Top 5 greatest South and Central American fighters

South America and Central America have produced a SHIT LOAD of great fighters. But I'd say the top 5 are:

1. Duran
2. Monzon
3. Jofre
4. Arguello
5. Cervantes

Honorable mention: Pascual Perez, Pedroza, Panama Al, Galindez, Locche, Valdez, Chocolatito.

 

Valdez and Pedroza are underrated. They’re hardly mentioned. Truly incredible fighters.

 

I'd rate Pedroza over Cervantes frankly

Fought in a far tougher division

 

What about Laguna?

 

Definitely not a top 5, but he'd be a top 20

 

JC Canelo
Juan Coggi
Six Heads Lewis
Edison Miranda

 

Its arguable.

I'd rate Kid Pambele higher as a head-to-head force.

 

Kid Gavilan

 

Cuba isnt part of Central or South America, Ugo. If it was, then I woulda had Napoles in my top 5 instead of Cervantes.

Most of these greats have come from Argentina, Panama, and Colombia.

An outlier is someone like Jofre, who to my knowledge is the only all time great Brazil has ever produced.

 

Ernesto Marcel was twice the fighter any of these guys were

Jorge Lujan was better than all of them

 

I know. It was a joke.

 

Ernesto Marcel was a superb fighter.

 

I'll eat your asshole alive

 

Surprised Doub didnt mention Esparragoza. He's certainly not top 10 but he's one of the better fighters from Venezuela.

 

I should also mention Santos Laciar, who was essentially a flyweight version of Galindez.

 

My bad. The Finnish translation of the word also covers the Caribbean and West Indies

 

It's all good.

 

I don't know, is it prudent to leave out a guy who put Frazier on his ass twice and was damn near to going 15 rounds with Ali?

I know little guys tend to be pfp more talented than heavyweights but Bonavena might just have been a good contender in any era.

Certainly South and Central America has produced no better heavyweight than him, that I can think of, and that probably includes Cubans.

 

Bonavena was a tough dude, never easy work for anybody

Have to agree he's got to be head and shoulders above any other heavyweight from South America I can think of

 

perhaps, if youre not counting CUBANOS...otherwise

 

That guy wasn't even a good bum beater.

 

Cuban heavyweight suck, basically. I think that entire Caribbean has produced very very little in the line of real quality HW's.

Of course, I am speaking about the pro game.

Lewis people came from Jamaica but Lewis himself was born outside the place.

Bum Berbick ,mainly. Bruce Scott came over from Jamaica and won the British Cruiser title in the late 1990's

Braithwaite from Guyana was a decent Cruiser.

Suntanama From Panama, old Guillermo Jones is worth a look., He had that late-career win over Denis Lebedev for a Cruiser title but way way before that he had two very very close fights with Laurent Boudouani for the WBA 154lb title. Probably won at least one of them. Boudouani was the guy who eventually ended Terry Norris career for good, a title he lost to David Reid over 12 rounds.

Jones is a sleeper in this. Started as a 6'4" Welter in 1993 and went 47-3-2-1 {31 KO} during a damn-near 20 year career. He fought in 4 different divisions and fought and arguably beat guys like Johnny Nelson, Steve Cunningham.

Others from Cuba were there like Ramon Garbey and JC Gomez and Solis and Luis Ortiz.

Lot of real talent there especially as amateurs but very little pro quality.

Very unusual that so many quality lighter fighters would hail from the islands but not so many HW's.

Let that sink in...........John Ruiz won more heavyweight titles than Ortiz, Solis, Garbey and Gomez put together, IIRC.

 

He's also better than just about any Cuban who ever turned pro at Heavyweight or Cruiser. I'd have him my Top Ten "Build the Fucking Wall" fighters any day of the week.

 

the only other notable south american hw that I can think of is Luis Firpo. And he sucked

 

He probably beat Jack Dempsey though. Dempsey should have lost that by DQ.

 

Not really. It seems that it was more of a push than a unch that sent Dempsey through the ropes

 

Teofimo Lopez on Twitter

this guy may crack the list one day

 

Two things about Teofimo Lopez

1. Winning prospect of the year is good. Winning it twice on the bounce not so good.

2. Anybody who loses to basically the Algerian Napoleon Dynamite may not go too far

 

That guy looks like an Arab Johnny Owen.


Jeeyyyyyysssssus what an ugly motherfucker!