Top 10 Latin fighters of all time

It's completely different, and I won't go into the reason, but I think you know.

Well, fuck it, I will go into it - Mex-Americans like M.Ortiz and Oscar have a direct lineage back to Mexico. I'm sure Oscar has family members that he's aware of in Mexico. Without checking, was Joel De La Hoya born in Mexico? If not, I'm sure Oscar's grandparents were.

Every Puerto Rican living outside the Island has a direct family history can be traced back to the Island, and all of them have family members from PR. Alllllll of them.

For us African Americans, having been ripped away from our homeland hundreds and hundreds of years ago, we no longer have any discernible lineage to our African roots.

Hence, why it is COMPLETELY fucking different.

Roy Jones' great, great, great, great grandfather was a slave.

Oscar's grandfather I'm sure was from Mexico.

 

I was just trying to make my own shortlisting easier

 

There are certainly not 10 African American fighters in history "better" than Roy Jones.

 

Ok. That's fair.

 

I think there's a few fighters you could argue rank at least on par, if not perhaps a bit higher than Monzon. I think Gavilan has an overall deeper resume, and Monzon's lack of success outside of a single weight class hurts him in comparison with fighters who cleaned out multiple classes like Arguello and Chavez.

I also think Olivares is a HUGE omission to leave out of any list. IMO, he should be in or near any top 5, let alone top 10. In fact, I wouldn't even argue with anyone who rated him as high as #2.

 

Olivares at #2 is a leap for me.

Somewhere in the top 5, ok i can buy it. As high as 2... for me, no.

He blew too hot and cold during his prime to justify #2, and he's given too many passes for that.

Ortiz wasn't Mr. Consistent himself, and the reasons are the same, both had addiction problems. But Ortiz still dominated the lightweight division for nearly a decade. Also, imo, Ortiz was just a better fighter than Olivares. Less powerful, but overall more skilled and FAR FAR less flawed.

A big part of greatness is consistency. Theres something to be said for how dominant Duran and Monzon were over a long period.

So once again, its a stretch for me to have Olivares as high as 2, but I dont have any issue ranking him top 10.

I also don't have an issue with him NOT making a top 10... my only issue would be if he didn't make a top 15.

Olivares is as low as a #4 on a Mexican list. He's also as high as #1, but its reasonable to rank him outside the Mexican top 3, and therefore reasonable to rank him outside the Latin top 10.

 

He was undefeated in over 60 fights (and had only one loss in about 70 fights), with the overwhelming majority of wins coming by KO, before any real inconsistencies showed up. Yes, he may not have had the longevity of some of the other fighters on this list, but he achieved a level of dominance over a very large number of fights that very few fighters in history have attained.

 

Post destroying Rose to win the title, he didn't maintain his dominance over enough years to justify #2 for me.

It remains a leap for me, as IMO guys like Monzon, Gavilan, Ortiz, Chavez, Jofre, and Napoles were just better fighters than Ruben.

HOWEVER, this list is so goddamn hard outside of #1 that I won't get into too much of an argument.

So, there's literally like 8 different guys it seems fighting for that #2 spot.