Those of you who know me personally know I live boxing every day of my life and have for the past 50 years. I have used this website as a bright beacon to give you my very best in boxing; that is my intent, my only intent.
I receive a lot of fan mail that is sent to my email address, and I truly respect every opinion from each of you. I am intrigued by many comments and it’s my honor to be able to respond with my own personal opinion and truthfulness.
There was one comment I received that I must share with you (see below) from Antonio Santiago in Puerto Rico. He said some nice things and touched on a subject that I have had many ask me about: who are the greatest Mexican born boxers of all time.
For my fan base that might have missed the feature article covering that subject, my producer, John Boitnott, will post it in full detail again in about ten days for your viewing on this website.
For the record, in my opinion, the top Mexican-born boxers of all time at the pinnacle of their careers (alphabetically) are Miguel Canto, Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Ruben Olivares, Vicente Saldivar, Salvador Sanchez, and Carlos Zarate.
The key words are “Mexican born”. I have had people ask me about Jose Napoles, Pancho Villa, Carlos Ortiz, Manuel Ortiz… they are certainly worthy, but none were born in Mexico.
For the record, in my opinion, the greatest Puerto Rican-born boxer is Wilfredo Gomez (I have had many ask me that, as well) with Felix Trinidad right behind him at number two.
In closing, I would like to bring two items of boxing interest to your attention:
(1) My friend J.J. Johnston, along with his associate Nick Beck, have written a book that every boxing fan will enjoy called “Babyface and Pop”. It is the true story of one of the greatest champions in boxing history, Jimmy McLarnin.
(2) Another boxing website that I fully support, and its founder and president Edgar Gonzalez, who does an excellent job, is www.MyBoxingFans.com. I encourage you to check out.
I strive to bring you the best in boxing and thank you for your loyalty to this website. May God bless each and every one of you – thank you!
Hi David. I am a Puerto Rican boxing writer and I have to say I enjoyed your list of Top 5 Mexican boxers of all time. Growing up reading Ring en Espanol, and thinking I wanted to be a professional boxer, I can say that Ruben Olivares, Julio Cesar Chavez, Vicente Saldivar, Salvador Sanchez and Carlos Zarate as well as Miguel Canto and Jose Luis Ramirez were among my idols too. Not to mention Gilberto Roman. But what I liked most about your article was the respectful way in which you wrote about fellow Latino boxers, the Puerto Ricans. I run into too many “my country is better than yours” discussions and it gets me tired, whether a Puerto Rican is saying it or a Mexican. You, however, stand in a class by yourself because you spoke about Sanchez-Gomez, Gomez-Zarate, Chavez-Laporte and Chavez-Camacho without getting into the Mex vs. Pue theme.
I am working on an article about the pros of welcoming the decent working people of Mexico in the USA, with the famous fights between two other boxing legends, Bobby Chacon and Bazooka Limon, as a background. When it gets published I hope you can enjoy it.
BTW Lupe Pintor was also of the finest quality of fighters ever and he should be in the IBHOF soon as well. Among Puerto Ricans, my favorite by far (and my favorite of all time) Wilfredo Gomez but I also love my fellow Boricuas Wilfred Benitez, Wilfredo Vazquez, Alfredo Escalera, Sammy Serrano, Tito Trinidad, Hector Macho Camacho Padre, Ivan Calderon and Carlos De Leon…some of those (at least Vazquez, Escalera, Serrano, Camacho Sr, Trinidad and De Leon) should be joining Chavez, Olivares, Zarate, Lopez, Sanchez and (hopefully) Morales, Barrera and Ramirez in the IBHOF someday!