Zarate and Zamora

[marbleheadmaui]

The mid-1970's saw the tail end of what I think was the greatest stretch in the history of the bantamweight division. From 1965 until about 1972 or so merely being the best bantamweight in Mexico City would have been an enormously prestigious title. There were a series truly world class guys that came out of that city in those years; Olivares and Castillo and Martinez and Pimintel and Hererra and Anaya and Medel and Guererro and Cruz. Amazing. But by the mid 1970's that run was ending.

Mexico City wasn't quite done. The great Arturo "Cuyo" Hernandez had found two young stallions to train. Their names? Alfonso Zamora and Carlos Zarate. At one point Cuyo chose Zarate as his horse to ride in the division and sold Zamora's contract back to his father. This ignited a great deal of discord between the two fighters and indeed between the two camps.

Both of these men were absolutely insane punchers. In 2003 Ring Magazine named Zarate the 21st greatest puncher of all time ahead of men like Max Baer, Rocky Graziano, Julian Jackson and RFoberto Duran. On the same list Zamora ranks 47th, ahead of such men as David Tua, Julio Cesar Chavez and Henry Armstrong.

How powerful was Zamora? He wrecked ATG Eusabio Pedroza in only two rounds. How powerful was Zarate? Paul Fererri had never been stopped in over 50 fights. Zarate took him in 12.

It was inevitable these two would match up, but the circumstances were exceedingly strange. At 20 Zamora wins the lineal bantamweight crown held by WBA champ Soo-Hwan Hong, crushing him in four rounds. About a year later Zarate takes the WBC title (the other half) by stopping Rodolfo Martinez (a wrecking machine himself) in nine rounds.

This is the first time I can recall the alphabet gangs getting in the way. Neither the WBA nor the WBC would sanction a unification fight. That made no sense. But the camps wanted the match and so the two men agreed to a ten round fight over the 118 limit.

Going into the fight, the 22 year old Zamora was 28-0 all by KO. Nobody had gone the distance with him. That included six ranked bantams. The 25 year old Zarate was 46-0 with 45 KO's. That included five ranked men. Together, up until that time, their combined KO percentage of 98.6% was the highest anyone could recall in a match between top fighters.

The fight takes place at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood and in addition to the brutal action has fans in the ring, trainers brawling and riot police. Four rounds of bombthrowing and boxing glory.

Zarate is the taller man.