
At 26 years of age and with 54 wins to his name, the WBC title holder might as well have been geriatric compared to the WBA title holder. Yet Zamora was a friend, a former stablemate Zarate had shared the gym with. They had become estranged due to Zamora’s father and Zarate’s manager having contractual disputes. Indeed, Zamora was on his fourth manager in his sixth year fighting for pesos rather than medals. He had come from a wealthy background by Mexico City street kid standards, his dad had sold his business in order to fund his son's boxing career.
Zamora was barely past 20 but he was married, with two kids and more-than-modest dwellings.
The taller man was the polar opposite. Zarate was still unmarried, unassuming and fighting to pay for surgeries that could help restore his ailing mother's sight. His father had died before he had reached his third birthday.
They had both won the national title as amateurs. Zamora had gone to the Olympics and been greeted by the Mexican President upon his return from Germany. He’d won his first world strap after less than two years as a professional, while Zarate had been in nearly 40 paid scraps before he had gotten his first chance at a world title.
That these two had ever been friends is a surprise. That they remained great friends even with the bad blood between Zamora’s father and Zarate’s long-term mentor Arturo 'Cuyo' Hernandez is even more surprising.
That they would meet in an all-time classic is not. Their combined records when they squared off were impossibly good - both unblemished, Zarate with 45 wins, only one not inside the distance, Zamora having knocked out 29 men. 74 fights, 74 wins, 73 knockouts.
What are the chances of two fighters, both holding one world championship each, both from the same city, both formerly of the same gym, coming up at the same time, in the same weight division, with the same modus operandi, guaranteeing a fight that would not disappoint?
Yet it wouldn’t come off without a hitch and the showdown would not even be for all the baubles.
Made at 120lbs but with both men only coming in at a shade over the championship limit, the question of weight was the one thing that strained the relationship between the opposing champions. Zamora claimed to be withholding his title in a potential unification for both he and Zarate’s benefit: big money from the super fight, more of it staying with the fighters due to avoiding hefty sanctioning fees, and - with both of them walking out of the ring with gold strapped round their waists regardless of the result - more earning opportunities for them both afterwards.
Zarate took the opposite stance, with 'Sports Illustrated' publishing the words of a fighting champion in direct opposition to the plans of his friend:
"I like him, but we should settle this business of two championships. It is stupid to talk of a non-title fight. No matter what they called it, one must win and one must lose.”
Both wore red shorts, waving the other bull on. When the first bell sounded, Zamora did not fight like someone only thinking of the pay cheque. He tried his darnedest to leave Zarate unconscious. Zarate, ever patient and methodical, fought back when he had to, but tried to find his footing against his younger, more energetic opponent.
Then, in one of the more bizarre moments in boxing history, and pre-dating the fan man by nearly twenty years, a local man in his underpants and vest stormed the ring. For reasons that remain unclear but appear to be centreed around convincing these two extremely violent and powerful men to let peace rule the day, the intruder brought a brief halt to proceedings before being bundled out and battered by baton-wielding Mexican policemen who set the tone for the war that ensued.
Zamora forced Zarate to concede ground in a way that no one since Rodolfo Martinez had. Whereas that had been a brief buckle, here Zarate appeared to be briefly disorganised. He wrapped his body shots around Zamora’s shorter but stockier frame, and brought the uppercuts up through the middle, but the younger man was dissuaded. He pasted Zarate with uppercuts and hooks of his own, throwing more leather and pushing the pace.
Zarate was stung in the first, claiming afterwards he was numb and fighting on instinct for the rest of the fight. To his credit, Zarate kept himself together. He blunted Zamora’s attacks by staying in close, using his taller frame to push Zamora back, creating room for his own shots.
Whereas Zarate had survived when pushed onto the back foot - that jab keeping him in it - Zamora started to become ragged. Zarate then upped the ante, battering Zamora against the ropes. Zamora fired back with shots that would fell an elephant, but Zarate had found the measure of his man, and simply walked through him.
In perhaps the ultimate show of domination, it was Zamora’s father who threw in the towel, saving his son from any further punishment, and conceding to Cuyo Hernandez that he had retained the superior bantamweight.
A Shark Amongst Minnows
While the parameters of this countdown have been made clear - and will be strictly enforced as much as possible - Zarate besting Zamora a pound over the bantam limit doesn’t suggest that the result would be any different had they shed it and unified the championships. It was ostensibly the two best bantams in the world going at it, with politics and money being the reason for championship weight being neglected.
It was so significant a scalp that by the end of 1977 Zarate sat atop the fabled pound-for-pound rankings. Indeed, one post-fight report noted that Zarate now held ‘the only belt that mattered’.
True pound-for-pound greatness eluded Zarate; he moved up to truly prove himself the best man south of featherweight, but was utterly bamboozled, battered and then vaporized by Wilfredo Gomez.
But that doesn’t effect my perception of him too much, as it’s hard to imagine any bantamweight in history faring much better with the ‘Bazooka’ from Puerto Rico.
Nevertheless, the relative weakness of the men he faced at the bantamweight limit should give us pause for thought when ranking him among the greats. This criticism is not with the benefit of hindsight either. 'Sports Illustrated' called out Zarate for some of the soft touches he faced when weighing up the merits of the hardest pound-for-pound punchers in the sport, with Zarate mentioned in the same company as featherweight demolition man Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez and ‘Hands of Stone’ Roberto Duran himself:
“The hoary "pound for pound" claim is admittedly impossible to prove. For one thing, 126-pound featherweights and 220-pound heavyweights never get into the ring together. World lightweight champion Roberto Duran, he of the fabled stone hands, has knocked out 79.6% of his opponents compared with 85.7% for Lopez. Bantamweight champ Carlos Zarate has knocked out 52 opponents in 53 fights, but it has been suggested that Zarate has fattened his record on an assortment of adagio dancers and tamale makers.”
Zarate’s bantam era was not the strongest, but as the publications and fans of the sport at the time recognised he was a truly great champion, and the opposition he beat in the manner he did makes him worthy of his place on this list.
He bested one of the great punchers the division has ever seen, as well as some fellow Mexican greats. Tellingly, he was never convincingly defeated at the bantamweight limit. He has one loss there, still disputed to this day in some quarters, and when well past his prime too.
He never came close to being knocked out south of super bantam either. Nearly everyone above him in this list was, even those in the top few spots. Was that due to the level of his opposition? Or should he be higher and placed in the upper echelon of bantamweight greats? That is for you to decide.
The eighth ranked bantam of all time is also a fighter whose legacy is debatable. Like Zarate, he was also a freak of nature.
Ok, I owe it to Eric to finish this thread, to finish what I started, so that's just what I'm going to do. So picking up where I left off, Carlos Zarate is considered one of the best bantamweights in history, he's right there with Eder Jofre and Ruben Olivares as far as the bantams are concerned. He was one of the most destructive forces in the division's history, he was an accurate precision puncher that threw in bulk and had bricks for hands. To demonstrate the kind of puncher he was, he put together two 20+ knockout streaks in a row, the first one 23 straight knockouts and the second one 28 straight knockouts. Some people like to knock his record, saying he fought bums, but he's one of those guys you really have to look at HOW he beat his opponents and you can see the damage he did by looking at his record, he mowed guys down. The list starts at the bottom with his first fight and goes to the top with his final fight.
Loss 66–4 Daniel Zaragoza TKO 10 (12) 1988-02-29 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. For vacant WBC super bantamweight title
Loss 66–3 Jeff Fenech TD 4 (12) 1987-10-16 Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia For WBC super bantamweight title
Win 66–2 Richard Savage TKO 5 (10) 1987-08-15 Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 65–2 Tony Montoya TKO 3 (10) 1987-06-19 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
Win 64–2 John Boyd TKO 5 (10) 1987-05-05 Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Win 63–2 Francis Childs KO 4 (10) 1987-02-20 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
Win 62–2 Alex Galván TKO 7 (10) 1986-12-13 Convention Center, Fresno, California, U.S.
Win 61–2 Edward Rodriquez TKO 3 (10) 1986-11-21 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
One more quick write up on Zarate and then I'll talk about his fight with Alfonso Zamora, one of my favorite fights.
Carlos Zarate: A great champion
With no fewer than 15 inductees in the International Boxing Hall of Fame it would perhaps be an understatement to say that Mexico has a long and proud tradition in the sport. Ever since Juan Zurrita became lightweight champion in 1944, Mexico has produced more world champions than any other country outside of the United States. It would be fair to say that the biggest stranglehold Mexico has had over one division historically is in the bantamweight class. The popular Raul “Raton” Macias from the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City was one of Mexico’s first sporting icons and its first bantamweight champion. His success triggered the emergence of an era of excellent bantamweights which included Jose Becerra, Jose Medel, Jose “Toluco” Lopez, Ricardo “Pajarito” Moreno and German Ohm amongst others.
World championships were harder to come by in those days with only one champion per division and less weight classes so not all of these men reigned as the division was dominated from 1960-1965 by the legendary Eder Jofre of Brazil and then Japan’s greatest boxer Masahiko “Fighting” Harada. The real period of world domination for Mexico began when the charismatic Ruben Olivares dethroned Harada’s conqueror Lionel Rose in 1969. That win by Olivares started a 14-year run for Mexico in the division which was only briefly halted once for a few months by Enrique Pinder in 1972. Among these fantastic champions were Jesus “Chucho” Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Rodolfo Martinez, Romeo Anaya, Alfonso Zamora but none would dominate as much as Carlos Zarate.
Zarate, like Macias and many other Mexican greats was born in Tepito. He holds a lot of distinctions in boxing history which still stand to this day. He is one of only two boxers recorded to have two separate knockout streaks of 20 or more bouts and he has the highest knockout percentage of any boxer currently enshrined in the international boxing hall of fame yet he was far more than just a heavy handed slugger. Zarate at 5 feet 8 inches was tall for a bantamweight and possessed a calmness about him which blended superbly with the level of technical ability and confidence instilled in him by the legendary Arturo “Cuyo” Hernandez. Watching film of Zarate you will notice he seldom rushed any of his attacks or got sloppy yet the vast majority of his fights ended quickly inside the distance. He hit hard with both hands with his signature punch being his straight right hand and he is one of the most devastating punchers in boxing history. Zarate did the basics very well. He was an expert at cutting down the ring partly due to superb boxing IQ and his excellent footwork and he delivered every punch with accuracy and power.
As a youngster Zarate moved with his family from Tepito to the Ramos Milan section of the city close to the Benito Juarez International Airport. He would still travel back and forth to Tepito visiting friends and family members. As a youth, Zarate was like many in that he liked to fight at school and felt that he escaped punishment because both of his parents worked closely with the school district. It was at the age of 16 under the tutelage of Cuyo Hernandez that he started to train seriously and set his sights on earning his living in the boxing ring. “Cuyo Hernandez was a teacher. You can see how many fighters he developed from when they were young children and how many went on to become champions”, he said. Among the fighters which Zarate was a fan of when he was young were Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos, Jose Napoles, Jose Medel and Vicente Saldivar.
After going 33-0 with 30 knockouts as an amateur Zarate turned professional on February 2nd, 1970 at the age of 18 years old. He racked up 23 straight knockout victories before the run was halted when he had to settle for a points victory against Victor Ramirez in 1974. He followed that up with six straight knockout victories before the promoters north of the border up in Southern California wanted to showcase this new knockout sensation on these shores. The big opportunity for Zarate came against the unbeaten James Martinez on the undercard of the Ruben Olivares vs. Alexis Arguello bill in Inglewood at The Great Western Forum on November 23rd of 1974. He performed well that night as he stopped Martinez and over the next 18 months went from strength to strength as he scored knockout after knockout. His victims included talented Panamanian Orlando Amores, unbeaten Joe Guevara and the vastly experienced Benicio Sosa of Argentina all at the Forum. At home in Mexico he added the scalps of Cesar DeCiga, Nestor Jimenez and Jorge Torres, brother of Flyweight world champion Efren.
World champion
This impressive run landed Zarate a shot at WBC champion and fellow Tepito native Rodolfo Martinez on May 8th, 1976 at the Forum. Despite Martinez’ impressive pedigree and reputation Zarate entered the bout as a 3-1 favorite. Both boxers fought with a decent level of respect for one another throughout the first four rounds as they looked for openings. Zarate held a slight edge during these rounds but then stepped up the tempo a little bit in the fifth round and sent Martinez down with a punishing left hook which was followed up with a quick barrage of shots which almost sent Martinez out of the ring. Zarate did not lose his composure as he was content in continuing to outbox Martinez and not take unnecessary chances. He dominated the bout in the next few rounds before ending the bout with a picture perfect knockout in the ninth round. Martinez by now was trailing and had been wobbled in the prior round succumbed to a powerful left to the body followed by a straight right hand and was counted out.
After taking a couple of stay-busy bouts in Mexico, Zarate was back in Inglewood to put his title on the line against tough Australian Paul Ferreri. Ferreri had build up an impressive record to earn a shot at the Mexican’s title and proved himself a worthy opponent as he extended the champion into the 12th round which was the furthest Zarate had ever been to at that point. While Zarate was dominant most of the way he did acknowledge that Ferreri had been a difficult opponent. “This was a very difficult fight. Ferreri was very elusive. I thought I had him many times but he was always able to escape. I did prepare for a 15 round fight and I guess going 12 was a good experience” he said after the bout. Whilst Zarate did not score any knockdowns he did hurt Ferreri on a number of occasions and opened a nasty cut which prompted referee Richard Steele to stop the bout.
Battle of the Z boys
By now a fascinating storyline had been developing between Zarate and his former stablemate and friend Alfonso Zamora. Zamora himself had run up an impressive knockout streak and was the WBA world titleholder but had fallen out with Cuyo Hernandez over a dispute between his father and Hernandez. Alfonso Senior bought out his son’s contract and what ensued was a war of words through the media between both managers. Zamora had won the title against Soo-Hwan Hong just two months prior to Zarate’s title win and impressively defended his title five times by knockout. His most notable victim was future featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza who was knocked out in two rounds. After the Ferreri bout, Zarate registered two further title defenses against Waruinge Nakayama and Fernando Cabanela respectively before setting up the tantalizing match-up with Zamora. Although the ridiculous politics of the WBC and WBA prevented both titles from being on the line it did not diminish the enthusiasm to see this historical battle between these two knockout artists.
The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds on April 23rd at the Forum and few expected it to go that far as Zarate entered with a record of 45-0 with 44 knockouts whereas Zamaora was 29-0 with a perfect 29 knockouts. To this day the bout remains one of the biggest bouts between two Mexican nationals and arguably the biggest bantamweight fight of all-time. The action did not disappoint the mostly Mexican crowd that packed into the Forum that night as the two sluggers produced an epic bout full of fireworks. In just the first round with both boxers searching for openings a man jumped into the ring wearing what appeared to be his underpants momentarily stopping the action as he stood there in what looked like some sort of peace offering. He was quickly hurled out of the ring by the police and beaten for his transgression. The action between the two fighters heated up shortly after that with Zamora getting the better of the first round as he unloaded some big bombs on Zarate towards the close of the round. Zarate later admitted to feeling Zamora’s power, “his punches put me in the mood to attack. He hurt me twice but he did not hurt me enough”, he said. Zarate fared better in the second round as he found some success in catching the shorter Zamora as he attempted to come in close and detonate further bombs on Zarate’s chin. In the next round Zarate’s advantage strengthened as he scored the first knockdown of the bout when he put Zamora down with a short right hand after a series of hard left hand punches. The good news for Zamora was that this was near the end of the round. The bad news? Zarate had him exactly where he wanted him as he came out for the fourth round and scored two further knockdowns before the towel came flying in from Zamora’s dad. The first knockdown was the result of a number of hard left hand shots and the third and final knockdown was punctuated by a lethal right hand which left Zamora under the ropes in agony as Richard Steele acknowledge the towel and waved off the bout at 1:11 of the fourth round. Mayhem ensued after the bout as an irate Zamora Sr. tried to attack Hernandez accusing him of being a “liar and a cheat”. Zamora Jr. was far more gracious in defeat saying, “He’s a great competitor. I thought I was doing OK until the third. After that, I don’t remember too much.”
King of Mexico
Now the true king of Mexican boxing Zarate took six months out of the ring as he enjoyed his status as a national icon. He would defend his belt two more times that year as he returned to the Forum to destroy the unbeaten Brazilian contender Danilo Batista followed by a trip to Madrid, Spain where he took local hero Juan Francisco Rodriguez apart. 1977 had been a great year for Zarate as he defended his title three times by knockout and scored his biggest victory and on top of that he received recognition from The Ring magazine as their “Fighter of the year”. Boxing Illustrated ranked him atop their mythical pound for pound rankings and plans were discussed for Zarate to rise in weight to challenge WBC featherweight champion Danny Lopez at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. For the time being Zarate was still occupied defending his bantamweight championship and his first defense as the “Fighter of the year” came against the classy Alberto Davila from Pomona. Once again Zarate was back at the Forum and delivered another special performance as he turned back the challenge of the brilliant future champion. Davila was competitive and gave the champion something to think about as he threw some beautiful combinations with the Mexican bided his time, remained poise and systematically broke the local man down. An 8th round knockdown was the beginning of the end as referee Henry Elespuru quickly waved the contest off as a result of a deep cut over the challengers right eye. “It was my toughest championship fight”, Zarate said afterwards.
Defeat
In his next bout Zarate defended his title in Puerto Rico against local favorite Andres Hernandez on a 13th round knockout to run his record to 50-0 and added two further victories before he stepped up in weight to challenge Puerto Rican hero Wilfredo Gomez. Zarate travelled back to Puerto Rico for this battle of TNT knockout artists and was instilled as the pre-fight favorite. Gomez had run an impressive string of 21 knockout victories since he tied his professional debut and was already an icon on the island. This eagerly awaiting matchup of concussive punchers ended in defeat for Zarate as he was taken apart by Gomez in front of a rabid Puerto Rican audience. The bout was fought very cautiously over the first three rounds but Gomez exploded in the fourth round and floored the Mexican twice. He remained on the attack in the fifth round and scored another knockdown before Zarate’s corner threw in the towel. Gomez had fought a very rough fight and referee Harry Gibbs chose not to punish any of his fouls and Zarate had a hard time keeping up to pace with Gomez. Zarate insists he was not at his best that night in Puerto Rico and attributes a virus he caught prior to the fight for his uncharacteristically flat performance. “I got sick and wanted to postpone the fight but the promoters would not allow it”, he said. Apparently there was a clause in the deal which meant if Zarate wanted to force for a postponement he would actually be breaching the contract and would face a fine that was three times larger than the purse. “Gomez was a great boxer, a great champion. He moved really well, was great at controlling the distance and was very strong”, he said reflecting on that fight. Of all the places he fought in during his career Zarate said that the most hostile atmosphere he experienced was that night in Puerto Rico.
Controversial end to a legendary reign
No longer undefeated, Zarate moved back down to the bantamweight division to defend his title and was successful in dispatching John Mensah Kpalongo of Togo in his first bout of 1979. The next title defense was against former stablemate Lupe Pintor in what was expected to be a routine title defense as Zarate aimed for his 10th defense. The pair met on June 3rd at Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas and what resulted was one of the most controversial title bouts of the decade. After a couple of feel out rounds Zarate deposited Pintor on the canvas in the fourth round and proceeded to seemingly outbox and outmaneuver his countryman over the next few rounds. Zarate boxed a little more cautiously than normal but appeared to be putting rounds in the bank. Pintor did come out strongly towards the end of the bout and closed the distance but according to the eyes of most spectators, journalists and the majority of the television audience Zarate had done enough to defend his titles. When the decision was announced as a split decision in favor of Pintor both fighters showed surprise in the ring. Pintor was beaten up, his lips puffy and owes swollen as his mouth gaped open when he was announced as the new champion. The Association Press had Zarate as a 147-138 winner and The Ring and International Boxing also had Zarate winning by 7 and 6 points respectively. Judge Bob Martin adjudged Zarate the winner by a whopping 12 points but he was overruled by Art Lurie and Harold Buck who both edged towards Pintor by the score of 143-142.
After the bout Zarate asked for WBC president Jose Suliaman to reverse the decision and while Suliaman admitted the decision was a bad one he told Zarate that he couldn’t change the decision but would ensure he got a re-match. In the meantime Zarate admitted that he spent a lot of time partying and not entirely focusing on boxing but that he felt invigorated by the response of the fans and the public who would constantly remind him that he’d been robbed and that he was still the real champion. That response and Suilaman’s backing pushed him back into the gym but the enthusiasm was soon curbed when Pintor got into a motorcycle accident which ruled him out for an immediate re-match. Zarate, disgusted with the politics of the sport and dismayed by the delay of a possible re-match faded off into retirement.
Comeback
Seven years passed by as Zarate stayed away from the gym and enjoyed the party scene but was brought out of retirement in 1986 to appear on a boxing card arranged to help raise funds for the Mexico City earthquake of 1985. Since the Pintor fight, Zarate had not even put on a pair of gloves or trained once but was asked to be part of a show at the Forum which included bouts for former fan favorites such as Ruben Olivares, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Rafael Herrera and others. The card was topped by the Azumah Nelson vs. Marcos Villasana world title bout. The great former champion had not anticipated making a comeback but felt in good shape and enjoyed the response from the public so he stayed active.
He ran up 12 consecutive victories as he notched 10 knockouts before earning a world title shot in Australia against the formidable WBC super bantamweight champion Jeff Fenech on October 16th, 1987. Zarate, by now was 36 years old and just a shell of the great champion he had once been. He struggled to keep up to pace with Fenech who was too strong and relentless during the first few rounds. The bout was stopped in the fourth round on an accidental head butt as Fenech had a deep cut. Zarate felt that it had been a punch that opened the cut and that Fenech was being protected on his home turf. “I know I was losing the fight but I felt I could slow him down and felt I was getting into the fight. It was a punch that opened the cut not a head butt (as they said)”, he said. Shortly after the bout Fenech would move up to win a world title at featherweight leaving the WBC super bantamweight open for Zarate to face Daniel Zaragoza. Zaragoza, like Zarate was a former bantamweight world champion and Mexico City native. This would prove to be Zarate’s final bout as he was stopped in the 10th round. The great ex-champion fought brave but lacked the sharpness and energy to defeat the younger man and ran out of gas before being stopped. He promptly retired with an impressive record of 66 wins with an astonishing 63 knockouts against just four defeats.
A legendary fighter
Whilst Zarate is one of the very first names that comes to mind when one starts talking Mexican boxing legends he himself is very modest when the topic is brought up. “I am not in a position as to say who the best is or who is better. I leave that up to other people. My record speaks for itself. I don’t like to discredit other boxers or leave anybody out. I feel that at my best I could beat anybody at bantamweight but other people are the ones who determine these things”, he said. For a bit of perspective Zarate has often ranked very highly on historical lists. In 1994, The Ring ranked him as the greatest bantamweight of all-time; in 1999 the Associated Press had him tied with his countryman Ruben Olivares as the number one whereas the International Boxing Research Organization placed him at number six. In Bert Sugar and Teddy Atlas’ “Book of Boxing lists” they both had him ranked number four in divisional history. Sugar had him ranked as his third greatest Mexican boxer of all-time with Atlas placing him a spot lower in fourth. As far as his historical pound for pound placements, in 1996, The Ring released its “50 greatest fighters of the last 50 years” and put Zarate in 10th position. In 2001 the same publication placed him at 76 of the greatest boxers of the previous 80 years whereas Bert Sugar placed him in 48th place in 2006.
In the years following Zarate’s final bout there were some highs and lows. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 alongside Michael Spinks, Joey Maxim and Jack “Kid” Berg but sadly had problems with substance abuse and depression. After a decade long struggle the great champion managed to turn his life around and beat the illness and now lives a nice, peaceful life and is an example to many young boxers. He attributes those bad decisions and that lonely time in his life to hanging around with the wrong crowd but through his belief in God and the love and strength of his family he pulled himself up for arguably his greatest victory to date. To this day he runs a gym in the Ramos Millan neighborhood of Mexico City and released a well received autobiography in 2016. He is often seen at WBC events all over the world and is always happy to meet and greet his many fans with a smile on his face and discuss his fighting days.
One thing about Carlos Zarate that I want to mention, he had very heavy hands, when he connected with a punch, you felt the sting, he isn't ranked number 21 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers list for nothing. Look at this photo of his hands, they look almost like the hands of an alien, they're other worldly looking, and to be quite frank, they're freakish looking. Those hands busted guys up and took them out. At bantam, only 2 out of 55 fighters lasted the distance with him.
Carlos Zarate vs Alfonso Zamora took place in 1977 in Los Angeles, this fight was one of the most highly anticipated of all-time, and for good reason, both of these guys were destroyers, two of the hardest punchers in history, both unbeaten, and that's the mixture for a very explosive cocktail. If you're not familiar with Alfonso Zamora, he was a knockout artist, up to this point in his career, no one had made it to the end against him. Zamora took guys out in brutal fashion, it's as simple as that. Everyone wanted to see this matchup. Coming into this fight, Zarate had a record of 45-0 with 44 KO, and Zamora had a record of 29-0 with 29 KO, making their combined record 74-0 with 73 KO, arguably the most power punching matchup in boxing history. The fight didn't disappoint. For starters, at the beginning of the fight, some nutjob fan jumped into the ring and the police had to get him out of there. After that, the fight got going and it was what everyone was hoping to see, two of the hardest punchers in history going toe to toe in a shoot-out, it lasted Four rounds.
Another fight I want to talk about was Carlos Zarate vs Lupe Pintor. This fight took place in 1979 at Caesars Palace in Vegas and would be the last fight of Zarate's prime. It left a very bitter taste in Zarate's mouth and caused him to retire. He came into this fight with a 54-1 record, his only loss has come at the hands of Wilfredo "Bazooka" Gomez when Zarate attempted to move up to Super Bantam, the legendary Gomez had stopped Zarate in Five rounds. So Zarate went back down to bantam and fought Lupe Pintor, another legend in the sport. I've watched this fight a few times, and while it is close, I had Zarate as the clear winner and really don't see how anyone can think otherwise. I love Pintor as well, but Zarate won this fight and deserved the decision.
Zarate and Pintor during their fight
June 3, 1979: Zarate vs Pintor
Whether it be the consistently absurd behavior of the alphabet bodies, or the numerous promotional feuds that have prevented so many great fights from happening, the sport of boxing has a storied history of shooting itself in the foot. What might be equally or even more frustrating is the seemingly endless number of bad decisions that have occurred, with fighters getting blatantly cheated out of a deserved victory, the outcome leaving a vile and bitter taste in the mouths of all who witnessed it.
Few better examples of an egregious and confounding decision exists than the contest between former stablemates Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas back in 1979. Zarate was making the tenth defence of his WBC bantamweight belt, which he had won three years earlier. With a pristine record of 54-1 and an incredible 53 victories by stoppage, the always dangerous Zarate was the rightful favorite. His only defeat had come the year before when he challenged the great Wilfredo Gomez for the super bantamweight title and was stopped in five rounds by the powerful Puerto Rican they called “Bazooka.”
Zarate vs Pintor was a spirited yet technical fight, both boxers pushing themselves and each other to the limit. While it started slowly, the pace picked up as the contest progressed. It was Zarate who had the first dominant moment, as he knocked Pintor down near the end of round four with a lead right-straight left combination. Despite it being the first knockdown of Pintor’s career, he got up unfazed and showed no sign of breaking mentally. The defending champion continued to do good work in the middle rounds, landing solid jabs and straight rights, while maintaining a tight defense. Pintor had his moments as well, the best being in the tenth, when he staggered Zarate with a crisp left hook. But in the end it was clear to all that Zarate had consistently landed the more telling blows and enjoyed more dominant stretches.
But after fifteen hard-fought rounds, incredulously, a very surprised looking Lupe Pintor was awarded the split decision. Even more ludicrous was the disparity in the cards. Two had Pintor ahead by a single point, 143-142, while the third had it 145-133 for Zarate. Although Pintor deserved credit for being only the second man to last the distance with Zarate, the champion had clearly done more than enough to win. One wonders what judges Art Lurie and Harold Buck were watching. Maybe they were both distracted by the celebrities seated ringside. While I disagree with how wide the third card was for Zarate, at least that judge had the right man winning.
The day following the match, ex-champion Zarate gave his statement about what he regarded as a blatant injustice: “For some reason I have been robbed of my title by the officials in Nevada. I want the World Boxing Council to study a film of the fight. I should be given my title back. The decision was a terrible disgrace.”
But the skewed outcome damaged something more than Zarate’s record; it also wounded his pride. Even though Pintor and the WBC were willing to grant him a rematch, a dispirited Zarate instead decided to retire. And while he had already accomplished so much in the sport, one wonders what more Carlos might have done had he regained his title and stayed active. He was only 28, still in his athletic prime. Who knows how many more masterful performances he could have given?
Instead, he decided enough was enough. What many did not know was that prior to his battle with Pintor, Zarate had already been seriously considering walking away from the fight game. An article in the July, 1981 issue of The Ring revealed the sense of career fatigue that had set in before the decision loss to Pintor. In fact, Zarate had revealed to those closest to him that he had lost the desire to train, that after so many years of work and sacrifice, his drive had become stale. Zarate was one of the most successful fighters of all-time, undoubtedly one of the best bantamweights ever. His life was boxing but the sport had taken its toll, both on the body and the mind.
Zarate scored ten consecutive bantamweight title wins before the Pintor debacle.
Thus, one can see how “losing” to Pintor was the proverbial final straw, prompting a proud warrior to decide he wanted no more of pugilism. After all, boxing is an unforgiving sport, and if you are anything less than totally dedicated, you risk getting seriously hurt. In that regard, Zarate made the best move for his future and given the risks involved, who can argue against the decision?
But five years later, like so many aging champions before him, Zarate made a comeback, winning 12 consecutive matches before losing in back-to-back super bantamweight title bids. And thus it’s unfortunate that the last memory we have of the great Zarate in his prime was when he was on the wrong end of an unjust and confounding decision. He deserved so much better than that. But at least we can always look back on the many great performances prior to the Pintor robbery, when his impressive skills and astonishing power were on full display, when he was one of the greatest Mexican boxers to ever compete. Unlike the Pintor fight and what should have been another win for the great “Cañas,” those can never be taken away.
After the loss to Pintor, Zarate retired out of disgust and I can't say I blame him. He would take Five years off and make a comeback, winning 12 straight fights before losing back to back fights at super bantam to Jeff Fenech and Daniel Zaragoza, two all-time great super bantams, and retiring for good. One heck of a fighter in his prime, he is an all-time great bantam, right up there with the best to ever do it. Would love to see Zarate mix it up with Eder Jofre and Ruben Olivares, two fantasy super fights. Carlos Zarate was one of the greatest punchers ever seen in this sport, he had very heavy hands and they were devastating weapons.
Carlos Zarate Serna, "Canas" in his prime, vicious puncher.
This next fighter is a legend in this sport, he was one of the most feared fighters in history. He is the great Sam Langford, aka "The Boston Bonecrusher", aka "The Boston Terror." A lot of people consider him to be the pound for pound greatest fighter that ever lived, he was famous for being a small guy that gave big guys hell, in fact he was often a nightmare for them. He fought from lightweight all the way up to heavyweight. He's ranked number 2 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers list, that's right, number 2. There's really no other way to put it, he was just a dangerous guy to be in the ring with, he had these long arms and reach, and he would come boring in with relentless pressure, switching angles, pushing his opponent into the right position to unleash hell, throwing power shots, hooks, and uppercuts. He really didn't give a damn about being hit, and he had the stamina to go 20+ rounds in any fight. These were the days when guys fought 20+ rounds like it was nothing, Langford himself fought some 300 fights, not like today when some of these guys fight once or twice a year. Langford was also making predictions long before Muhammad Ali did it, Langford would oftentimes predict the round he would knock his opponent out. Langford was one clever son of a gun as well, he had been around so long that he knew every trick in the book. Great infighter, even though he had long arms, he could still maneuver himself well enough to knock the crap out of you, he could unload lethal punches at long range or up close. He was great at cutting off the ring as well, and using his strength to have his way with his opponent, as he did against Bill Lang, who outweighed Langford by 37 pounds. Just an all-time great phenom of a fighter.
Sam Langford floors Bill Lang during their fight
The Little Man who could – Sam Langford
In the early 1900s, the sport of boxing was in its archaic age. Lack of regulation and oversight made boxing an extremely dangerous and unglamorous job. Rampant racism also made it difficult for black fighters to earn fair shots at boxing championships or earn wages as high as their white counterparts.
It was in this unfulfilling, lawless, and cruel world of sports where Sam Langford earned his living. Largely forgotten by many boxing fans today, Langford was one of the best boxers of the era, with a career lasting 23 years in the ring. Despite being much smaller compared to his larger opponents, Sam Langford fought all he could, no matter their race, size, or reputation in the ring. Today, he is one of the greatest boxers of all time who fell victim to the current racial injustice by other fighters who refused him a shot for a championship.
Samuel Langford’s Birth and Background
Born in 1886, Samuel Edgar Langford was the son of a former slave who fled to Canada from the United States. His father was extremely abusive, so Samuel fled his home as a teenager (specific dates are uncertain as almost no records survive of his early childhood) and voyaged to Boston Massachusetts. Working as a janitor, he picked up the sport of boxing as a curiosity and began to fight in the amateur ranks.
He spent much of his youth slugging it out with a wide array of opponents in back alley bar rooms and warehouses. For an up-and-coming boxer like Langford, one had to find a trainer and a manager to organize fights with other local boxers, and then work your way up to face more elite competition, until you were nationally recognized.
This was a slow process, often taking years until a boxer was even mentioned in a passing newspaper report. Because boxing had yet to establish a clear standard for the sizes of the fighters facing each other, often times larger boxers would be placed against smaller and weaker opponents.
Against All Odds: Langford’s boxing abilities
In this savage arena of bloodshed, Langford’s physical disadvantages were apparent. He was about 5″7, about 155 pounds, and barely a teenager, and there are no records of who his trainers or managing team was, meaning that like most boxers in his day, he was essentially training himself and organizing his own fights. An ordinary fighter would have fallen into the cracks and would be forgotten.
But Samuel Langford was no ordinary fighter. Because of his small size, Langford was able to dart around the ring and avoid his opponents’ stronger punches. He utilized his small size to his advantage and was notorious for outmaneuvering his slower and bigger opposition. He also employed unconventional tactics in the ring, as he would hold his opponents back with one of his hands, throw a punch, and then switch hands to hold the opposing fighter. Whilst doing this, Langford would dart back and forth, twisting his body and unwinding in the direction of his punch, allowing his body to act as a rubber band.
Langford utilized his speed to dart around his opponents, consistently opening new angles of attack. But speed alone can’t carry a fighter far. A boxer has to implement proper defense and technique to deflect heavy blows and exploit subtle weaknesses. Anyone can punch hard or fast, but boxing skills, known as “the Sweet Science” make a hard-punching brawler a true terror in the ring, able to simultaneously outpunch and outfox his opponents.
Langford was more than capable of this, as he utilized a practical defense to protect himself. He kept his hands near his stomach, in order to protect his vital organs. When cornering his opponents, Langford would widen his stance to block off any escape routes, and then throw powerful blows as his opponent would be unable to escape.
His unmatched power made him a terror in the ring. And despite his seeming physical disadvantages, Langford possessed one key weapon – long arms. His muscular arms looked mismatched compared to his small torso and legs, but since Langford had a muscular physique, his arms were extremely muscular. When Sam threw a punch, his powerful shoulders and biceps channeled extreme power into his fist, which finally deposited itself upon a truly unlucky face.
Punching power is something that you are born with, and something you can develop over time with technique. Langford had both. Because of this deadly combination of speed, skills, and power, Langford was nicknamed the Boston Bonecrusher.
“Langford took on every fighter he could [whilst] combining great punching power and agility with intelligence and courage.”
Armed with these terrifying tools, Langford began his march to the top of boxing. When discussing Langford as a fighter, it’s key to analyze the time he lived in. During the early 1900s, boxing, unfortunately, remained a racially segregated sport. White boxers would routinely ignore fighting their black counterparts, and black boxers were essentially forbidden in becoming boxing champions, of any weight class.
Because of these hurdles, Langford was destined never to attain the recognition he deserved. But in a forlorn effort to win a boxing championship, the Boston Bonecrusher did something that almost no boxers since have done: he offered to fight literally anybody who could lace on the gloves. It did not matter their age, race, or size, Langford would fight them all. This put him into an arena of giants where Langford was seemingly at a great disadvantage.
Langford fighting in Great Britain. Because of the restrictions imposed on black fighters like Langford, he was forced to fight all he could in order to establish himself as a worthy contender.
However, Langford quickly established himself as a dangerous fighter. The Boxing Hall of Fame organization would later state: “One of many top black boxers denied a chance to fight for a championship largely because of racial discrimination, Sam Langford took on every fighter he could, from lightweight to heavyweight, in his 24-year career. He combined great punching power and agility with intelligence and courage. Those who agreed to face Langford often considered him so dangerous they would request assurances that he be merciful in the ring.”
In one contest, Langford offered to touch gloves with his opponent (touching gloves is done in the final round of a boxing match) in the first round, an unusual act. When his opponent blustered “Why are you touching gloves Sam, this ain’t the final round,” Sam calmly replied, “Tis’ for you son.” Sam proceeded to knock him out in that same round.
In 1903, Joe Walcott, a black boxer from Barbados, won the world welterweight title, an act that set new bounds for racial inclusiveness in the sport. Walcott offered Langford a shot at his championship, and Langford fought him in 1904. In the bout, the newspaper The Lowell Sun reported:
“Joe Walcott met his match in a 15-round bout yesterday…his opponent was Sam Langford, who clearly outpointed the champion. Langford took advantage of his longer reach and repeatedly played a tattoo on Walcott’s face, and his cleverness on his feet carried him away from Walcott. Langford met his attacks by rights and lefts to the jaw and mouth so effectively as to draw blood in the second round and he kept Walcott bleeding in every round thereafter. In the third round, Langford brought the champion to one knee by a straight away jolt to the jaw, and he went through the entire fifteen rounds without a perceptible scratch on himself.”
Despite the obvious beatdown Langford inflicted on Walcott, judges awarded Walcott the decision, which drew anger from the crowd. Langford had been robbed of his only chance at a championship.
A King without a Crown
Not discouraged by this disheartening setback, Sam continued to fight whoever he could get his hands on. First, he dueled with Jack Johnson, a giant of a man who was 210 pounds and 6’0. Langford fought admirably, dealing significant damage to the much bigger man. But Johnson, who himself was an accomplished fighter, knocked down Langford in the middle of the fight and proceeded to beat down the smaller man.
“It was the first real beating I ever took,” remarked Langford. Johnson never forgot the fight the little man gave him, and when Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion of the world, he refused to give Langford a title fight, admitting “Sam Langford is the toughest little SOB who ever lived.”
Jack Johnson. An accomplished heavyweight fighter, Johnson faced a tough match against Langford, and despite a win, never again desired to fight Sam.
Langford then went on a 37-win streak, beating white and black fighters who consistently outweighed him. One opponent stated a fight with Langford “was like being hit with a baseball bat. He hit you so hard you didn’t feel it. I fought most of the heavyweights, including Dempsey and Johnson, but Sam could stretch a guy colder than any of them.”
“Langford fights consistently, possesses the punch, knows the game, and can whip them all right now, one after the other,” remarked John L. Sullivan, the first ever heavyweight champion, “Johnson knows this and sidesteps his fellow fighter at every turn of the road.” Langford had asserted his dominance in the sport of boxing, across nearly all weight classes. But he still lacked a title.
Langford would continue to be barred from competing for this prize by white champions because of his race and ignored by black champions because of their fear of the Boston Bonecrusher. Sam Langford was a king without a crown.
In 1908 and 1910 Langford flattened Joe Jeanette and “Fireman” Jim Flynn, and fought against Stanley Ketchel, an extremely talented former middleweight champion. Despite inflicting harsh pugilistic punishment on Ketchel for 6 rounds, the judge decided to declare the fight a draw, to avoid declaring that the black Langford had beaten a former white champion.
By 1914, Langford was 28 years old and up to this point, he had fought an astounding 137 times, with just 9 defeats! But Langford was well past his prime, as his speed and reflexes were largely gone. Years of accumulated beatings had made him weaker in the ring, and he was no longer able to resist the overwhelming size of his opponents. But he continued to fight, as throughout his life he was paid pennies for his career and thus was perpetually broke.
Langford, in an event similar to his boxing match against Jack Johnson, stepped into the ring with Harry Wills. Wills was 6″4, and weighed almost 220 pounds, outweighing Langford by 50 pounds. He was an up-and-coming heavyweight and because of his size and ferocity, was nicknamed “The Black Panther.” But Langford, through sheer force and determination, managed to beat Wills in the fight, knocking out Wills in the 19th round. “I thought I’d been killed,” stated Wills.
Despite being well past his prime, Langford stringed together a couple of victories against the powerful youngster in multiple separate boxing matches.
Wills would then go on to beat Langford as well in several rematches, but the ability for Langford to fight toe to toe with such a physically imposing and younger man remains an admirable accomplishment. After Jack Johnson was defeated by Jess Willard in 1915, Langford petitioned Willard for a title fight. But Willard refused to fight a black man for the title, and Langford was once again left broke.
By 1916, Langford offered to fight Jack Dempsey, an up-and-coming brawler from Manassa Colorado. But Dempsey, who would go on to win great fame as a legendary boxer, avoided the match, saying years later that “I wouldn’t fight him because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”
Jack Dempsey, who would go on to be known as one of the most ferocious fighters of all time, feared fighting Langford.
By the 1920s, Langford’s age and constant fighting had caught up to him. He was now losing more often and was blind in his left eye. Despite fortune turning against him, he journeyed to Mexico and fought for years despite his handicap. Langford would recollect that “my left eye was completely gone and the right just seeing shadows.” In one fight, Langford lost vision in his right eye and fought blind. But a lucky right-hand punch saved the day and knocked out his opponent, to the surprise of all.
This luck ran short, as by 1926 Langford was 41 years old and worn out. He was so badly battered in one fight he was unable to find his way back to his corner due to blindness and was banned from boxing to protect his health.
Alone and Forgotten
What happened next is uncertain, because Langford completely disappeared from public view. He was not mentioned in newspapers or in boxing catalogs. Despite his achievements, he became what occurred to so many other boxers in his time: an old, beaten-down man who never got much out of his cruel livelihood.
In 1944, Al Laney, a boxing fan and historian, became curious what ever became of the great Sam Langford, and when he could not find him, or what had happened to him, Laney decided to track him down. The inquisitive man finally found Langford in 1944, and saw to his horror the forgotten great, Sam Langford, was living alone, blind from his injuries, and penniless in a barren rented room in Harlem. He did not have furniture in the room or food. He sat alone in the dark and survived on scraps.
Laney managed to raise money for Langford by raising public awareness of the feats of this legendary fighter and raised enough money for Langford to live comfortably for the rest of his life. “I fought maybe three, four hundred fights,” Langford would later tell Laney, “and every one was a pleasure.” Sometime after Laney published his stories on Langford, he visited the old fighter one Christmas Eve. “I got a geetar,” said Sam, “and a bottle of gin, and money in my pocket to buy Christmas dinner. No millionaire in the world got more than that, or anyhow they can’t use more.”
Samuel Edgar Langford died from natural causes at the age of 70 in New York City, a year after he had been enshrined in the boxing hall of fame. His final professional boxing record stands at 314 fights, with 210 wins, 43 losses, and 53 draws. In a world of giants, Sam Langford was the smaller man who was hated, despised, and feared. He offers us all a lesson on determination and how to surmount challenges we are thrown in life. He was the little man that could.
You can see in this photo the kind of fighter Sam Langford was, Langford is pictured on the left, the small guy, and Harry Wills is on the right. The size difference just didn't matter to Langford, he'd step in the ring with anyone, didn't matter how tall they were or how much they outweighed him. Harry Wills is another all-time great, he was nicknamed "The Black Panther", and Langford and Wills fought each other 22 times, with Wills winning 6 and Langford winning 2, and 14 no decisions. It should be noted that Langford was half blind and past prime for the majority of their fights, yet Langford was still able to knock Wills out twice, which is insane considering the difference in size. This is an account of their second fight, a violent war of attrition.
Nov. 26, 1914: Langford vs Wills II
The first two decades of the twentieth century were a time of rapid evolution for the sport of boxing. Legal restrictions were being lifted around the world, and pugilism was rapidly shifting from an underground and shambolic enterprise, to something more organized and mainstream. Regulations standardized, techniques evolved, and the skill sets of elite fighters became more sophisticated.
At the highest levels, world-class fighters competed at least a dozen times a year, sometimes more than twice that. Frequent action forced boxers to remain in shape year-round and to hone the skills that only constant training could provide. Competition was fierce, and every division was stacked with talent.
Unlike most other professional sports of that time, boxing, at least ostensibly, was racially integrated, but many white fighters refused to face non-white opponents, while many venues barred integrated matches, thus a great number of talented fighters were unfairly locked out from title contention. In 1908, Jack Johnson finally broke through, capturing the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns. But after becoming champion, he continued to reinforce the color line, defending exclusively against white contenders until in 1913, near the end of his reign, he drew against Battling Jim Johnson in Paris.
And so, during Johnson’s time at the top, talented black heavyweights plied their trade but never competed for the world championship, instead facing off against each other numerous times and largely dominating every other contender willing to take them on. Sam McVea and Joe Jeannette were two dangerous talents who would have been successful in almost any subsequent era. Incidentally, it was Jeannette who later openly criticized Johnson, stating that, “Jack forgot about his old friends after he became champion and drew the color line against his own people.”
But even more dangerous than Jeannette and McVea was the great Sam Langford, a 5’7″ fireplug who fought for the world welterweight title in 1904, and carried his power up through the ranks to heavyweight, where he routinely knocked silly men much bigger than himself, when he wasn't boxing their ears off.
By 1914, Sam had been the top heavyweight contender for some time, not to mention the holder of the unofficial “Colored World Heavyweight Championship,” a sort of consolation prize for not getting a shot at the real title. Despite many public challenges, Sam just could not convince Jack Johnson to face him. It should be noted that a Johnson vs Langford duel did take place prior to “The Galveston Giant” winning the world title, a fifteen round match in 1906 which Johnson, enjoying a thirty pound weight advantage, won with little difficulty. But Jack was not inclined to give Langford a rematch; the fact he later declared Sam to be “the toughest little son-of-a-bitch that ever lived” gives us a clue as to why.
In May of 1914, Langford fought to a newspaper draw against an up-and-coming young contender from New Orleans named Harry Wills, with some correspondents scoring the match for the younger man. Wills stood just over 6’2″ and weighed around 210, making him one of the larger contenders of the day. At the time he had only seventeen pro matches on his record, but he still managed to more than hold his own against the highly regarded Langford. Little did anyone know, but that was only the first of many times “Langford vs Wills” would be at the top of a fight card.
By November, Wills had emerged as a serious contender, one that even Jack Johnson had to take notice of. “The Black Panther” followed his draw against Langford with another draw, one that many thought he deserved to win, this time against the great Joe Jeannette, before racking up eight straight victories through October. And so the time was right for another showdown with “The Boston Bonecrusher.” If Johnson wouldn’t give Langford a rematch, Sam was happy to oblige Harry and thus Langford vs Wills II for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was set for Vernon, California.
Langford vs Wills
Harry Wills, aka “The Black Panther”
By this point, the 31-year-old Langford boasted a record of 109-10-29 with 65 knockouts, having faced and defeated nearly every formidable challenger from welterweight on up. There was no style he hadn’t seen, no challenge he hadn’t surmounted. But the young contender from Louisiana still enjoyed those significant advantages in age, size, and strength. And while he lacked the skills of his more experienced foe, he was growing into a fine boxer in his own right.
And so, in front of a large crowd, Wills sought to impose those advantages as quickly as possible, taking the fight to the older and smaller man and dominating him, dropping Sam four times in the first two rounds. At some point during the one-sided action Langford hurt his ankle, which hobbled him through the first half of the match.
But “The Boston Bonecrusher” was nothing if not resilient and he rebounded to score a knockdown of his own, the match settling into a brutal battle of attrition. Straight punches from the long arms of “The Black Panther” made closing the gap difficult for Langford, but as the struggle entered the twelfth round he found his ankle loosening up and his footwork and balance improving as a result. The next two rounds belonged to Langford as he outmaneuvered and battered the larger man with heavy shots.
Reports of the manner in which Langford vs Wills II violently ended in round fourteen are somewhat conflicted. An account in The Indianapolis Star states that Sam continued wearing Wills down until a combination, punctuated by a left hook, dropped Harry for the count. However, in a 1953 interview, Wills himself would claim to have been in control of the round, backing his foe into a corner, when the hook arrived and turned his day into night.
Either way, what is clear is that Wills was ahead on the scorecards of the scheduled twenty round bout, and Langford pulled a victory out of the jaws of defeat with his power, tenacity, and strategic mind. An editorial from The Los Angeles Herald the following day argued that Wills was too green for such a monumental challenge, though Langford’s damaged eye and ankle might have begged to differ, not to mention the fact Wills had scored more than one knockdown on the great “Boston Terror.”
Soon after Sam was briefly given consideration as an opponent for the world title, but the match never happened and then Jack Johnson’s championship reign came to an end in April, 1915 when he fell to Jess Willard in Cuba. In the same month, Langford lost his “Colored” title claim to Joe Jeannette, and while he remained a formidable challenge for any boxer, his prime had passed. Amazingly, he would fight on for another full decade. Reportedly, Jack Dempsey did all he could to avoid facing Langford, and years later he candidly stated that he was “afraid” of Sam and that, had they fought, Langford “probably would have knocked me out.”
For his part, Wills continued to improve. He lost for the final time to Langford in February of 1916, but from that setback until October 1926, he compiled an incredible record of 58-2-3 with 34 knockouts, the two defeats being a fluke injury stoppage and a disqualification that was re-matched four days later. That ten year run included six victories over Langford, as well as wins against an all-star roster of heavyweight talent, including Sam McVea, Denver Ed Martin, Jeff Clark, Fred Fulton, Gunboat Smith, Kid Norfolk, Luis Firpo, and Charley Weinert.
During this time, Wills was arguably the best heavyweight in the world and a showdown with heavyweight king Dempsey was discussed and considered on numerous occasions but never came to pass. Based on his performances during his prime, one can argue that “The Black Panther” might have reigned as heavyweight champion for many years had the chance arisen. Alas, Harry Wills will instead be remembered, alongside his greatest rival, Sam Langford, as one of the finest fighters in all of boxing history to never win a world title.
It's amazing that we have Sam Langford on film, a lot of boxing film from back then hasn't survived over the years. When Sam Langford fought Bill Lang, some of the fight was captured on film. You can see how great a fighter Langford was, Bill Lang was a heavyweight, 203 pounds against the 166 pound Langford. Yet Langford is able to control the ring and even physically push back the bigger man. The way Langford cut the ring off, his power in both hands, you're looking at one of the greatest pound for pound fighters ever.
Another Sam Langford fight that was captured on film was his fight with Fireman Jim Flynn, it lasted 8 rounds before Flynn was stopped. You can see in the film how brutal Langford can be. One thing I forgot to mention is that Langford could box as well, you'll see in the film he fires vicious jabs at Flynn and then follows it up with right hands, nice skills. He really hit Flynn with the kitchen sink in this fight, uppercuts, body shots, you name it, just an onslaught of powerful artillery. At one point in the fight, Langford throws a punch with so much force that he actually does a cartwheel, insane. Fireman Jim Flynn and Langford fought three times, Langford knocked him out in the first fight, Flynn won a ten round decision in the second fight, and this was the third meeting. Flynn was an actual fireman from Hoboken New Jersey outside the ring, strong and tough son of a gun. The original film is 18 minutes long, these are the highlights.
As far as film of Sam Langford goes, Langford looks good on film. He doesn't pay much attention to defense in some of the footage but that seems more to be his utter disregard for his opponents' ability to hurt him. He certainly looks the boss in the available footage, and he certainly carried his power with him up in higher weight divisions. He's a fascinating fighter with a fearsome reputation and watching him on film he certainly lives up to the hype. In his nearly 300 fight career, spanning 24 years, he beat Joe Gans, Harry Wills, Joe Jeanette, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Sam McVey, Kid Norfolk, Dixie Kid, Gunboat Smith, he beat hall of famers from lightweight all the way up to heavyweight, not many fighters can claim that, and that is why some place him right up there with the greatest to ever do it. I'm going to post a few photos of Langford throughout his career.
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Graziano vs Zale III was a short but violent affair. This would conclude one of, if not the most, action packed and violent trilogy in boxing history and would solidify both men as legends in the sport. The fight had been postponed one day because of rain. Graziano was a 12 to 5 favorite. Zale decked Graziano with a left hook for a 3-count in the first round. Graziano was hurt by a right in the second round but came back and hurt Zale with his own right. In the third round, Zale dropped Graziano for a seven-count with a left hook. Shortly after getting up, Graziano was knocked out cold by a left hook to the jaw and counted out. Zale became the third boxer to regain the World Middleweight Championship. Stanley Ketchel and Al Hostak were the other two.
Zale had a monster left hook, it was the catalyst and conclusion of every single knockdown and knockout in this fight. Round 1's knockdown was caused by a leaping left hook. Absolutely stunning in slow-motion. Graziano rallied back valiantly in round 2. Round 3's knockdown was started with a left hook which landed when Graziano was against the ropes, it badly wobbled him. Graziano tried to get away but Zale pummeled his body then put him down with another left hook. Against all odds, Graziano got up but he was spent. Zale finished him off with a right to the body, and then, you guessed it, a left hook to the chin.
Tony Zale looks on after knocking Rocky Graziano out in the rubbermatch.
The Graziano vs Zale fights were so brutal and violent that years later Graziano commented he would wake up in a cold sweat having had the recurring nightmare of being back in the ring with Zale. Here are some great photos from their trilogy.
Tony Zale is probably the greatest body puncher in boxing history, Billy Soose once commented that being hit in the body by Tony Zale felt like being stuck in the side with a hot poker. Here Tony Zale is seen landing a brutal body shot to Graziano, you can see the agony on Graziano's face.
Notice Graziano's right eye is swollen shut.
The blood pours down Graziano's face and his eye is swollen shut. Rocky Graziano's corner actually had to press a coin against his eye to break the skin and restore his vision. After all of this, he goes out there and stops Zale, that tells you all you need to know about Rocky Graziano, if that isn't tough as nails then I don't know what the f... is.
Rocky Graziano stops Tony Zale in their second fight to regain the middleweight championship.
Rocky Graziano vs Tony Janiro. This fight really showed what kind of fighter Graziano was, his corner told him to box the boxer Janiro, and Graziano listened to his corner and lost the first nine rounds. So Graziano returns to his corner and says, " I don't want to be no boxer", so Graziano comes out in round 10, pins Janiro in the corner and knocks him out. He wasn't a boxer, he was a slugger.
And a devastating slugger he was.
Graziano knocks out Al "Bummy" Davis, don't let David's nickname fool you, he was no bum, he had one of the greatest left hooks in the business, but Graziano was one of the hardest punchers in history.
As a fan, I love Rocky Graziano, his personality, his action packed style, he was tough as beef jerky, when you stepped in the ring with him, you knew you were in a fight.
Some great photos of Rocky Graziano.
Graziano on the street in New York, he was very popular with the people.
Graziano looks out over city from a New York rooftop.
The referee holds Graziano back, there was no quit in him.
Rocky Graziano in his prime.
Eusebio Pedroza, aka "El Alacran" or "The Scorpion." He was a Panamanian featherweight, one of the most dominant fighters in boxing history, WBA featherweight champion for some 7 years, making 19 defenses of his title, that my friends is dominance. In his prime, on any given night he could probably beat just about any featherweight in history, a truly consummate campaigner over 15 rounds, with seemingly endless stamina and who tended to drag his opponents into deep waters and drown them, almost all of them wilting, with some succumbing in the championship rounds, he was great at ramping up his output as a fight wore on. He was exceptional. Not a huge puncher, but his workrate was insane, good boxer, terrific bodypuncher, superb stamina, good ring general, calm under fire the entire fight. He was the real McCoy, you don't defend your title 19 times if you're not.
Eusebio Pedroza: Looking Back at a World Champion When A World Title Still Meant Something in Boxing.
Panama, birthplace of Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Duran, the former lightweight king and conqueror of a prime Sugar Ray Leonard. Mr. Duran, though legendary and most recognizable, is but one of many fighting sons borne from the womb of the Central American nation. Many panameno were weaned in the blood, sweat, and tears of the fight game. Before and after their collective hero donned a pair of gloves Panamanian pugilists have fought to carve out an enriched experience and bathe themselves in boxing glory. One of those men was a lanky Afro-Panamanian by the name of Eusebio Pedroza.
Among the rickety shacks of Panama City’s Maracon district, shacks originally designed for workers of the Panama Canal, Eusebio grew up. He was spindly throughout his physical development and that size eventually proved useful, as many of his opponents in the paid ranks would find out.
When he finally did turn pro in April of 1973, he reeled off nine straight victories against less-than-spectacular competition. In his tenth professional bout, he bit off more than he could chew in a more experienced Colombian featherweight named Alfonso Perez, who was 16-0-2, 11 KO’s at the time. Perez bowled over the lanky Panamanian in three.
“El Alacran” kept moving, however, gradually facing better competition and learning on the job. Pedroza managed a five-fight win-streak after his initial defeat before he got the call for a title shot against bantamweight Alfonso Zamora, a significantly shorter but very powerful Mexican fighter who had not let a single opponent see the final bell. Unfortunately for the green challenger, he wasn’t the one to break up the knockout streak, as he was flattened in the second round by a pinpoint right hand that was thrown behind a stiff jab to the body and then followed up with picturesque left hook. Amazingly, Eusebio beat the count of ten after the vicious combo but his legs, giving the appearance of a newborn horse trying to get its gallop right, was in no shape to continue and the referee stopped the bout.
A mere three months later, Eusebio did slightly better, lasting six rounds with undefeated Venezuelan, Oscar Arnal. Not much is known of Arnal, but like Zamora, he seemed to have had some solid pop in his punches. Oscar Arnal finished his career with a mark of 24 kayos in 30 wins.
Most men can’t cope with loss, especially when it happens in such devastating fashion, but despite the roadblocks, the Panama City native wasn’t discouraged. In fact, he was spurred on by defeat and sped forward towards title town, overcoming three Latin pugilists before WBA featherweight champion and Spanish southpaw, Cecilio Lastra, issued him a contract. Both men signed and the match was set for April 15th, 1978 in Gimnasio Nuevo Panama, Panama City, Panama.
The bell sounded for Pedroza’s second attempt at gold and from the get-go Eusebio was the boss, jabbing regularly and circling to his opponent’s right in an effort to stay away from the left hand power of the champion. The strategy was an excellent one and pressed Lastra into engaging, allowing for counter-punching opportunities. One of these opportunities presented itself in round four when the champion tried to land a straight left. The ill-intended punch was avoided and met with an accurate and strong left hook on the point of the chin, putting Lastra down. The Spaniard was not in serious trouble, however, and continued to fight in a similar manner which preceded the knockdown.
In round five, the Panamanian began to put his length to use over the 5’5” titleholder, as he mixed in many lead right hands which were not only too long to be countered, but also too quick. Pedroza repeated his success over and over, round after round.
In the latter stages of the fight the challenger changed pace, boxing as well as pressing. This gave him a clearer advantage than he had had before and in the thirteenth segment, after an exchange by both men, Pedroza landed a stinging right and left uppercut which put the champion to a knee. Looking distraught and winded, Lastra stayed down until he was nearly counted out. The in-ring moderator hesitated briefly after assessing the Spaniard’s condition, but allowed the match to continue. “El Alacran” rushed over, seized the moment and never relented, punishing the WBA’s belt-wearer. Cecilio made frequent attempts at tying his taller foe up to stem the fistic tide, but his grapple tries bore little fruit. Eusebio kept throwing strikes and eventually found a clean one at range, a powerful right hand.
The punch rocked Lastra and forced him to the canvass once again. The champion, proving his mettle, found the will power to get up just as he had done before, but the ref had seen enough and halted the contest. Pedroza, overjoyed by his newfound recognition as champion, jumped up and down until his corner men hauled him off and paraded him around the ring.
With that triumph, “The Scorpion” joined Roberto Duran and Jorge Lujan as then-current Panamanian titleholders. The three continued winning together until 1980, when Duran lost the rematch to Sugar Ray Leonard and Lujan dropped a split decision to undefeated Puerto Rican, Julian Solis. Pedroza was the only one to not have his streak interrupted, as he overcame Mexican journeyman, Ernesto Herrera; Puerto Rican veteran, Enrique Solis; former Arguello and Gomez victim, Royal Kobayashi; Panamanian youngster, Hector Carrasquilla; faded Mexican legend, Ruben Olivares; Papua New Guinea native, Johnny Aba; 5’0” Japanese battler, Spider Nemoto; Argentine aggressor, Juan Domingo Malvarez; the inexperienced, Sa-Wang Kim; and undefeated American prospect, Rocky Lockridge.
The Lockridge fight was the biggest test he had at that stage of his tenure as WBA champion, and the most controversial of his title defenses up until that point. Rocky Lockridge seemed to win most of the first ten rounds, but Pedroza rallied late and came away with split decision verdict. It wasn’t just the scoring which rubbed some people the wrong way though. Rocky’s promoter Bob Arum and manager Lou Duva accused the champion of taking a foreign substance during the fight. The video footage confirmed that something was indeed placed in Pedroza’s mouth by his manager Santiago Del Rio, but Pedroza rebutted the accusations telling an interviewer: “I take some ice in my mouth between rounds. I don’t need anything during a fight. I am in too good condition to have to take anything like that.” Eusebio took a urine test afterwards to help dissolve any suspicion.
Despite what had happened in New Jersey against the American upstart in Lockridge, the belt holder racked up ten title defenses in a little over two years; a stellar number by almost anyone’s measure, especially in comparison to that of most modern champions. Pedroza kept his foot on the gas afterwards, facing some of his best competition to date. In succession he faced Pat Ford, Carlos Pinango, Bashew Sibaca, Juan Laporte, Rudy Alpizar, Bernard Taylor, and Rocky Lockridge in a rematch. He scored victories over all but Alpizar (no contest) and Taylor.
Eusebio’s fistic exhibition against the aforementioned Pat Ford may have been his showcase bout. Ford displayed substantial pugilistic wherewithal when he managed a majority decision loss against Salvador Sanchez, the highly touted featherweight whose life was struck short by a car accident. “The Scorpion” handled Ford significantly easier than Sanchez did, highlighting his entire repertoire of boxing goodies: jabbing, moving, slipping, landing clean power punches, and showing us all his renown ring generalship. The scorecards reflected Pedroza’s dominance. He won by the margins of 120-109, 120-113, and 118-113.
His title defenses against steel-chinned Juan Laporte and top-notch boxer Bernard Taylor were violent struggles. Pedroza managed a close points verdict versus the Puerto Rican, but he had to settle for a stalemate against the sprightly young American.
The historical reign continued as the dark-skinned featherweight pressed on, albeit against lesser opposition than before (maybe as the result of a couple scares). Pedroza went on to decision Rocky Lockridge in a rematch; won by a wide margin on the cards in his bout with Jose Caba; had little problem outboxing the undefeated Venezuelan, Angel Mayor; TKO’d the tough American ring veteran in Gerald Hayes; and outclassed former bantamweight champion and fellow countryman Jorge Lujan before traveling to the United Kingdom and entering the squared circle to pit wits with Irish phenom, Barry “The Clones Cyclone” McGuigan.
By this time, Pedroza was “the man” at 126 and had been since Salvador Sanchez’s tragic passing. McGuigan came in as the number four rated contender, largely based on his bettering of Juan Laporte over ten rounds; but what the Irishman was really made of was a serious question that was yet to be answered. In front of a raucous crowd of twenty-six-thousand, both men sought to verify their standing.
Bell ringing and a torrential downpour of cheers filled the air to start the fifteen-round featherweight championship contest. From second number one “The Clones Cyclone” assumed the role of aggressor and “El Alacran” took ample opportunity to exploit the size of the ring, which was the largest available. Eusebio jabbed and moved; Barry tried offsetting the champion’s long left hand with a jab of his own. The first segment ended with both fighters active, but with little in the way of picking a clear winner. The second was a different story. McGuigan, as focused as a sniper waiting for his target, found Pedroza repeatedly with power shots, one of which was a left hook that the Panamanian seemed be bothered by.
Pedroza went about reversing his fortune in the next go-round, popping his jab on the challenger’s face and connecting with bolo punches. It looked as if titleholder’s experience was starting to show but the challenger fought back hard. They fought tit for tat through most of seven rounds until McGuigan unleashed a wicked right hand-left hook combination that Pedroza never saw coming. The defending belt holder was sent sideways to the floor and was visibly hurt. Pedroza regained his composure as fast as he could and he beat the count of eight. The 5’6” brawler pounced like a tiger when the referee waved the boxers forth, landing a number of quality strikes to the champion’s head. It wasn’t enough though. Like the gritty and determined battler he was, Pedroza not only made it to the foreclosure of the round, he fought back and bounced a few power shots off of Barry’s face.
Panama’s own persisted in landing in the following segments. The problem was, none of it deterred the rugged challenger. McGuigan kept marching forward with unfettered concentration and proceeded to land the more telling wallops until the final bell had sounded. When the scorecards were read, a new featherweight champion had been crowned, but “The Scorpion’s” $1 million dollar payday helped quell the loss of his alphabet strap and the ending of his much talked about run.
With money in the bank and a warm welcome home, Eusebio settled in and took it easy before thinking about pairing up with another professional. When he did decide that boxing was worth another try, after an entire year of absence, he moved up to lightweight and suffered a split decision loss to 21-1, 13 KO’s, Edgar Castro. This prompted a five year layoff and a similar return to 135, where he gave it one last go before being retired for the final time by Mauro Gutierrez, a Mexican journeyman.
After the allure of the unbridled ferocity of boxing left his veins, Pedroza was enshrined in Canastota, New York, the home of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. The former champion’s post-boxing career also saw him hold various positions within the Panamanian government, one of which was the chief of general services. This position entailed providing utilities to the poor of his nation, a situation he was all too familiar with growing up.
In summary: slander has been leveled against Eusebio for being a dirty fighter. Truth be told, he could be (see his bout with Laporte). But that doesn’t encapsulate the totality of his remarkable ability. Pedroza was much more than that. Being dirty doesn’t get you nineteen consecutive title defenses, nor does it allow one to stand atop a good division for years. It can’t account for his record of 41-6-1,25 KO’s, or his innate defensive radar which allowed him to slip so many punches. What about his quick hands and feet? How about his accuracy?
His craft is served justice by focusing on all of his fistic tools. The man could win with all and he could win with some, but most importantly, he won.
One fight of Pedroza's that I want to talk about is his first fight with Rocky Lockridge, at the time Lockridge was unbeaten, Lockridge was one heck of fighter that would give anybody a rough time, his style was to straight up come forward and brutalized you. Any time you fought Rocky Lockridge you were going to have a rough night on your hands, he was a dangerous opponent, he could punch like heck and he was going to throw some hard leather at your head and body, everything he threw had bad intentions on it, and you'd better be able to take it or else you weren't going to last long with him. This fight really epitomizes how great Eusebio Pedroza was. The first 5 or so rounds belonged to Lockridge, he came right at Pedroza with no fear, throwing everything he had at him, his head, his body, pushing him up against the ropes, bullying him around throwing everything and the kitchen sink at him. Pedroza ate a few shots from Lockridge, but he stayed calm, and when Lockridge started to become exhausted, Pedroza turned it on and started picking Lockridge apart with uppercuts, body shots, Pedroza was a punching machine, and he won the fight on a split decision. Some people consider this a controversial outcome, but I think Pedroza rightfully won the fight, it was a beautiful display of the sweet science from Pedroza.
Eusebio Pedroza (right) and Rocky Lockridge during their first encounter.
Unsung 20th Century Fights: Eusebio Pedroza vs Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge became infamous as a meme, but his boxing career had some memorable nights and great fights, including one in 1980 against Eusebio Pedroza.
If you ask people today, most would recognize Rocky Lockridge by face more than by name. A heartfelt outpour of contrition was made light of in a meme that proliferated throughout the internet for the better part of a decade.
Yet long before his infamy, Lockridge was building a reputation as a gladiator in the boxing ring, and he faced a huge challenge against WBA lightweight champion Eusebio Pedroza in his first career title bout.
On Oct. 4, 1980, Pedroza was riding high on a two-and-a-half year run as the top dog at 126 lbs, and woke up with no intention to relinquish his crown the morning of the fight.
Pedroza and Lockridge fought a 15-round fight in a tale of two halves, as a strong start from Lockridge was withstood and countered by a fantastic close from Pedroza. In front of a packed house in Vernon Township, NJ., Lockridge had his hometown fans behind him. But were the judges too?
The Fight
The first five rounds sung a Lockridge song. Save for a second round that was very close to call, Rocky did not let his 5’6” frame hinder him from exerting his prowess against the 5’9” Pedroza. Lockridge led with his head both physically and tactically, burying his forehead into Pedroza’s chest and muscling him around the ring.
Lockridge took the inside early and began with jabs to the body that scored in waves. Pedroza tried to counter this with bounce to his step and ring movement, but one thing led to another and next thing you know, Lockridge found ways to box the Panamanian champion into the corners and show off his hand speed.
Pedroza showed good instincts while getting very low in his stance, dodging punches and not seeming to be bothered by the plethora of punches that Lockridg was landing. While he showed retaliatory hand speed, his punches did not have much behind them, whereas Lockridge was able to catch him flush with several straight rights and hooks in that span. While Pedroza began to show range with his punches in round five, it was a one sided affair heading into round six.
Slowly but surely, the tide began to turn. Flicking his jab with consistency and getting aggressive himself with shoves (some bordering on illegal) Pedroza woke up to his physical advantages and stole round six. Lockridge would not sit down while Pedroza caught a second win, convincingly earning rounds seven and eight behind a 1-2 combination in the seventh that prompted Pedroza to throw feints to try and get him off kilter.
From the tail end of round eight, a sharp vicissitude in fortune took place, as Pedroza started making the New Jersey native whiff on punches. Perhaps he was tired. Perhaps his combinations were starting to become predictable. One way or the other, Pedroza turned the fight around and utterly dominated from rounds nine to 14.
The ninth round was far and away the most convincing three-minute period of the fight. Pedroza found a new point of attack – sweeping hooks to Lockridge’s body. Soon, his wingspan advantage became plain to see, and Pedroza punished Rocky’s rib cages.
Additionally, Pedroza began fancying short uppercuts to the navel and chin, picking his spots and peppering the contender with shot after shot. Lockridge became very sloppy in round 10, and could not pick up the pace in round 11. After Pedroza outpointed Lockridge in round 12, the latter had pride kick in, and with it more zap to his punches.
Pedroza remained more active in round 13 but his punches were not connecting. They were thrown onto a shell of a defense. Lockridge did not take advantage with counters, but a strong right hand was quite literally enough to give him the round, as points were hard to come by.
The two split the last two rounds on my cards and their fate was left to the judges. All three apparently watched completely different fights, as Rodolfo Hill scored the fight 149-139 Pedroza. Harold Letterman had less cracks in his spectacles, giving a 144-142 nod to Lockridge and Stanley Christodoulou scored it 147-141 Pedroza, giving the Panamanian another successful title defense.
Takeaway
It would be easy to fall into the hypnotic fervor of the crowd and play-by-play announcers calling the fight in favor of Lockridge. However, objectivity leans toward a draw or slight favor to Lockridge. Either way, a Pedroza victory warranted no “this is a travesty” censure.
Pedroza defended the lineal featherweight championship nine more times over the span of five years after his fight with Lockridge. He would see the latter once again in 1983, securing a unanimous decision win and putting off any doubts about his first win at the start of the decade. He lost the titles in 1985 to Barry McGuigan and would never fight in a championship bout again, ending his career at 41-6-1 (25 KO) en route to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Lockridge went 13-1 in between his first and second fights with Pedroza. After two failed attempts at featherweight supremacy, he would achieve a career feat, knocking out then-WBA and The Ring junior lightweight champion Roger Mayweather in one round, handing him his first-ever professional defeat.
However, his misfortune with the judges would continue after that, as epic battles against legends Wilfredo Gomez and Julio Cesar Chavez stripped Lockridge of his championships via two controversial majority decisions. He’d earn another title at 130 lbs — this time the IBF championship — in 1987 against Barry Michael before a string of four losses in his last seven fights ended his career at a respectable 44-9 (36 KO).
The subject of his viral meme cry came on a 2010 episode of the A&E television series “Intervention,” where his family attempted to help the former champion get back on his feet after battles with homelessness and substance abuse. He passed away on Feb. 7, 2019, but should be remembered for his days as a well-spoken, hard-nosed champion.
The highlights from Pedroza vs Lockridge I. Pedroza's masterful slipping, sliding and rolling was lost on American viewers. Punches may have looked like they landed on Pedroza, but in slo-mo, you see they just rolled off him as he slid with the punch to take away all its effect, and then come back with short counters.
Lockridge threw a lot of big looking shots and had Pedroza up against the ropes a lot, but didn't land much at all. Meanwhile, Pedroza was tattooing Rocky with little counter uppercuts and hooks on the inside.
I just want to say that Rocky Lockridge is also one of my favorite fighters, loved watching his brutality, he was a guy that meant business when he stepped in the ring, I'll profile him later in the thread.
Eusebio Pedroza, best I faced.
BEST I FACED: EUSEBIO PEDROZA
In a weight class filled with outstanding fighters, Eusebio Pedroza was one of the greatest featherweights of all-time.
The Panamanian held the WBA featherweight title for over seven years, making a division record 19 successful title defenses.
Pedroza honed his skills fighting at home before journeying to Mexico in his 16th fight. He was knocked out in two rounds when he challenged Alfonso Zamora for the WBA bantamweight title.
In his next fight, he was also stopped. He had been knocked out in three of his 17 fights and looked anything but special.
However, he regrouped, moved up to featherweight and, in the spring of 1978, in what he calls his proudest moment in boxing, unseated WBA titlist Cecilio Lastra.
During his title reign, Pedroza was a virtual staple on free US television, beating several past or future champions including Royal Kobayashi (RTD 13), Ruben Olivares (TKO 12) and Juan LaPorte (PTS 15).
Pedroza was nicknamed ‘El Alacr├ín’ (‘The Scorpion’) because of his cerebral skills and ring savvy. Pedroza was big for the weight, standing 5-foot-8. He employed a solid jab and was blessed with extraordinary stamina, excelling in the championship rounds.
Noted boxing historian Lee Groves was quick to talk up Pedroza’s unparalleled championship round know-how.
“Pedroza was one of history’s best stretch-drive fighters,” said Groves. “Everyone knew that rounds 11 through 15 was Pedroza’s turf. He seemed to draw strength from his opponents’ weakness and, once he sensed that weakness, he put the hammer down.
“During his subsequent reign, he scored six more knockouts in and beyond round 10. In that respect, Pedroza was a truth machine; if a challenger failed to give it 100 percent during training, Pedroza would expose those shortcomings in most graphic fashion. He didn’t knock you out most times but he emptied your gas tank like few others could.”
The silky-smooth boxing skills Pedroza exhibited throughout his career were often employed on the road. He retained his title on four continents, with 13 of his title defenses taking place outside of Panama.
Pedroza considers his final defense against Jorge Lujan, who had beaten Zamora for the same bantamweight title Pedroza had challenged for several years previous, as his best performance. Pedroza outpointed his Colombian adversary over 15 rounds.
Pedroza would lose a rousing fight to Barry McGuigan in the summer of 1985. He didn’t retire, instead fighting sparingly over the next few years. The magic was no longer there and he retired in the fall of 1992 with a record of 41-6-1, 25 knockouts.
Like most, Pedroza wishes he had been able to fight Salvador Sanchez; however, the Mexican’s sudden passing in car accident in 1982 prevented that bout taking place.
One of the most frequently asked questions among experts in the early-1980s was who would prevail in a unification contest between the pair.
“Both were so great that there really isn’t a wrong answer,” said Groves. “Given the esteem Sanchez deservedly inspires, that’s a tribute to just how great Pedroza was.”
Pedroza was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999. His cousin Rafael briefly held the WBA junior bantamweight title in the early-’80s.
Today, Pedroza, 59, lives in Panama City with his family.
He graciously agreed to speak with RingTV.com about the best he faced in 10 key categories.
BEST JAB – Rocky Lockridge – He was a very fast boxer and had great movements.
BEST DEFENSE – Barry McGuigan – His youth and strong body made him a tough opponent.
BEST CHIN – Lockridge – Lockridge, as well as ├üngel Mayor, had a great chin. They endured much punishment.
FASTEST HANDS – Jorge “Mocho” Luj├ín – Besides his speed, he was calculating and clever boxer.
FASTEST FEET – Bernard Taylor – He was the only one that I think could match my speed.
SMARTEST – Luj├ín – I would call him the most complete boxer I faced. His movements and trickery made him a dangerous boxer. Besides he already knew my boxing.
STRONGEST – McGuigan – His body was very strong and very tough.
BEST PUNCHER – Orlando Amores – He was the only one who could knock me down three times.
BEST SKILLS – Jorge “Mocho” Luj├ín – Because of his method and style of combat. He could fight going in reverse and he also was a great counterpuncher. He never despaired. Because of that and many more, he was a controversial, technical and dangerous boxer.
BEST OVERALL – Lockridge – He has all the qualities together: speed, punch and good boxing. That’s why he was such a difficult opponent.
After holding the WBA featherweight title for seven years, 19 defenses, the great Eusebio Pedroza was finally dethroned by Barry McGuigan in 1985.
Barry McGuigan knocks Eusebio Pedroza down during their fight.
BARRY MCGUIGAN REMEMBERS EUSEBIO PEDROZA, THE CHAMPION WITH WHOM HE MADE HISTORY
If you saw the fight live you’ll never forget it.
On June 8, 1985, amid astonishing scenes, Ireland’s Barry McGuigan won the WBA featherweight championship from legendary Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza at Loftus Road soccer stadium in London. The 26,000 fans in attendance created a cauldron-like atmosphere, McGuigan’s father sang Danny Boy during pre-fight pageantry, there was an epic battle, a decisive knockdown and, ultimately, a changing of the guard.
When news broke yesterday that Pedroza had succumbed to cancer at the age of 62, that intense prizefight, which McGuigan won by 15-round unanimous decision, entered the mind almost instantly. Although the two Hall of Famers never became close, the customary respect that comes when two top professionals thrash it out over the championship distance remains unwavering to this day.
“I knew he was critically ill with cancer, but I’m really sad about it,” said McGuigan, who still sounded audibly upset over the phone having heard the news only hours earlier. “He was a hero in Panama and I hope he gets a hero’s send off because he deserves it.
“Pedroza was a great champion and a great fighter. Being in Panama, he couldn’t secure a big television deal; that just wasn’t possible for him in those days, so he became a globetrotter. He boxed in America, Italy, France, Japan, just everywhere, what an incredible fighter he was.
“He was also one of the longest reigning featherweight champions of all time with 19 defenses. In fact, the week of our fight Larry Holmes (then heavyweight champion) rang me up and said, excuse the language, ‘Don’t let him f__kin’ beat ya!’ Larry had 20 defenses (laughs).”
McGuigan was a superstar fighter during this period and the bout would generate record numbers.
“It was the first live broadcast on the BBC with 19 million people watching on television,” recalled the former champion “That’s the biggest audience to watch a fight (live in the U.K.) and you’ll never get a bigger one because there’s 500 channels now.
“But it was the whole occasion. Northern Ireland was in the middle of a real crisis; there was trouble and death everywhere, and I was trying to bring people together. There were members from both sides who didn’t think I was sincere, but now, almost 35 years later, I think even the hardest of those critics know that I really wanted to give everyone hope.”
And he did.
Pedroza, who was 29 years old at the time, had his best moments in the first half of the contest, but the challenger was constantly closing the gap and suffocating the veteran champion. Instinctively, “The Clones Cyclone” knew that when he did find the target he had to make it count.
“Pedroza was a better fighter technically, but I could punch harder and I had pace,” McGuigan recalled. “He could do all that lovely lateral movement, use his feet, and you couldn’t hit him, but previous opponents didn’t put it on him the way I could put it on him.
“Look, I was a maybe a bit lucky to fight Pedroza when I did, but the knockdown in Round 7 was crucial. I was closing in on him, he was clipping me with counters and everything else, but I nailed him in the seventh. That was a critical moment, then I had him out on his feet in the ninth and he was gone in the 13th. It’s just that his powers of recovery were absolutely remarkable.
“It was just such an honor to share the ring with him. God rest him.”
One other thing I forgot to mention, Eusebio Pedroza had ridiculous defense, his reflexes and ability to slip punches was phenomenal.
I didn't know anybody was still interested in boxing. I stopped following it when Rocky Marciano died in that plane crash years ago and have not heard anyone even talk about it anymore.
It has a huge following, you'd be surprised. This thread a dedication to @thisistheshow, he was my boxing talk buddy.
Interesting, I used to follow it back in the 50s but have not lately and don't know any of the boxers now.
Don't feel bad, most people don't know who the boxers are today. It has a big following but it's not followed like it was back then, during the days of Marciano, those were the good old days. 👍
I want to mention another Eusebio Pedroza fight real fast, his fight with Juan LaPorte. If you're not familiar with Juan LaPorte, just put it this way, if you watched featherweight boxing in the 80's there's no way you didn't see Juan LaPorte. He was tough as nails, he knocked out the dangerous Rocky Lockridge, but he's more known for his losses, going the distance and losing to the following:
Salvador Sanchez
Eusebio Pedroza
Wilfredo Gomez
Barry McGuigan
Julion Cesar Chavez
Azumah Nelson
Kosta Tszyu
He wasn't stopped until he retired in his corner at the age of 35 against Zack Padilla. If that's not a murderers row of opponents at 126 there's no such thing. A tip of the hat to an underappreciated warrior, that defined the term.
I'd like to see what he could do today. Anyway, Pedroza and LaPorte mixed it up in 1982, and this one was a knockdown, drag out. Pedroza hit LaPorte with low blows more than a few times, and elbows, but it didn't even matter to LaPorte, he was made of iron. This fight really demonstrates the punishment that boxers have to take, both guys really beat the crap out of each other, all over their bodies. I can still see Pedroza loading up those kidney shots and letting them rip with everything he had, just a brutal back and forth fight. Eusebio Pedroza won the fight by unanimous decision, but the decision was later overturned and declared a no-bout. Here are the highlights.
One final word about Eusebio Pedroza, he didn't reign as WBA featherweight champion for seven years and make 19 title defenses by accident, in his prime he was hard as heck to beat. He was a smart, great fighter, and had a reputation for getting stronger in the later rounds of a fight.
“Everyone knew that rounds 11 through 15 was Pedroza’s turf,” Lee Groves, a boxing historian, told Ring magazine in an interview for an article about Pedroza. “He seemed to draw strength from his opponents’ weaknesses, and once he sensed that weakness, he put the hammer down."
I want to post one more article about Pedroza, a closer look at the kind of fighter and man he was.
A CHAMP WITH LOTS OF CLOUT
EUSEBIO PEDROZA IS A LORD OF TWO RINGS: HE'S WBA FEATHERWEIGHT KING AND A MEMBER OF PANAMA'S SENATE
On a hot and humid Panamanian Sunday, the jeep of the legislador—the junior senator, as we might call him—swerves to avoid the live cockerels, bounces past the dead cars and arrives at the Softball game in the dusty hamlet of Buenos Aires. At this precise instant a hapless outfielder, backing up to make a catch, disappears into the surrounding rain forest. The crowd goes wild as Villa Unida takes a 2-1 lead over Deportiva Alvarado, and for the moment the visiting politico is badly upstaged.
But only for a moment. The game is abruptly stopped. Tardy as he may be, the serious-looking visitor must throw out the "first" ball. And then there are ladies in hair rollers to be complimented and village elders to be conversed with in low, confidential tones, and finally, of course, there is a speech to be given. The P.A. system blares out an entirely unnecessary introduction—unnecessary because everybody knows who is honoring the village today. He's not merely a member of Panama's Legislative Assembly; he's El Campéon Mundial de Peso Pluma himself, Eusebio Pedroza, the WBA's featherweight champion and, statistically at least, the most successful professional boxer in the world. Furthermore, he's quite likely the only champ anywhere who is an elected representative of the people.
Awesome has become a cheap word, but it is hard to find another that adequately describes Pedroza's boxing achievements. He won his title with a 13th-round knockout of Spain's Cecilio Lastra on April 15, 1978 and has successfully defended it 19 times, which ties him with heavyweight champ Larry Holmes (who won his title in June 1978) for longest run by a champion since Joe Louis's 24 straight defenses from 1937 to '48. The Panamanian's overall record is 38-3-1, with one no-contest and 23 KOs, and he hasn't lost in nine years. In London on June 8 Pedroza will put his title on the line again, against Barry McGuigan of Northern Ireland. If Pedroza wins, he will be one shy of Abe Attell's record for successful defenses by a featherweight, set between 1906 and 1912.
For all this, his countrymen worry that Pedroza is less interested in his ring performance than in his political career. Indeed, only seven weeks before the McGuigan fight Pedroza weighed 144 pounds, 18 more than the featherweight maximum. Instead of training at the Pascual Gonzalez gym in downtown Panama City, he had taken two days off for "senatorial duties."
"I had to go to the assembly to do a different type of fighting," says the champion, who was talked into becoming a candidate as an alternate legislador for the Revolutionary Democratic Party early last year and was elected in May 1984, "People in the legislature are educated; you have lawyers, engineers, doctors. But the problems we debate are basic. I must fight for my people, the things they need and want in my district."
Now it is Pedroza's two trainers who seem to be looking for a fight on a sultry afternoon. They have been working with him ever since he turned pro, and now they are boiling angry about his absence from the gym. Both are out of Caledonia, Panama City's Harlem; both are descendants of Jamaicans who came to Panama to help build the canal; and both are in their 70s. Lyonel Hoyte is a giant of a man with a face carved like a Dahomey juju mask, while Henry Douglas, who is always called Matty Baby, is Hoyte's perfect foil. Matty Baby is small and bouncy and always wears a flat leather applejack cap set at a degree of jauntiness not seen anywhere since Jackie Coogan was the Kid. The pair look malevolently at the champ. "He behind" says Matty Baby.
"He not ready" agrees Lyonel.
"His leg not well," says Matty.
Recently, you learn, Pedroza had been rousted out of bed at 4 a.m. by his sister-in-law. A thief was breaking into one of the champ's cars. He stopped the audacious constituent with a single shot—not his favorite left jab but the 9-mm kind, from an Uzi machine pistol, the kind of heavy-duty armament that suddenly appeared in the hands of U.S. Secret Service agents when John W. Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan. "This man must thank God he alive with just a wounded knee," says Matty Baby, "but my fighter pull a muscle in his left leg running him down." All the same, sparring to a 100-watt rendition of Madonna's Material Girl Pedroza looks fast and supple, and when he begins to work over the heavy bag, it is clear that he can still hit with power.
Later, in the locker room, Pedroza speaks again of his unhappiness at being an unsung hero outside of Panama. "Why, at last, am I getting attention?" he asks. "When I was screaming to fight Little Red Lopez, Wilfredo Gomez, Azumah Nelson, Salvador Sanchez, where was the press then? Where were the promoters?" Earlier, his manager, 50-year-old Santiago del Rio, had his own complaints to make. "This is the toughest fighter in the world," he declared, and then paused for effect and added, "to promote.
"He should have made far more money. Salvador Sanchez made more out of four fights than Eusebio has in all his great career. But he is shy, gets homesick, won't meet people. He likes to arrive in a place Wednesday for a Saturday fight. If planes had gyms in them, he'd arrive a half hour before the bout. If he'd only head up to New York for a while.... Wouldn't writers see him in restaurants there? Wouldn't every little thing he did make the papers?"
Actually, only seven of Pedroza's defenses have been in Panama. He made his sixth defense, against John Aloa, in November 1979, almost halfway around the world from home, in Port Moresby, New Guinea. "Fifteen hundred cops," recalls his manager, "500 of them with German shepherds, holding back guys carrying lances and wearing grass skirts."
At home in Panama City's middle-class Los Pinos district with his wife, Rosa Amalia, and his two daughters, Yuleiska and Yemajara, Pedroza makes no bones about why he has traveled like a wild goose. He needed the cash, and until recently his division had not attracted big-money interest. After Pedroza won his title, promoter Don King signed the new champ to a three-fight deal worth a modest $350,000. But even this unexceptional sum failed to materialize—the contract became void when there were no TV takers after three months. "I have had to be a good soldier," Pedroza says, "and go where the battle is. Even to a place like Port Moresby, full of Indios, some civilized, some savages, the strangest place I have been in my whole life, a place where much blood had been shed. But I told myself, 'He who is with God is safe.' "
Such devout expressions are rarely far from the champion's lips, and now and then you have to remind yourself that Pedroza has been vilified at times as an especially dirty fighter who has benefited from some extraordinary decisions. There was, for instance, the strange business of his 10th defense, against Rocky Lockridge in October 1980 in McAfee, N.J. One judge, Rodolph Hill of Panama, scored the fight 149-139 in his countryman's favor, while the other two judges had it much closer, 144-142 and 146-141. In Pedroza's 14th defense, against Juan LaPorte of the U.S., this time in Atlantic City, he had two rounds taken away for hitting after the bell and for using his elbows. Though his win by a unanimous decision was subsequently overturned, and the fight was declared "no bout," Pedroza kept his title. There were more noisy recriminations when he fought to a draw (and thus retained the title) against Bernard Taylor before the challenger's home crowd in Charlotte. N.C. in October 1982. And the following year, in a bout in Saint-Vincent, Italy, he was warned repeatedly for kidney and rabbit punches when he fought Jose Caba of the Dominican Republic.
Pedroza listens to a summary of these events with equanimity. "You have to do what you can when you feel the pressure," he says. "That's being a pro. Myself, if I want to be a crybaby, I go to the nursery, I don't show it in the ring. All those stories about me were started up in North America, when I fought Lockridge and LaPorte. And if I'm dirty, where did I learn the tricks but up north? I don't hear them calling Hagler dirty. But he has a very, uh, technical way of using his head, he's sort of loose with his thumbs, he knows how to use his elbows, the butts of his hands, his laces. But I don't want to go on about that. It's part of boxing."
It is also clear that no mere repertoire of dirty tricks could have carried Pedroza through 19 defenses. In Panama City, 52-year-old Alfonso Castillo is the doyen of boxing journalists. Castillo has been a columnist for La Rep√∫blica, a national newspaper, for 28 years and has missed only two of Pedroza's fights. "Sure," says Castillo, "he'll defend what he's got with everything he's got. He'll use every trick. Others do the same. But remember, he is also a most complete boxer. He can brawl as well as box and still maintain his distance. But watch the way he delivers the left jab. He leans right back, as if he were throwing the javelin. His reach is so long. He'll study his man for maybe two or three rounds, then let down his guard just so that he can counterpunch, like Ali." But like other knowledgeable Panamanians, Castillo is aware of how politics are taking over much of Pedroza's life. "When he fought Angel Mayor in Venezuela last May," says the columnist, "he only trained 14 days. He has trouble making weight, and that might be weakening his punch. His last honest-to-God KO was back in December '81."
Should Castillo's forebodings about the bout with McGuigan prove correct, there is one fellow townsman of Pedroza's who will not buy black crepe to hang on his door. "People here are proud of Eusebio," Castillo says, "but when Roberto Duran announced last month that he would return to the ring, there was an earthquake in Panama."
To be brutally frank, however, Pedroza's more famous compatriot looks as if he could cause an earthquake just by sitting down—and as if his next match should be against a sumo wrestler. Duran certainly looked that way last month while relaxing at home after a tour of Latin America with Felicidad, his" 11-piece salsa band. As he drank white wine with a dozen cronies, watching a bloody shootout in a Mexican movie on TV, his pendulous belly hung over his red shorts. Duran must now weigh more than 200 pounds, even though he intends to return to the ring as soon as this fall. "Pedroza, who is he?" Duran shouted, as his cohorts sniggered. "He has fought nobody! And those he has fought have not pressured him!"
For his part, Pedroza is not a member of the local chapter of the Duran fan club, though he chooses his words far more carefully. "It is ambition that kills men," Pedroza says, "and it still hurts Duran. He has done much damage to himself. You have to be calm to be a human." Pedroza was far from calm recently when he read in El Tiempo, a Colombian newspaper, the headline DURAN: PEDROZA IS ENVIOUS OF ME.
"Eusebio has always been in Duran's shadow," says del Rio. "Panama is a small city. If Pedroza stayed out at a nightclub until 3 a.m., the next night Duran would be out till four. Back when Duran was due to fight Sugar Ray Leonard in Montreal, Pedroza was working out in New York, so I took him up to Canada just to help a fellow countryman. But Duran wouldn't say hello, he wouldn't run or spar with Eusebio. Wouldn't remain in the same gym. Eusebio is quiet and a gentleman, but this time I had to cool him down."
So it goes. Pedroza buys his-and-hers BMWs to supplement the family Mercedes; Duran announces he will take a weekend in New York. Pedroza buys a $35,000 diamond-studded Rolex, Duran orders a $500,000 sound system. Duran is clearly ahead on gold chains, Pedroza on dignity.
Indeed, Pedroza has something that Duran seems to have missed. By some immutable rule, boxers' homes are aglitter with trophies that exude a kind of exuberant vulgarity. But in Pedroza's den, pride of place goes to a series of framed photographs that show him in the company of the late president of his country. General Omar Torrijos Herrera, the champion's political mentor as well as friend. It was Torrijos who negotiated a treaty with the U.S. that would give Panama control of the Panama Canal and who improved the economy of this country of two million citizens. Like Pedroza, some of Torrijos' methods were not universally admired, but undeniably, like Pedroza, he inspired pride and a new sense of independence among his countrymen. But in 1981, four years after the treaty was signed, Torrijos was killed in a mysterious air crash. "You see I have his picture everywhere," says the fighter. "I live with his ideals. That is why people say I am shy. It is because I carry my country on my shoulders when I speak. I am not scared, but I must refine my words, I must commit no error.
"Here now, in Panama, my General would say there is no luz larga, far vision. Even in boxing I think I will be the last of the great Latin champions. To be blunt, I believe that 95 percent of the aspirants are drug addicts. They have no future. I am not really a politician but, like Omar, a realist. Panama is still elitist. Poverty is worse in this city now than when I was young."
As you get to know Pedroza better, you realize the depths of his emotionalism, how much of a facade is the dour face. Now his thoughts have led him to his boyhood in Mara√±ón, in the tumbledown shacks built for the canal workers, and to his father ("a simple laborer") and mother, who, not uncharacteristically, hated to see him fight. He recalls his last defeat, on July 11, 1976 in Caracas, when Oscar Arnal broke his jaw in the third round, and he fought on to the sixth. "When my mother saw me with the jaw," he recalls painfully. "she said, 'Leave the fighting, for God's sake, leave it.' She made soup for me to suck through a straw. My jaws were closed, wired up. She would give it to me very quickly and then leave. One day I followed her into the back of the house. I saw her sitting there, crying."
And then, suddenly, Pedroza's own head has dropped into his hands, and he is sobbing convulsively. When he recovers, he repeats that yes, yes, when he retires he will go into politics full-time. "I know," he says. "I am not so foolish as to think that all those votes in the last election would have come to me if I had not been champion. But I will show the people I have a warm heart for them also."
The phone rings. Panamanian President Nicolàs Ardito Barletta wants to know if there is a firm date yet for the McGuigan fight. As the champion speaks to him, reality returns. Politics will have to wait, he agrees when he hangs up. Six thousand miles away, a deeply committed, explosive young Irishman is waiting for perhaps the last of the great Latinos. He is not concerned in the least about the next election day in Panama.
Eusebio Pedroza, "El Alacran."
Next up, Carlos Zarate. This guy was an absolute wrecking ball, you can just look at his record and tell that, 63 knockouts in 70 fights. Zarate really did the basics well. Very well. He was economical and patient but was very accurate and hit like hell, he's ranked number 21 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers of all-time list. He was also a murderous bodypuncher. He wasn’t the quickest and he could be hit but he wasn’t what you'd call slow or a catcher. He had good positioning and footwork. Again, he was very good at the basics. Great fighter, one of my favorites. I'd consider him a textbook pressure boxer-puncher. As already mentioned he was very good at the basic skills, actually very underrated as a technician since he was mostly known as a puncher. Knew how to cut off the ring and stalk his opponents, threw great body shots and never wasted any punches. He wasn't exactly a one hit KO artist but he threw very hard accurate punches that eventually wore down the opponent. He wasn't easy to hurt either, and at one point in his career, Zarate was 52-0 with 51 KO, like I said, he was a wrecking ball.
The All-Time Great Bantamweights: No 9: Carlos Zarate
9. Carlos Zarate 66-4 (63 KOs)
It’s 1977. Muhammad Ali is a bit past his prime, Carlos Monzon is nearing the end of his but is in the midst of a undefeated streak of over 80 fights. Roberto Duran is in his peak years, although no one has a clue about what he will go on to achieve and just how legendary he will become. The light heavyweight division is in bloom in a way it hasn’t been since the 1940s, and flyweight champ Miguel Canto is the purest boxer in the world, able to stand in the rain without getting wet. Ten stone teenage prodigy Wilfred Benitez could walk on water and no one would be surprised.
Yet 'Boxing Illustrated' has Carlos Zarate at the top of its pound-for-pound list, demonstrating the stature of the world bantamweight champion. He is perceived to be a monster, so much so that the respected publication deemed him the most likely to come out on top if all fighters were the same size.
It's not too far-fetched a notion either.
The Mexican had a jab like a battering ram. He was fairly straight up, but knew how to use his legs to establish first the range (the jab came after that) and how to avoid those that were brave enough to throw back. Those that were really brave? By the end of the most punk rock year in recorded history, Zarate was undefeated in 47 fights. Only one man had heard the final bell such was Zarate’s power.
The scariest thing is that Zarate didn’t need to throw the kitchen sink at his opponents. His game was built on the foundations of that jab, of carefully placed body work, of combinations that were efficient rather than flashy. He was an adept counter puncher, but one of those that would get off first in exchanges rather than slipping left and right. These were skills built from when he was still a little boy, forced by his older brother - a policeman - to box in order to channel the violence he had demonstrated on the streets of Mexico City.
Zarate had been arrested more than once by beating up grown men in street fights. His brother's intervention saw a natural fighter cultivated into a cerebral and deadly boxer-puncher. Measured, thoughtful, strategic, monstrous. A 5’8 bantam in the time of same-day weigh ins. And when he did throw the kitchen sink at his man? A literal sink might have been preferable.
Not only was Zarate naturally powerfully and technically proficient, he was also very difficult to hurt, and even harder to dissuade once stung as his brilliant paisano Rodolfo Gonzalez found out in 1976. Martinez, a switch hitter who could punch with either hand, had only lost thrice in 46 bouts, two of those to another great in Mexican bantam Rafael Herrera. He’d avenged that loss to take the WBC title before making three successful defences of his own, including a decision win over the terrifying Thai Venice Borkorsor after dragging himself off the canvas twice.
Using all of this experience to try and befuddle Zarate, Martinez kept himself in the bout and even seemed to get a leg up when he briefly stunned Zarate with a left cross in the third round only to find himself dropped on to his backside two rounds later.
Orthodox, southpaw, moving, pressuring, Martinez could not budge Zarate off from his path. With punches coming back ever more frequently, the champion wilted under the challenger’s devastating blows in nine rounds.
Zarate’s era was not a great one. His contemporaries ranged from proven world class such as Filipino tough guy Fernando Cabanela (rescued in three) and technically brilliant Alberto Davila, who gave Zarate a good test before being broken down in eight. Then there were those that were arguably world class, such as tough as nails Commonwealth bantam champ Paul Ferreri, who was pulled out in 12, and the excellent amateur and European class Juan Francisco Rodriguez who signalled no mas in five after being gutted by Zarate’s body blows.
Among Zarate's other victims was undefeated Brazilian Danilo Batista, who went on to achieve absolutely nothing in the sport after being stopped in six, an unheralded boxer who nevertheless passed the eye test; Orlando Amores was a world class flyweight, but Zarate dismissed him as an 118lber with a hefty left hook in two.
John Mensah Kpalogo, the ring moniker of one John Kodjo Mensan, another Zarate victim, lays right down at the wrong end of the spectrum. An apparently lauded fighter out of Togo who allegedly had 45 wins to his name, boxrec can only account for three. Is Boxrec the be-all-and-end-all of boxing records? As a historian who has unearthed previously unlisted bouts through his own research of primary sources, I can categorically state that it is not.
But watch the African challenge Zarate, and you will doubt he even won the fights Boxrec credits him with - that the Mexico-based World Boxing Council fed their native hero this abysmal challenger should say more about the governing body than the fighter, but within a reign that didn’t feature much in the way of world class opposition it must be noted all the same.
Nevertheless, Zarate still belongs in the all-time bantam top 10. Davila, Martinez, Cabanela, Ferreri, were all top 10 bantamweight challengers or title holders. That his greatest win came above the bantam limit to avoid heavy sanctioning fees from both the green belt and the WBA shouldn’t sour it at all.
The Battle of the Z Boys
The then 22-year old Alfonso Zamora had been Mexico’s representative in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. A silver medallist, Zamora showed none of his amateur pedigree as a pro prospect. A T-Rex armed bulldozer, the diminutive Mexico City native blasted through all 29 of his opponents, and his record was not a manufactured one either: future all-time great featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza was wasted inside two, deaf-mute Ali impersonator Thanomchit Sukhothai offered some resistance before getting annihilated in four rounds, and South Korean hero Soo-Hwan Hong gave Zamora a 12-round dogfight only after being knocked out in four rounds in their first shootout.
Zamora’s offensive potency was undeniable. He was seemingly the heir apparent to the greatest Mexican fighter that had ever lived up to that point (fellow bantamweight champ Ruben Olivares) with a longer knockout streak than even Zarate had ever managed.
At 26 years of age and with 54 wins to his name, the WBC title holder might as well have been geriatric compared to the WBA title holder. Yet Zamora was a friend, a former stablemate Zarate had shared the gym with. They had become estranged due to Zamora’s father and Zarate’s manager having contractual disputes. Indeed, Zamora was on his fourth manager in his sixth year fighting for pesos rather than medals. He had come from a wealthy background by Mexico City street kid standards, his dad had sold his business in order to fund his son's boxing career.
Zamora was barely past 20 but he was married, with two kids and more-than-modest dwellings.
The taller man was the polar opposite. Zarate was still unmarried, unassuming and fighting to pay for surgeries that could help restore his ailing mother's sight. His father had died before he had reached his third birthday.
They had both won the national title as amateurs. Zamora had gone to the Olympics and been greeted by the Mexican President upon his return from Germany. He’d won his first world strap after less than two years as a professional, while Zarate had been in nearly 40 paid scraps before he had gotten his first chance at a world title.
That these two had ever been friends is a surprise. That they remained great friends even with the bad blood between Zamora’s father and Zarate’s long-term mentor Arturo 'Cuyo' Hernandez is even more surprising.
That they would meet in an all-time classic is not. Their combined records when they squared off were impossibly good - both unblemished, Zarate with 45 wins, only one not inside the distance, Zamora having knocked out 29 men. 74 fights, 74 wins, 73 knockouts.
What are the chances of two fighters, both holding one world championship each, both from the same city, both formerly of the same gym, coming up at the same time, in the same weight division, with the same modus operandi, guaranteeing a fight that would not disappoint?
Yet it wouldn’t come off without a hitch and the showdown would not even be for all the baubles.
Made at 120lbs but with both men only coming in at a shade over the championship limit, the question of weight was the one thing that strained the relationship between the opposing champions. Zamora claimed to be withholding his title in a potential unification for both he and Zarate’s benefit: big money from the super fight, more of it staying with the fighters due to avoiding hefty sanctioning fees, and - with both of them walking out of the ring with gold strapped round their waists regardless of the result - more earning opportunities for them both afterwards.
Zarate took the opposite stance, with 'Sports Illustrated' publishing the words of a fighting champion in direct opposition to the plans of his friend:
"I like him, but we should settle this business of two championships. It is stupid to talk of a non-title fight. No matter what they called it, one must win and one must lose.”
Both wore red shorts, waving the other bull on. When the first bell sounded, Zamora did not fight like someone only thinking of the pay cheque. He tried his darnedest to leave Zarate unconscious. Zarate, ever patient and methodical, fought back when he had to, but tried to find his footing against his younger, more energetic opponent.
Then, in one of the more bizarre moments in boxing history, and pre-dating the fan man by nearly twenty years, a local man in his underpants and vest stormed the ring. For reasons that remain unclear but appear to be centreed around convincing these two extremely violent and powerful men to let peace rule the day, the intruder brought a brief halt to proceedings before being bundled out and battered by baton-wielding Mexican policemen who set the tone for the war that ensued.
Zamora forced Zarate to concede ground in a way that no one since Rodolfo Martinez had. Whereas that had been a brief buckle, here Zarate appeared to be briefly disorganised. He wrapped his body shots around Zamora’s shorter but stockier frame, and brought the uppercuts up through the middle, but the younger man was dissuaded. He pasted Zarate with uppercuts and hooks of his own, throwing more leather and pushing the pace.
Zarate was stung in the first, claiming afterwards he was numb and fighting on instinct for the rest of the fight. To his credit, Zarate kept himself together. He blunted Zamora’s attacks by staying in close, using his taller frame to push Zamora back, creating room for his own shots.
Whereas Zarate had survived when pushed onto the back foot - that jab keeping him in it - Zamora started to become ragged. Zarate then upped the ante, battering Zamora against the ropes. Zamora fired back with shots that would fell an elephant, but Zarate had found the measure of his man, and simply walked through him.
In perhaps the ultimate show of domination, it was Zamora’s father who threw in the towel, saving his son from any further punishment, and conceding to Cuyo Hernandez that he had retained the superior bantamweight.
A Shark Amongst Minnows
While the parameters of this countdown have been made clear - and will be strictly enforced as much as possible - Zarate besting Zamora a pound over the bantam limit doesn’t suggest that the result would be any different had they shed it and unified the championships. It was ostensibly the two best bantams in the world going at it, with politics and money being the reason for championship weight being neglected.
It was so significant a scalp that by the end of 1977 Zarate sat atop the fabled pound-for-pound rankings. Indeed, one post-fight report noted that Zarate now held ‘the only belt that mattered’.
True pound-for-pound greatness eluded Zarate; he moved up to truly prove himself the best man south of featherweight, but was utterly bamboozled, battered and then vaporized by Wilfredo Gomez.
But that doesn’t effect my perception of him too much, as it’s hard to imagine any bantamweight in history faring much better with the ‘Bazooka’ from Puerto Rico.
Nevertheless, the relative weakness of the men he faced at the bantamweight limit should give us pause for thought when ranking him among the greats. This criticism is not with the benefit of hindsight either. 'Sports Illustrated' called out Zarate for some of the soft touches he faced when weighing up the merits of the hardest pound-for-pound punchers in the sport, with Zarate mentioned in the same company as featherweight demolition man Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez and ‘Hands of Stone’ Roberto Duran himself:
“The hoary "pound for pound" claim is admittedly impossible to prove. For one thing, 126-pound featherweights and 220-pound heavyweights never get into the ring together. World lightweight champion Roberto Duran, he of the fabled stone hands, has knocked out 79.6% of his opponents compared with 85.7% for Lopez. Bantamweight champ Carlos Zarate has knocked out 52 opponents in 53 fights, but it has been suggested that Zarate has fattened his record on an assortment of adagio dancers and tamale makers.”
Zarate’s bantam era was not the strongest, but as the publications and fans of the sport at the time recognised he was a truly great champion, and the opposition he beat in the manner he did makes him worthy of his place on this list.
He bested one of the great punchers the division has ever seen, as well as some fellow Mexican greats. Tellingly, he was never convincingly defeated at the bantamweight limit. He has one loss there, still disputed to this day in some quarters, and when well past his prime too.
He never came close to being knocked out south of super bantam either. Nearly everyone above him in this list was, even those in the top few spots. Was that due to the level of his opposition? Or should he be higher and placed in the upper echelon of bantamweight greats? That is for you to decide.
The eighth ranked bantam of all time is also a fighter whose legacy is debatable. Like Zarate, he was also a freak of nature.
Ok, I owe it to Eric to finish this thread, to finish what I started, so that's just what I'm going to do. So picking up where I left off, Carlos Zarate is considered one of the best bantamweights in history, he's right there with Eder Jofre and Ruben Olivares as far as the bantams are concerned. He was one of the most destructive forces in the division's history, he was an accurate precision puncher that threw in bulk and had bricks for hands. To demonstrate the kind of puncher he was, he put together two 20+ knockout streaks in a row, the first one 23 straight knockouts and the second one 28 straight knockouts. Some people like to knock his record, saying he fought bums, but he's one of those guys you really have to look at HOW he beat his opponents and you can see the damage he did by looking at his record, he mowed guys down. The list starts at the bottom with his first fight and goes to the top with his final fight.
Loss 66–4 Daniel Zaragoza TKO 10 (12) 1988-02-29 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. For vacant WBC super bantamweight title
Loss 66–3 Jeff Fenech TD 4 (12) 1987-10-16 Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia For WBC super bantamweight title
Win 66–2 Richard Savage TKO 5 (10) 1987-08-15 Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 65–2 Tony Montoya TKO 3 (10) 1987-06-19 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
Win 64–2 John Boyd TKO 5 (10) 1987-05-05 Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Win 63–2 Francis Childs KO 4 (10) 1987-02-20 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
Win 62–2 Alex Galván TKO 7 (10) 1986-12-13 Convention Center, Fresno, California, U.S.
Win 61–2 Edward Rodriquez TKO 3 (10) 1986-11-21 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, California, U.S.
Win 60–2 Gerardo Esparza KO 5 (8) 1986-09-13 Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Win 59–2 Alejandro García KO 2 (10) 1986-07-19 Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Win 58–2 Jesus Muñiz UD 10 1986-05-23 Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Win 57–2 Héctor Nápoles KO 2 (8) 1986-05-05 Auditorio Municipal, Torreon, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico
Win 56–2 Jose de la Dora KO 3 (6) 1986-04-12 Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexico
Win 55–2 Adam García MD 4 1986-02-25 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Loss 54–2 Lupe Pintor SD 15 1979-06-03 Caesars Palace, Sports Pavilion, Paradise, Nevada, U.S. Lost WBC bantamweight title
Win 54–1 Celso Chairez TKO 5 (10) 1979-05-01 Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, U.S.
Win 53–1 John Kodjo Mensah KO 3 (15) 1979-03-10 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. Retained WBC bantamweight title
Loss 52–1 Wilfredo Gómez TKO 5 (15) 1978-10-28 Roberto Clemente Coliseum, San Juan, Puerto Rico For WBC super bantamweight title
Win 52–0 Rudy González TKO 4 (10) 1978-09-30 Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Win 51–0 Emilio Hernández KO 4 (15) 1978-06-09 Caesars Palace, Sports Pavilion, Paradise, Nevada, U.S. Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 50–0 Andres Hernández TKO 13 (15) 1978-04-22 Roberto Clemente Coliseum, San Juan, Puerto Rico Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 49–0 Alberto Dávila TKO 8 (15) 1978-02-25 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 48–0 Juan Francisco Rodríguez TKO 5 (15) 1977-12-02 Palacio de los Deportes, Madrid, Spain Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 47–0 Danilo Batista KO 6 (15) 1977-10-29 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 46–0 Alfonso Zamora TKO 4 (15) 1977-04-23 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Win 45–0 Fernando Cabanela TKO 3 (15) 1977-02-05 Toreo de Cuatro Caminos, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 44–0 Waruinge Nakayama KO 4 (15) 1976-11-13 Estadio General Ángel Flores, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 43–0 Paul Ferreri TKO 12 (15) 1976-08-28 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. Retained WBC bantamweight title
Win 42–0 Antonio Paredes TKO 2 (10) 1976-08-02 Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico
Win 41–0 Félix Llanos KO 2 (10) 1976-06-26 Plaza de Toros Calafia, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
Win 40–0 Rodolfo Martínez KO 9 (15) 1976-05-08 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. Won WBC bantamweight title
Win 39–0 César Deciga TKO 4 (10) 1976-03-27 Plaza de Toros Monumental, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Win 38–0 Néstor Jiménez KO 2 (10) 1975-12-07 Plaza de Toros Calafia, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
Win 37–0 Jorge Torres TKO 8 (10) 1975-10-11 Auditorio Benito Juarez, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Win 36–0 Benicio Segundo Sosa TKO 4 (10) 1975-09-20 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Win 35–0 José Sánchez TKO 3 (8) 1975-08-16 Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 34–0 Orlando Amores KO 3 (10) 1975-06-20 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Win 33–0 Joe Guevara RTD 3 (12) 1975-03-14 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S. California State Athletic Commission bantamweight title
Win 32–0 Alberto Cabanig TKO 4 (10) 1975-02-04 Arena Coliseo, Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Win 31–0 James Martinez TKO 7 (10) 1974-11-23 Forum, Inglewood, California, U.S.
Win 30–0 Francisco Cruz TKO 2 (10) 1974-10-27 Gimnasio de Mexicali, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico
Win 29–0 Magallo Lozada TKO 5 (10) 1974-08-03 Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 28–0 Juan Ordoñez KO 3 (10) 1974-05-25 Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 27–0 Chamaco Limón KO 3 (10) 1974-05-03 Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Win 26–0 Alfonso Ibarra KO 2 (10) 1974-04-09 Arena Tijuana 72, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Win 25–0 Carlos Armenta KO 1 (10) 1974-02-22 Auditorio Matamoros, Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Win 24–0 Víctor Ramírez UD 10 1974-01-30 Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 23–0 Sixto Pérez KO 2 (8) 1973-12-11 Arena Tijuana 72, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Win 22–0 Eduardo Miranda KO 5 (10) 1973-11-01 Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Win 21–0 Antonio Castañeda TKO 9 (10) 1973-10-02 Arena Tijuana 72, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Win 20–0 Alberto Torres TKO 5 (10) 1973-08-21 Arena Tijuana 72, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Win 19–0 Francisco Pino KO 2 (10) 1973-07-12 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Win 18–0 Juan Ramón Pérez KO 2 (10) 1973-06-02 La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Win 17–0 Juan Ramón Pérez KO 2 (8) 1972-12-03 La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Win 16–0 Armando Carrasco KO 2 (8) 1972-10-31 Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico
Win 15–0 Angel Patiño KO 2 (8) 1972-10-08 Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Win 14–0 Jesús Escobedo KO 2 (8) 1972-08-19 Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
Win 13–0 José Luis Morales TKO 2 (8) 1972-03-19 Toreo de Cuatro Caminos, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Win 12–0 José González KO 2 (8) 1972-02-07 Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Win 11–0 Emiliano Mayoral TKO 3 (8) 1972-01-28 Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Win 10–0 Victor Nava KO 3 (8) 1971-11-26 Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Win 9–0 Julio Martínez KO 2 (8) 1971-08-07 Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
Win 8–0 Ramón Pinedo KO 2 (6) 1971-05-05 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Win 7–0 Fermín Ramos KO 2 (6) 1971-03-20 Toluca, México State, Mexico
Win 6–0 Antonio Lucas KO 3 (6) 1971-02-15 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Win 5–0 Alfredo Pérez KO 2 (6) 1970-12-18 Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico
Win 4–0 Nuno Temix TKO 3 (6) 1970-11-17 Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico
Win 3–0 Costeñito Sotelo KO 2 (4) 1970-04-01 Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico
Win 2–0 José Pavón KO 1 (4) 1970-03-02 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Win 1–0 Luis Castañeda KO 3 (4) 1970-02-02 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
One more quick write up on Zarate and then I'll talk about his fight with Alfonso Zamora, one of my favorite fights.
Carlos Zarate: A great champion
With no fewer than 15 inductees in the International Boxing Hall of Fame it would perhaps be an understatement to say that Mexico has a long and proud tradition in the sport. Ever since Juan Zurrita became lightweight champion in 1944, Mexico has produced more world champions than any other country outside of the United States. It would be fair to say that the biggest stranglehold Mexico has had over one division historically is in the bantamweight class. The popular Raul “Raton” Macias from the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City was one of Mexico’s first sporting icons and its first bantamweight champion. His success triggered the emergence of an era of excellent bantamweights which included Jose Becerra, Jose Medel, Jose “Toluco” Lopez, Ricardo “Pajarito” Moreno and German Ohm amongst others.
World championships were harder to come by in those days with only one champion per division and less weight classes so not all of these men reigned as the division was dominated from 1960-1965 by the legendary Eder Jofre of Brazil and then Japan’s greatest boxer Masahiko “Fighting” Harada. The real period of world domination for Mexico began when the charismatic Ruben Olivares dethroned Harada’s conqueror Lionel Rose in 1969. That win by Olivares started a 14-year run for Mexico in the division which was only briefly halted once for a few months by Enrique Pinder in 1972. Among these fantastic champions were Jesus “Chucho” Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Rodolfo Martinez, Romeo Anaya, Alfonso Zamora but none would dominate as much as Carlos Zarate.
Zarate, like Macias and many other Mexican greats was born in Tepito. He holds a lot of distinctions in boxing history which still stand to this day. He is one of only two boxers recorded to have two separate knockout streaks of 20 or more bouts and he has the highest knockout percentage of any boxer currently enshrined in the international boxing hall of fame yet he was far more than just a heavy handed slugger. Zarate at 5 feet 8 inches was tall for a bantamweight and possessed a calmness about him which blended superbly with the level of technical ability and confidence instilled in him by the legendary Arturo “Cuyo” Hernandez. Watching film of Zarate you will notice he seldom rushed any of his attacks or got sloppy yet the vast majority of his fights ended quickly inside the distance. He hit hard with both hands with his signature punch being his straight right hand and he is one of the most devastating punchers in boxing history. Zarate did the basics very well. He was an expert at cutting down the ring partly due to superb boxing IQ and his excellent footwork and he delivered every punch with accuracy and power.
As a youngster Zarate moved with his family from Tepito to the Ramos Milan section of the city close to the Benito Juarez International Airport. He would still travel back and forth to Tepito visiting friends and family members. As a youth, Zarate was like many in that he liked to fight at school and felt that he escaped punishment because both of his parents worked closely with the school district. It was at the age of 16 under the tutelage of Cuyo Hernandez that he started to train seriously and set his sights on earning his living in the boxing ring. “Cuyo Hernandez was a teacher. You can see how many fighters he developed from when they were young children and how many went on to become champions”, he said. Among the fighters which Zarate was a fan of when he was young were Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos, Jose Napoles, Jose Medel and Vicente Saldivar.
After going 33-0 with 30 knockouts as an amateur Zarate turned professional on February 2nd, 1970 at the age of 18 years old. He racked up 23 straight knockout victories before the run was halted when he had to settle for a points victory against Victor Ramirez in 1974. He followed that up with six straight knockout victories before the promoters north of the border up in Southern California wanted to showcase this new knockout sensation on these shores. The big opportunity for Zarate came against the unbeaten James Martinez on the undercard of the Ruben Olivares vs. Alexis Arguello bill in Inglewood at The Great Western Forum on November 23rd of 1974. He performed well that night as he stopped Martinez and over the next 18 months went from strength to strength as he scored knockout after knockout. His victims included talented Panamanian Orlando Amores, unbeaten Joe Guevara and the vastly experienced Benicio Sosa of Argentina all at the Forum. At home in Mexico he added the scalps of Cesar DeCiga, Nestor Jimenez and Jorge Torres, brother of Flyweight world champion Efren.
World champion
This impressive run landed Zarate a shot at WBC champion and fellow Tepito native Rodolfo Martinez on May 8th, 1976 at the Forum. Despite Martinez’ impressive pedigree and reputation Zarate entered the bout as a 3-1 favorite. Both boxers fought with a decent level of respect for one another throughout the first four rounds as they looked for openings. Zarate held a slight edge during these rounds but then stepped up the tempo a little bit in the fifth round and sent Martinez down with a punishing left hook which was followed up with a quick barrage of shots which almost sent Martinez out of the ring. Zarate did not lose his composure as he was content in continuing to outbox Martinez and not take unnecessary chances. He dominated the bout in the next few rounds before ending the bout with a picture perfect knockout in the ninth round. Martinez by now was trailing and had been wobbled in the prior round succumbed to a powerful left to the body followed by a straight right hand and was counted out.
After taking a couple of stay-busy bouts in Mexico, Zarate was back in Inglewood to put his title on the line against tough Australian Paul Ferreri. Ferreri had build up an impressive record to earn a shot at the Mexican’s title and proved himself a worthy opponent as he extended the champion into the 12th round which was the furthest Zarate had ever been to at that point. While Zarate was dominant most of the way he did acknowledge that Ferreri had been a difficult opponent. “This was a very difficult fight. Ferreri was very elusive. I thought I had him many times but he was always able to escape. I did prepare for a 15 round fight and I guess going 12 was a good experience” he said after the bout. Whilst Zarate did not score any knockdowns he did hurt Ferreri on a number of occasions and opened a nasty cut which prompted referee Richard Steele to stop the bout.
Battle of the Z boys
By now a fascinating storyline had been developing between Zarate and his former stablemate and friend Alfonso Zamora. Zamora himself had run up an impressive knockout streak and was the WBA world titleholder but had fallen out with Cuyo Hernandez over a dispute between his father and Hernandez. Alfonso Senior bought out his son’s contract and what ensued was a war of words through the media between both managers. Zamora had won the title against Soo-Hwan Hong just two months prior to Zarate’s title win and impressively defended his title five times by knockout. His most notable victim was future featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza who was knocked out in two rounds. After the Ferreri bout, Zarate registered two further title defenses against Waruinge Nakayama and Fernando Cabanela respectively before setting up the tantalizing match-up with Zamora. Although the ridiculous politics of the WBC and WBA prevented both titles from being on the line it did not diminish the enthusiasm to see this historical battle between these two knockout artists.
The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds on April 23rd at the Forum and few expected it to go that far as Zarate entered with a record of 45-0 with 44 knockouts whereas Zamaora was 29-0 with a perfect 29 knockouts. To this day the bout remains one of the biggest bouts between two Mexican nationals and arguably the biggest bantamweight fight of all-time. The action did not disappoint the mostly Mexican crowd that packed into the Forum that night as the two sluggers produced an epic bout full of fireworks. In just the first round with both boxers searching for openings a man jumped into the ring wearing what appeared to be his underpants momentarily stopping the action as he stood there in what looked like some sort of peace offering. He was quickly hurled out of the ring by the police and beaten for his transgression. The action between the two fighters heated up shortly after that with Zamora getting the better of the first round as he unloaded some big bombs on Zarate towards the close of the round. Zarate later admitted to feeling Zamora’s power, “his punches put me in the mood to attack. He hurt me twice but he did not hurt me enough”, he said. Zarate fared better in the second round as he found some success in catching the shorter Zamora as he attempted to come in close and detonate further bombs on Zarate’s chin. In the next round Zarate’s advantage strengthened as he scored the first knockdown of the bout when he put Zamora down with a short right hand after a series of hard left hand punches. The good news for Zamora was that this was near the end of the round. The bad news? Zarate had him exactly where he wanted him as he came out for the fourth round and scored two further knockdowns before the towel came flying in from Zamora’s dad. The first knockdown was the result of a number of hard left hand shots and the third and final knockdown was punctuated by a lethal right hand which left Zamora under the ropes in agony as Richard Steele acknowledge the towel and waved off the bout at 1:11 of the fourth round. Mayhem ensued after the bout as an irate Zamora Sr. tried to attack Hernandez accusing him of being a “liar and a cheat”. Zamora Jr. was far more gracious in defeat saying, “He’s a great competitor. I thought I was doing OK until the third. After that, I don’t remember too much.”
King of Mexico
Now the true king of Mexican boxing Zarate took six months out of the ring as he enjoyed his status as a national icon. He would defend his belt two more times that year as he returned to the Forum to destroy the unbeaten Brazilian contender Danilo Batista followed by a trip to Madrid, Spain where he took local hero Juan Francisco Rodriguez apart. 1977 had been a great year for Zarate as he defended his title three times by knockout and scored his biggest victory and on top of that he received recognition from The Ring magazine as their “Fighter of the year”. Boxing Illustrated ranked him atop their mythical pound for pound rankings and plans were discussed for Zarate to rise in weight to challenge WBC featherweight champion Danny Lopez at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. For the time being Zarate was still occupied defending his bantamweight championship and his first defense as the “Fighter of the year” came against the classy Alberto Davila from Pomona. Once again Zarate was back at the Forum and delivered another special performance as he turned back the challenge of the brilliant future champion. Davila was competitive and gave the champion something to think about as he threw some beautiful combinations with the Mexican bided his time, remained poise and systematically broke the local man down. An 8th round knockdown was the beginning of the end as referee Henry Elespuru quickly waved the contest off as a result of a deep cut over the challengers right eye. “It was my toughest championship fight”, Zarate said afterwards.
Defeat
In his next bout Zarate defended his title in Puerto Rico against local favorite Andres Hernandez on a 13th round knockout to run his record to 50-0 and added two further victories before he stepped up in weight to challenge Puerto Rican hero Wilfredo Gomez. Zarate travelled back to Puerto Rico for this battle of TNT knockout artists and was instilled as the pre-fight favorite. Gomez had run an impressive string of 21 knockout victories since he tied his professional debut and was already an icon on the island. This eagerly awaiting matchup of concussive punchers ended in defeat for Zarate as he was taken apart by Gomez in front of a rabid Puerto Rican audience. The bout was fought very cautiously over the first three rounds but Gomez exploded in the fourth round and floored the Mexican twice. He remained on the attack in the fifth round and scored another knockdown before Zarate’s corner threw in the towel. Gomez had fought a very rough fight and referee Harry Gibbs chose not to punish any of his fouls and Zarate had a hard time keeping up to pace with Gomez. Zarate insists he was not at his best that night in Puerto Rico and attributes a virus he caught prior to the fight for his uncharacteristically flat performance. “I got sick and wanted to postpone the fight but the promoters would not allow it”, he said. Apparently there was a clause in the deal which meant if Zarate wanted to force for a postponement he would actually be breaching the contract and would face a fine that was three times larger than the purse. “Gomez was a great boxer, a great champion. He moved really well, was great at controlling the distance and was very strong”, he said reflecting on that fight. Of all the places he fought in during his career Zarate said that the most hostile atmosphere he experienced was that night in Puerto Rico.
Controversial end to a legendary reign
No longer undefeated, Zarate moved back down to the bantamweight division to defend his title and was successful in dispatching John Mensah Kpalongo of Togo in his first bout of 1979. The next title defense was against former stablemate Lupe Pintor in what was expected to be a routine title defense as Zarate aimed for his 10th defense. The pair met on June 3rd at Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas and what resulted was one of the most controversial title bouts of the decade. After a couple of feel out rounds Zarate deposited Pintor on the canvas in the fourth round and proceeded to seemingly outbox and outmaneuver his countryman over the next few rounds. Zarate boxed a little more cautiously than normal but appeared to be putting rounds in the bank. Pintor did come out strongly towards the end of the bout and closed the distance but according to the eyes of most spectators, journalists and the majority of the television audience Zarate had done enough to defend his titles. When the decision was announced as a split decision in favor of Pintor both fighters showed surprise in the ring. Pintor was beaten up, his lips puffy and owes swollen as his mouth gaped open when he was announced as the new champion. The Association Press had Zarate as a 147-138 winner and The Ring and International Boxing also had Zarate winning by 7 and 6 points respectively. Judge Bob Martin adjudged Zarate the winner by a whopping 12 points but he was overruled by Art Lurie and Harold Buck who both edged towards Pintor by the score of 143-142.
After the bout Zarate asked for WBC president Jose Suliaman to reverse the decision and while Suliaman admitted the decision was a bad one he told Zarate that he couldn’t change the decision but would ensure he got a re-match. In the meantime Zarate admitted that he spent a lot of time partying and not entirely focusing on boxing but that he felt invigorated by the response of the fans and the public who would constantly remind him that he’d been robbed and that he was still the real champion. That response and Suilaman’s backing pushed him back into the gym but the enthusiasm was soon curbed when Pintor got into a motorcycle accident which ruled him out for an immediate re-match. Zarate, disgusted with the politics of the sport and dismayed by the delay of a possible re-match faded off into retirement.
Comeback
Seven years passed by as Zarate stayed away from the gym and enjoyed the party scene but was brought out of retirement in 1986 to appear on a boxing card arranged to help raise funds for the Mexico City earthquake of 1985. Since the Pintor fight, Zarate had not even put on a pair of gloves or trained once but was asked to be part of a show at the Forum which included bouts for former fan favorites such as Ruben Olivares, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Rafael Herrera and others. The card was topped by the Azumah Nelson vs. Marcos Villasana world title bout. The great former champion had not anticipated making a comeback but felt in good shape and enjoyed the response from the public so he stayed active.
He ran up 12 consecutive victories as he notched 10 knockouts before earning a world title shot in Australia against the formidable WBC super bantamweight champion Jeff Fenech on October 16th, 1987. Zarate, by now was 36 years old and just a shell of the great champion he had once been. He struggled to keep up to pace with Fenech who was too strong and relentless during the first few rounds. The bout was stopped in the fourth round on an accidental head butt as Fenech had a deep cut. Zarate felt that it had been a punch that opened the cut and that Fenech was being protected on his home turf. “I know I was losing the fight but I felt I could slow him down and felt I was getting into the fight. It was a punch that opened the cut not a head butt (as they said)”, he said. Shortly after the bout Fenech would move up to win a world title at featherweight leaving the WBC super bantamweight open for Zarate to face Daniel Zaragoza. Zaragoza, like Zarate was a former bantamweight world champion and Mexico City native. This would prove to be Zarate’s final bout as he was stopped in the 10th round. The great ex-champion fought brave but lacked the sharpness and energy to defeat the younger man and ran out of gas before being stopped. He promptly retired with an impressive record of 66 wins with an astonishing 63 knockouts against just four defeats.
A legendary fighter
Whilst Zarate is one of the very first names that comes to mind when one starts talking Mexican boxing legends he himself is very modest when the topic is brought up. “I am not in a position as to say who the best is or who is better. I leave that up to other people. My record speaks for itself. I don’t like to discredit other boxers or leave anybody out. I feel that at my best I could beat anybody at bantamweight but other people are the ones who determine these things”, he said. For a bit of perspective Zarate has often ranked very highly on historical lists. In 1994, The Ring ranked him as the greatest bantamweight of all-time; in 1999 the Associated Press had him tied with his countryman Ruben Olivares as the number one whereas the International Boxing Research Organization placed him at number six. In Bert Sugar and Teddy Atlas’ “Book of Boxing lists” they both had him ranked number four in divisional history. Sugar had him ranked as his third greatest Mexican boxer of all-time with Atlas placing him a spot lower in fourth. As far as his historical pound for pound placements, in 1996, The Ring released its “50 greatest fighters of the last 50 years” and put Zarate in 10th position. In 2001 the same publication placed him at 76 of the greatest boxers of the previous 80 years whereas Bert Sugar placed him in 48th place in 2006.
In the years following Zarate’s final bout there were some highs and lows. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 alongside Michael Spinks, Joey Maxim and Jack “Kid” Berg but sadly had problems with substance abuse and depression. After a decade long struggle the great champion managed to turn his life around and beat the illness and now lives a nice, peaceful life and is an example to many young boxers. He attributes those bad decisions and that lonely time in his life to hanging around with the wrong crowd but through his belief in God and the love and strength of his family he pulled himself up for arguably his greatest victory to date. To this day he runs a gym in the Ramos Millan neighborhood of Mexico City and released a well received autobiography in 2016. He is often seen at WBC events all over the world and is always happy to meet and greet his many fans with a smile on his face and discuss his fighting days.
One thing about Carlos Zarate that I want to mention, he had very heavy hands, when he connected with a punch, you felt the sting, he isn't ranked number 21 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers list for nothing. Look at this photo of his hands, they look almost like the hands of an alien, they're other worldly looking, and to be quite frank, they're freakish looking. Those hands busted guys up and took them out. At bantam, only 2 out of 55 fighters lasted the distance with him.
Carlos Zarate vs Alfonso Zamora took place in 1977 in Los Angeles, this fight was one of the most highly anticipated of all-time, and for good reason, both of these guys were destroyers, two of the hardest punchers in history, both unbeaten, and that's the mixture for a very explosive cocktail. If you're not familiar with Alfonso Zamora, he was a knockout artist, up to this point in his career, no one had made it to the end against him. Zamora took guys out in brutal fashion, it's as simple as that. Everyone wanted to see this matchup. Coming into this fight, Zarate had a record of 45-0 with 44 KO, and Zamora had a record of 29-0 with 29 KO, making their combined record 74-0 with 73 KO, arguably the most power punching matchup in boxing history. The fight didn't disappoint. For starters, at the beginning of the fight, some nutjob fan jumped into the ring and the police had to get him out of there. After that, the fight got going and it was what everyone was hoping to see, two of the hardest punchers in history going toe to toe in a shoot-out, it lasted Four rounds.
Another fight I want to talk about was Carlos Zarate vs Lupe Pintor. This fight took place in 1979 at Caesars Palace in Vegas and would be the last fight of Zarate's prime. It left a very bitter taste in Zarate's mouth and caused him to retire. He came into this fight with a 54-1 record, his only loss has come at the hands of Wilfredo "Bazooka" Gomez when Zarate attempted to move up to Super Bantam, the legendary Gomez had stopped Zarate in Five rounds. So Zarate went back down to bantam and fought Lupe Pintor, another legend in the sport. I've watched this fight a few times, and while it is close, I had Zarate as the clear winner and really don't see how anyone can think otherwise. I love Pintor as well, but Zarate won this fight and deserved the decision.
Zarate and Pintor during their fight
June 3, 1979: Zarate vs Pintor
Whether it be the consistently absurd behavior of the alphabet bodies, or the numerous promotional feuds that have prevented so many great fights from happening, the sport of boxing has a storied history of shooting itself in the foot. What might be equally or even more frustrating is the seemingly endless number of bad decisions that have occurred, with fighters getting blatantly cheated out of a deserved victory, the outcome leaving a vile and bitter taste in the mouths of all who witnessed it.
Few better examples of an egregious and confounding decision exists than the contest between former stablemates Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas back in 1979. Zarate was making the tenth defence of his WBC bantamweight belt, which he had won three years earlier. With a pristine record of 54-1 and an incredible 53 victories by stoppage, the always dangerous Zarate was the rightful favorite. His only defeat had come the year before when he challenged the great Wilfredo Gomez for the super bantamweight title and was stopped in five rounds by the powerful Puerto Rican they called “Bazooka.”
Zarate vs Pintor was a spirited yet technical fight, both boxers pushing themselves and each other to the limit. While it started slowly, the pace picked up as the contest progressed. It was Zarate who had the first dominant moment, as he knocked Pintor down near the end of round four with a lead right-straight left combination. Despite it being the first knockdown of Pintor’s career, he got up unfazed and showed no sign of breaking mentally. The defending champion continued to do good work in the middle rounds, landing solid jabs and straight rights, while maintaining a tight defense. Pintor had his moments as well, the best being in the tenth, when he staggered Zarate with a crisp left hook. But in the end it was clear to all that Zarate had consistently landed the more telling blows and enjoyed more dominant stretches.
But after fifteen hard-fought rounds, incredulously, a very surprised looking Lupe Pintor was awarded the split decision. Even more ludicrous was the disparity in the cards. Two had Pintor ahead by a single point, 143-142, while the third had it 145-133 for Zarate. Although Pintor deserved credit for being only the second man to last the distance with Zarate, the champion had clearly done more than enough to win. One wonders what judges Art Lurie and Harold Buck were watching. Maybe they were both distracted by the celebrities seated ringside. While I disagree with how wide the third card was for Zarate, at least that judge had the right man winning.
The day following the match, ex-champion Zarate gave his statement about what he regarded as a blatant injustice: “For some reason I have been robbed of my title by the officials in Nevada. I want the World Boxing Council to study a film of the fight. I should be given my title back. The decision was a terrible disgrace.”
But the skewed outcome damaged something more than Zarate’s record; it also wounded his pride. Even though Pintor and the WBC were willing to grant him a rematch, a dispirited Zarate instead decided to retire. And while he had already accomplished so much in the sport, one wonders what more Carlos might have done had he regained his title and stayed active. He was only 28, still in his athletic prime. Who knows how many more masterful performances he could have given?
Instead, he decided enough was enough. What many did not know was that prior to his battle with Pintor, Zarate had already been seriously considering walking away from the fight game. An article in the July, 1981 issue of The Ring revealed the sense of career fatigue that had set in before the decision loss to Pintor. In fact, Zarate had revealed to those closest to him that he had lost the desire to train, that after so many years of work and sacrifice, his drive had become stale. Zarate was one of the most successful fighters of all-time, undoubtedly one of the best bantamweights ever. His life was boxing but the sport had taken its toll, both on the body and the mind.
Zarate scored ten consecutive bantamweight title wins before the Pintor debacle.
Thus, one can see how “losing” to Pintor was the proverbial final straw, prompting a proud warrior to decide he wanted no more of pugilism. After all, boxing is an unforgiving sport, and if you are anything less than totally dedicated, you risk getting seriously hurt. In that regard, Zarate made the best move for his future and given the risks involved, who can argue against the decision?
But five years later, like so many aging champions before him, Zarate made a comeback, winning 12 consecutive matches before losing in back-to-back super bantamweight title bids. And thus it’s unfortunate that the last memory we have of the great Zarate in his prime was when he was on the wrong end of an unjust and confounding decision. He deserved so much better than that. But at least we can always look back on the many great performances prior to the Pintor robbery, when his impressive skills and astonishing power were on full display, when he was one of the greatest Mexican boxers to ever compete. Unlike the Pintor fight and what should have been another win for the great “Cañas,” those can never be taken away.
After the loss to Pintor, Zarate retired out of disgust and I can't say I blame him. He would take Five years off and make a comeback, winning 12 straight fights before losing back to back fights at super bantam to Jeff Fenech and Daniel Zaragoza, two all-time great super bantams, and retiring for good. One heck of a fighter in his prime, he is an all-time great bantam, right up there with the best to ever do it. Would love to see Zarate mix it up with Eder Jofre and Ruben Olivares, two fantasy super fights. Carlos Zarate was one of the greatest punchers ever seen in this sport, he had very heavy hands and they were devastating weapons.
Carlos Zarate Serna, "Canas" in his prime, vicious puncher.
This next fighter is a legend in this sport, he was one of the most feared fighters in history. He is the great Sam Langford, aka "The Boston Bonecrusher", aka "The Boston Terror." A lot of people consider him to be the pound for pound greatest fighter that ever lived, he was famous for being a small guy that gave big guys hell, in fact he was often a nightmare for them. He fought from lightweight all the way up to heavyweight. He's ranked number 2 on Ring magazine's 100 hardest punchers list, that's right, number 2. There's really no other way to put it, he was just a dangerous guy to be in the ring with, he had these long arms and reach, and he would come boring in with relentless pressure, switching angles, pushing his opponent into the right position to unleash hell, throwing power shots, hooks, and uppercuts. He really didn't give a damn about being hit, and he had the stamina to go 20+ rounds in any fight. These were the days when guys fought 20+ rounds like it was nothing, Langford himself fought some 300 fights, not like today when some of these guys fight once or twice a year. Langford was also making predictions long before Muhammad Ali did it, Langford would oftentimes predict the round he would knock his opponent out. Langford was one clever son of a gun as well, he had been around so long that he knew every trick in the book. Great infighter, even though he had long arms, he could still maneuver himself well enough to knock the crap out of you, he could unload lethal punches at long range or up close. He was great at cutting off the ring as well, and using his strength to have his way with his opponent, as he did against Bill Lang, who outweighed Langford by 37 pounds. Just an all-time great phenom of a fighter.
Sam Langford floors Bill Lang during their fight
The Little Man who could – Sam Langford
In the early 1900s, the sport of boxing was in its archaic age. Lack of regulation and oversight made boxing an extremely dangerous and unglamorous job. Rampant racism also made it difficult for black fighters to earn fair shots at boxing championships or earn wages as high as their white counterparts.
It was in this unfulfilling, lawless, and cruel world of sports where Sam Langford earned his living. Largely forgotten by many boxing fans today, Langford was one of the best boxers of the era, with a career lasting 23 years in the ring. Despite being much smaller compared to his larger opponents, Sam Langford fought all he could, no matter their race, size, or reputation in the ring. Today, he is one of the greatest boxers of all time who fell victim to the current racial injustice by other fighters who refused him a shot for a championship.
Samuel Langford’s Birth and Background
Born in 1886, Samuel Edgar Langford was the son of a former slave who fled to Canada from the United States. His father was extremely abusive, so Samuel fled his home as a teenager (specific dates are uncertain as almost no records survive of his early childhood) and voyaged to Boston Massachusetts. Working as a janitor, he picked up the sport of boxing as a curiosity and began to fight in the amateur ranks.
He spent much of his youth slugging it out with a wide array of opponents in back alley bar rooms and warehouses. For an up-and-coming boxer like Langford, one had to find a trainer and a manager to organize fights with other local boxers, and then work your way up to face more elite competition, until you were nationally recognized.
This was a slow process, often taking years until a boxer was even mentioned in a passing newspaper report. Because boxing had yet to establish a clear standard for the sizes of the fighters facing each other, often times larger boxers would be placed against smaller and weaker opponents.
Against All Odds: Langford’s boxing abilities
In this savage arena of bloodshed, Langford’s physical disadvantages were apparent. He was about 5″7, about 155 pounds, and barely a teenager, and there are no records of who his trainers or managing team was, meaning that like most boxers in his day, he was essentially training himself and organizing his own fights. An ordinary fighter would have fallen into the cracks and would be forgotten.
But Samuel Langford was no ordinary fighter. Because of his small size, Langford was able to dart around the ring and avoid his opponents’ stronger punches. He utilized his small size to his advantage and was notorious for outmaneuvering his slower and bigger opposition. He also employed unconventional tactics in the ring, as he would hold his opponents back with one of his hands, throw a punch, and then switch hands to hold the opposing fighter. Whilst doing this, Langford would dart back and forth, twisting his body and unwinding in the direction of his punch, allowing his body to act as a rubber band.
Langford utilized his speed to dart around his opponents, consistently opening new angles of attack. But speed alone can’t carry a fighter far. A boxer has to implement proper defense and technique to deflect heavy blows and exploit subtle weaknesses. Anyone can punch hard or fast, but boxing skills, known as “the Sweet Science” make a hard-punching brawler a true terror in the ring, able to simultaneously outpunch and outfox his opponents.
Langford was more than capable of this, as he utilized a practical defense to protect himself. He kept his hands near his stomach, in order to protect his vital organs. When cornering his opponents, Langford would widen his stance to block off any escape routes, and then throw powerful blows as his opponent would be unable to escape.
His unmatched power made him a terror in the ring. And despite his seeming physical disadvantages, Langford possessed one key weapon – long arms. His muscular arms looked mismatched compared to his small torso and legs, but since Langford had a muscular physique, his arms were extremely muscular. When Sam threw a punch, his powerful shoulders and biceps channeled extreme power into his fist, which finally deposited itself upon a truly unlucky face.
Punching power is something that you are born with, and something you can develop over time with technique. Langford had both. Because of this deadly combination of speed, skills, and power, Langford was nicknamed the Boston Bonecrusher.
“Langford took on every fighter he could [whilst] combining great punching power and agility with intelligence and courage.”
Armed with these terrifying tools, Langford began his march to the top of boxing. When discussing Langford as a fighter, it’s key to analyze the time he lived in. During the early 1900s, boxing, unfortunately, remained a racially segregated sport. White boxers would routinely ignore fighting their black counterparts, and black boxers were essentially forbidden in becoming boxing champions, of any weight class.
Because of these hurdles, Langford was destined never to attain the recognition he deserved. But in a forlorn effort to win a boxing championship, the Boston Bonecrusher did something that almost no boxers since have done: he offered to fight literally anybody who could lace on the gloves. It did not matter their age, race, or size, Langford would fight them all. This put him into an arena of giants where Langford was seemingly at a great disadvantage.
Langford fighting in Great Britain. Because of the restrictions imposed on black fighters like Langford, he was forced to fight all he could in order to establish himself as a worthy contender.
However, Langford quickly established himself as a dangerous fighter. The Boxing Hall of Fame organization would later state: “One of many top black boxers denied a chance to fight for a championship largely because of racial discrimination, Sam Langford took on every fighter he could, from lightweight to heavyweight, in his 24-year career. He combined great punching power and agility with intelligence and courage. Those who agreed to face Langford often considered him so dangerous they would request assurances that he be merciful in the ring.”
In one contest, Langford offered to touch gloves with his opponent (touching gloves is done in the final round of a boxing match) in the first round, an unusual act. When his opponent blustered “Why are you touching gloves Sam, this ain’t the final round,” Sam calmly replied, “Tis’ for you son.” Sam proceeded to knock him out in that same round.
In 1903, Joe Walcott, a black boxer from Barbados, won the world welterweight title, an act that set new bounds for racial inclusiveness in the sport. Walcott offered Langford a shot at his championship, and Langford fought him in 1904. In the bout, the newspaper The Lowell Sun reported:
“Joe Walcott met his match in a 15-round bout yesterday…his opponent was Sam Langford, who clearly outpointed the champion. Langford took advantage of his longer reach and repeatedly played a tattoo on Walcott’s face, and his cleverness on his feet carried him away from Walcott. Langford met his attacks by rights and lefts to the jaw and mouth so effectively as to draw blood in the second round and he kept Walcott bleeding in every round thereafter. In the third round, Langford brought the champion to one knee by a straight away jolt to the jaw, and he went through the entire fifteen rounds without a perceptible scratch on himself.”
Despite the obvious beatdown Langford inflicted on Walcott, judges awarded Walcott the decision, which drew anger from the crowd. Langford had been robbed of his only chance at a championship.
A King without a Crown
Not discouraged by this disheartening setback, Sam continued to fight whoever he could get his hands on. First, he dueled with Jack Johnson, a giant of a man who was 210 pounds and 6’0. Langford fought admirably, dealing significant damage to the much bigger man. But Johnson, who himself was an accomplished fighter, knocked down Langford in the middle of the fight and proceeded to beat down the smaller man.
“It was the first real beating I ever took,” remarked Langford. Johnson never forgot the fight the little man gave him, and when Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion of the world, he refused to give Langford a title fight, admitting “Sam Langford is the toughest little SOB who ever lived.”
Jack Johnson. An accomplished heavyweight fighter, Johnson faced a tough match against Langford, and despite a win, never again desired to fight Sam.
Langford then went on a 37-win streak, beating white and black fighters who consistently outweighed him. One opponent stated a fight with Langford “was like being hit with a baseball bat. He hit you so hard you didn’t feel it. I fought most of the heavyweights, including Dempsey and Johnson, but Sam could stretch a guy colder than any of them.”
“Langford fights consistently, possesses the punch, knows the game, and can whip them all right now, one after the other,” remarked John L. Sullivan, the first ever heavyweight champion, “Johnson knows this and sidesteps his fellow fighter at every turn of the road.” Langford had asserted his dominance in the sport of boxing, across nearly all weight classes. But he still lacked a title.
Langford would continue to be barred from competing for this prize by white champions because of his race and ignored by black champions because of their fear of the Boston Bonecrusher. Sam Langford was a king without a crown.
In 1908 and 1910 Langford flattened Joe Jeanette and “Fireman” Jim Flynn, and fought against Stanley Ketchel, an extremely talented former middleweight champion. Despite inflicting harsh pugilistic punishment on Ketchel for 6 rounds, the judge decided to declare the fight a draw, to avoid declaring that the black Langford had beaten a former white champion.
By 1914, Langford was 28 years old and up to this point, he had fought an astounding 137 times, with just 9 defeats! But Langford was well past his prime, as his speed and reflexes were largely gone. Years of accumulated beatings had made him weaker in the ring, and he was no longer able to resist the overwhelming size of his opponents. But he continued to fight, as throughout his life he was paid pennies for his career and thus was perpetually broke.
Langford, in an event similar to his boxing match against Jack Johnson, stepped into the ring with Harry Wills. Wills was 6″4, and weighed almost 220 pounds, outweighing Langford by 50 pounds. He was an up-and-coming heavyweight and because of his size and ferocity, was nicknamed “The Black Panther.” But Langford, through sheer force and determination, managed to beat Wills in the fight, knocking out Wills in the 19th round. “I thought I’d been killed,” stated Wills.
Despite being well past his prime, Langford stringed together a couple of victories against the powerful youngster in multiple separate boxing matches.
Wills would then go on to beat Langford as well in several rematches, but the ability for Langford to fight toe to toe with such a physically imposing and younger man remains an admirable accomplishment. After Jack Johnson was defeated by Jess Willard in 1915, Langford petitioned Willard for a title fight. But Willard refused to fight a black man for the title, and Langford was once again left broke.
By 1916, Langford offered to fight Jack Dempsey, an up-and-coming brawler from Manassa Colorado. But Dempsey, who would go on to win great fame as a legendary boxer, avoided the match, saying years later that “I wouldn’t fight him because I knew he would flatten me. I was afraid of Sam Langford.”
Jack Dempsey, who would go on to be known as one of the most ferocious fighters of all time, feared fighting Langford.
By the 1920s, Langford’s age and constant fighting had caught up to him. He was now losing more often and was blind in his left eye. Despite fortune turning against him, he journeyed to Mexico and fought for years despite his handicap. Langford would recollect that “my left eye was completely gone and the right just seeing shadows.” In one fight, Langford lost vision in his right eye and fought blind. But a lucky right-hand punch saved the day and knocked out his opponent, to the surprise of all.
This luck ran short, as by 1926 Langford was 41 years old and worn out. He was so badly battered in one fight he was unable to find his way back to his corner due to blindness and was banned from boxing to protect his health.
Alone and Forgotten
What happened next is uncertain, because Langford completely disappeared from public view. He was not mentioned in newspapers or in boxing catalogs. Despite his achievements, he became what occurred to so many other boxers in his time: an old, beaten-down man who never got much out of his cruel livelihood.
In 1944, Al Laney, a boxing fan and historian, became curious what ever became of the great Sam Langford, and when he could not find him, or what had happened to him, Laney decided to track him down. The inquisitive man finally found Langford in 1944, and saw to his horror the forgotten great, Sam Langford, was living alone, blind from his injuries, and penniless in a barren rented room in Harlem. He did not have furniture in the room or food. He sat alone in the dark and survived on scraps.
Laney managed to raise money for Langford by raising public awareness of the feats of this legendary fighter and raised enough money for Langford to live comfortably for the rest of his life. “I fought maybe three, four hundred fights,” Langford would later tell Laney, “and every one was a pleasure.” Sometime after Laney published his stories on Langford, he visited the old fighter one Christmas Eve. “I got a geetar,” said Sam, “and a bottle of gin, and money in my pocket to buy Christmas dinner. No millionaire in the world got more than that, or anyhow they can’t use more.”
Samuel Edgar Langford died from natural causes at the age of 70 in New York City, a year after he had been enshrined in the boxing hall of fame. His final professional boxing record stands at 314 fights, with 210 wins, 43 losses, and 53 draws. In a world of giants, Sam Langford was the smaller man who was hated, despised, and feared. He offers us all a lesson on determination and how to surmount challenges we are thrown in life. He was the little man that could.
You can see in this photo the kind of fighter Sam Langford was, Langford is pictured on the left, the small guy, and Harry Wills is on the right. The size difference just didn't matter to Langford, he'd step in the ring with anyone, didn't matter how tall they were or how much they outweighed him. Harry Wills is another all-time great, he was nicknamed "The Black Panther", and Langford and Wills fought each other 22 times, with Wills winning 6 and Langford winning 2, and 14 no decisions. It should be noted that Langford was half blind and past prime for the majority of their fights, yet Langford was still able to knock Wills out twice, which is insane considering the difference in size. This is an account of their second fight, a violent war of attrition.
Nov. 26, 1914: Langford vs Wills II
The first two decades of the twentieth century were a time of rapid evolution for the sport of boxing. Legal restrictions were being lifted around the world, and pugilism was rapidly shifting from an underground and shambolic enterprise, to something more organized and mainstream. Regulations standardized, techniques evolved, and the skill sets of elite fighters became more sophisticated.
At the highest levels, world-class fighters competed at least a dozen times a year, sometimes more than twice that. Frequent action forced boxers to remain in shape year-round and to hone the skills that only constant training could provide. Competition was fierce, and every division was stacked with talent.
Unlike most other professional sports of that time, boxing, at least ostensibly, was racially integrated, but many white fighters refused to face non-white opponents, while many venues barred integrated matches, thus a great number of talented fighters were unfairly locked out from title contention. In 1908, Jack Johnson finally broke through, capturing the heavyweight title from Tommy Burns. But after becoming champion, he continued to reinforce the color line, defending exclusively against white contenders until in 1913, near the end of his reign, he drew against Battling Jim Johnson in Paris.
And so, during Johnson’s time at the top, talented black heavyweights plied their trade but never competed for the world championship, instead facing off against each other numerous times and largely dominating every other contender willing to take them on. Sam McVea and Joe Jeannette were two dangerous talents who would have been successful in almost any subsequent era. Incidentally, it was Jeannette who later openly criticized Johnson, stating that, “Jack forgot about his old friends after he became champion and drew the color line against his own people.”
But even more dangerous than Jeannette and McVea was the great Sam Langford, a 5’7″ fireplug who fought for the world welterweight title in 1904, and carried his power up through the ranks to heavyweight, where he routinely knocked silly men much bigger than himself, when he wasn't boxing their ears off.
By 1914, Sam had been the top heavyweight contender for some time, not to mention the holder of the unofficial “Colored World Heavyweight Championship,” a sort of consolation prize for not getting a shot at the real title. Despite many public challenges, Sam just could not convince Jack Johnson to face him. It should be noted that a Johnson vs Langford duel did take place prior to “The Galveston Giant” winning the world title, a fifteen round match in 1906 which Johnson, enjoying a thirty pound weight advantage, won with little difficulty. But Jack was not inclined to give Langford a rematch; the fact he later declared Sam to be “the toughest little son-of-a-bitch that ever lived” gives us a clue as to why.
In May of 1914, Langford fought to a newspaper draw against an up-and-coming young contender from New Orleans named Harry Wills, with some correspondents scoring the match for the younger man. Wills stood just over 6’2″ and weighed around 210, making him one of the larger contenders of the day. At the time he had only seventeen pro matches on his record, but he still managed to more than hold his own against the highly regarded Langford. Little did anyone know, but that was only the first of many times “Langford vs Wills” would be at the top of a fight card.
By November, Wills had emerged as a serious contender, one that even Jack Johnson had to take notice of. “The Black Panther” followed his draw against Langford with another draw, one that many thought he deserved to win, this time against the great Joe Jeannette, before racking up eight straight victories through October. And so the time was right for another showdown with “The Boston Bonecrusher.” If Johnson wouldn’t give Langford a rematch, Sam was happy to oblige Harry and thus Langford vs Wills II for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship was set for Vernon, California.
Langford vs Wills
Harry Wills, aka “The Black Panther”
By this point, the 31-year-old Langford boasted a record of 109-10-29 with 65 knockouts, having faced and defeated nearly every formidable challenger from welterweight on up. There was no style he hadn’t seen, no challenge he hadn’t surmounted. But the young contender from Louisiana still enjoyed those significant advantages in age, size, and strength. And while he lacked the skills of his more experienced foe, he was growing into a fine boxer in his own right.
And so, in front of a large crowd, Wills sought to impose those advantages as quickly as possible, taking the fight to the older and smaller man and dominating him, dropping Sam four times in the first two rounds. At some point during the one-sided action Langford hurt his ankle, which hobbled him through the first half of the match.
But “The Boston Bonecrusher” was nothing if not resilient and he rebounded to score a knockdown of his own, the match settling into a brutal battle of attrition. Straight punches from the long arms of “The Black Panther” made closing the gap difficult for Langford, but as the struggle entered the twelfth round he found his ankle loosening up and his footwork and balance improving as a result. The next two rounds belonged to Langford as he outmaneuvered and battered the larger man with heavy shots.
Reports of the manner in which Langford vs Wills II violently ended in round fourteen are somewhat conflicted. An account in The Indianapolis Star states that Sam continued wearing Wills down until a combination, punctuated by a left hook, dropped Harry for the count. However, in a 1953 interview, Wills himself would claim to have been in control of the round, backing his foe into a corner, when the hook arrived and turned his day into night.
Either way, what is clear is that Wills was ahead on the scorecards of the scheduled twenty round bout, and Langford pulled a victory out of the jaws of defeat with his power, tenacity, and strategic mind. An editorial from The Los Angeles Herald the following day argued that Wills was too green for such a monumental challenge, though Langford’s damaged eye and ankle might have begged to differ, not to mention the fact Wills had scored more than one knockdown on the great “Boston Terror.”
Soon after Sam was briefly given consideration as an opponent for the world title, but the match never happened and then Jack Johnson’s championship reign came to an end in April, 1915 when he fell to Jess Willard in Cuba. In the same month, Langford lost his “Colored” title claim to Joe Jeannette, and while he remained a formidable challenge for any boxer, his prime had passed. Amazingly, he would fight on for another full decade. Reportedly, Jack Dempsey did all he could to avoid facing Langford, and years later he candidly stated that he was “afraid” of Sam and that, had they fought, Langford “probably would have knocked me out.”
For his part, Wills continued to improve. He lost for the final time to Langford in February of 1916, but from that setback until October 1926, he compiled an incredible record of 58-2-3 with 34 knockouts, the two defeats being a fluke injury stoppage and a disqualification that was re-matched four days later. That ten year run included six victories over Langford, as well as wins against an all-star roster of heavyweight talent, including Sam McVea, Denver Ed Martin, Jeff Clark, Fred Fulton, Gunboat Smith, Kid Norfolk, Luis Firpo, and Charley Weinert.
During this time, Wills was arguably the best heavyweight in the world and a showdown with heavyweight king Dempsey was discussed and considered on numerous occasions but never came to pass. Based on his performances during his prime, one can argue that “The Black Panther” might have reigned as heavyweight champion for many years had the chance arisen. Alas, Harry Wills will instead be remembered, alongside his greatest rival, Sam Langford, as one of the finest fighters in all of boxing history to never win a world title.
It's amazing that we have Sam Langford on film, a lot of boxing film from back then hasn't survived over the years. When Sam Langford fought Bill Lang, some of the fight was captured on film. You can see how great a fighter Langford was, Bill Lang was a heavyweight, 203 pounds against the 166 pound Langford. Yet Langford is able to control the ring and even physically push back the bigger man. The way Langford cut the ring off, his power in both hands, you're looking at one of the greatest pound for pound fighters ever.
Another Sam Langford fight that was captured on film was his fight with Fireman Jim Flynn, it lasted 8 rounds before Flynn was stopped. You can see in the film how brutal Langford can be. One thing I forgot to mention is that Langford could box as well, you'll see in the film he fires vicious jabs at Flynn and then follows it up with right hands, nice skills. He really hit Flynn with the kitchen sink in this fight, uppercuts, body shots, you name it, just an onslaught of powerful artillery. At one point in the fight, Langford throws a punch with so much force that he actually does a cartwheel, insane. Fireman Jim Flynn and Langford fought three times, Langford knocked him out in the first fight, Flynn won a ten round decision in the second fight, and this was the third meeting. Flynn was an actual fireman from Hoboken New Jersey outside the ring, strong and tough son of a gun. The original film is 18 minutes long, these are the highlights.
As far as film of Sam Langford goes, Langford looks good on film. He doesn't pay much attention to defense in some of the footage but that seems more to be his utter disregard for his opponents' ability to hurt him. He certainly looks the boss in the available footage, and he certainly carried his power with him up in higher weight divisions. He's a fascinating fighter with a fearsome reputation and watching him on film he certainly lives up to the hype. In his nearly 300 fight career, spanning 24 years, he beat Joe Gans, Harry Wills, Joe Jeanette, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, Sam McVey, Kid Norfolk, Dixie Kid, Gunboat Smith, he beat hall of famers from lightweight all the way up to heavyweight, not many fighters can claim that, and that is why some place him right up there with the greatest to ever do it. I'm going to post a few photos of Langford throughout his career.
Sam Langford in his prime
Langford play spars with a young boy.
Langford vs Lang.
Langford strikes a pose.
Langford vs Wills.
Good clear shot of Langford.