Comments Thread For: Mexico and Puerto Rico: The friendliest of vicious rivalries

[BlackRobb]

Let's talk about that a little....

Yes. I remember those days well. I even caught a few Pipino Cuevas and Miguel Canto fights on Saturday on Spanish language Channel 41. Good times.

[Willow The Wisp]

Yes. I remember those days well. I even caught a few Pipino Cuevas and Miguel Canto fights on Saturday on Spanish language Channel 41. Good times.

Great fights. Pipino always shows up at the IBHOF inductions and is the nicest guy you'd ever care to meet. He had a rough start and a rough ending to his career, but in between he was one of the most ferocious Welterweights ever. Wow. No kidding. Canto is the pride of the Yucatán Peninsula and his brilliant wins against Espinal, Takata, Oguma, Betulio Gonzalez and Hanagata make him one of the best Flyweights ever.

I do place big, big weight on the peerless battle of the Z-boys, and had the pleasure of witnessing their abilities live at the Forum on April 23 of '77, in what I regard as one of the greatest fights I've ever seen.

WBC champion Zarate was 45-0-0 with 44 brutal KO's, and WBA champion Zamora was 29-0-0 with 29 arguably even more brutal KO's.

Only two sanctioning bodies (belts) back then, so a unification fight was for keeps. One and done.
Ironically, the belts were not on the line!
The back story is a fascinating narrative of how even 47 years ago, the Alphabet groups were nothing but profiteers who overplayed their hand against the fans and the fighters, as these two Mexican greats told them to go fly a kite, and settled the issue of supremacy themselves. Massive display of pride and balls.
This showed that fights, fighters, fans and history all matter in this business, and sanctioning bodies, comparatively, really don't.

I wanted to get that across because that was one of the best AND most important fights of the decade.

[BlackRobb]

Great fights. Pipino always shows up at the IBHOF inductions and is the nicest guy you'd ever care to meet. He had a rough start and a rough ending to his career, but in between he was one of the most ferocious Welterweights ever. Wow. No kidding. Canto is the pride of the Yucatán Peninsula and his brilliant wins against Espinal, Takata, Oguma, Betulio Gonzalez and Hanagata make him one of the best Flyweights ever.

I do place big, big weight on the peerless battle of the Z-boys, and had the pleasure of witnessing their abilities live at the Forum on April 23 of '77, in what I regard as one of the greatest fights I've ever seen.

WBC champion Zarate was 45-0-0 with 44 brutal KO's, and WBA champion Zamora was 29-0-0 with 29 arguably even more brutal KO's.

Only two sanctioning bodies (belts) back then, so a unification fight was for keeps. One and done.
Ironically, the belts were not on the line!
The back story is a fascinating narrative of how even 47 years ago, the Alphabet groups were nothing but profiteers who overplayed their hand against the fans and the fighters, as these two Mexican greats told them to go fly a kite, and settled the issue of supremacy themselves. Massive display of pride and balls.
This showed that fights, fighters, fans and history all matter in this business, and sanctioning bodies, comparatively, really don't.

I wanted to get that across because that was one of the best AND most important fights of the decade.

Very well-said. While I didn't see Zarate-Zamora the night it took place (I live in New York and it wasn't televised), I read about it in a boxing m@gazine (International Boxing or World Boxing) a month or two later. I do remember it was a ten round fight, if I'm not mistaken. Zarate was a rough facsimile of Arguello at a lighter weight, though not the body puncher.

I believe those sanctioning bodies were in bed with the likes of Arum, King and Butch Lewis back then.

Back in those days, there were no "sides of the street". If guys wanted to go fight, they fought. Hearns-Cuevas, McCallum-Curry, Gomez-Zarate, Sanchez-Lopez, Lyle-Foreman.