Originally Posted by
marbleheadmaui
I was aghast at the fan voting on Puerto Rico's greatest fighter on Saturday night. IIRC the five names were Tito Trinidad, Wilfred Benitez, Carlos Ortiz, Wilfredo Vasquez and Bazooka Gomez. Now that is one impressive as hell list for a population of what? 4 million? But I was aghast when I saw Carlos Ortiz finish dead last with three percent of the vote. It made me angry that Ortiz has somehow been forgotten. Here's a summary of his career. Please recall that there was effectively one title per division at this time. No strapholders.
Ortiz stands 5'7 with a '70 inch reach, long for a lightweight. Those are almost identical dimensions to Floyd Mayweather. Ortiz was one of those ring chameleons. A good puncher, a good mover, an exceptional ring general, strong chin, high ring IQ and one of those non-flashy ring minimalists who never moves six inches when four will do. Outside the ring Carlos liked the good life and smoked and drank with abandon.
In his first year as a pro he went 14-0 and by 18 months and 20 fights he is fighting fringe contenders. By the time he is 21 he 25-0 and ready for a contender.
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It is Carlos Ortiz's last great night. In his last eight fights he has gone 6-1-1 while fighting HOFers in seven of those fights. Some stretch huh? He takes a year off and then loses his crown to Carlos Teo Cruz by split decision. Ortiz becomes a part time fighter and though he rarely loses he no longer has the stuff. He finishes his career on his stool to HOFer Ken Buchanan.
Ortiz was a three time champion with a total of 12 defenses. Time after time he traveled to the other guys' hometown and whipped them. He defeated 24 ranked fighters and went 8-4-1 against HOFers. Against this level of competition he was stopped only in his last fight.
In my mind Ortiz is clearly the most accomplished fighter Puerto Rico has produced.
WOW.... excellent, incredibly knowledgeable and researched post. Cool click for that. I'm guilty as anybody else for not being familiar with Carlos Ortiz. And yes... his resume is incredibly impressive. It's so difficult to compare fighters across different eras. I was aghast myself when I saw Cotto voted over both Gomez and Benitez. Those are two boxing legends right there. I wouldn't short-change either one. Gomez probably still holds some kind of KO percentage ratio record... and Benitez was one of THE best defensive fighters in boxing history, not to mention the youngest world title holder. And going back to Gomez... he probably could've run the table during his career, but he let the good life become too much of a distraction, and lost fights he could've probably won. He still ended up with an incredible record. Many of his victims were world-class, too. Zarate was something like, I don't know.... 50-something and "oh" when he fought Gomez? I know he was undefeated, including a win over the highly rated fellow Mexican Zamora.
One thing I agree with everyone else.... an impressive lineup of boxing greats for such a little island. Something we've always been extremely proud of.
(Oops.... had to cut some of the quoted post.... got an error message for too many characters. (?)
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Re: Saturday's puerto rican vote
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