Carlos Zarate: A great champion

With no fewer than 15 inductees in the International Boxing Hall of Fame it would perhaps be an understatement to say that Mexico has a long and proud tradition in the sport. Ever since Juan Zurrita became lightweight champion in 1944, Mexico has produced more world champions than any other country outside of the United States. It would be fair to say that the biggest stranglehold Mexico has had over one division historically is in the bantamweight class. The popular Raul “Raton” Macias from the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City was one of Mexico’s first sporting icons and its first bantamweight champion. His success triggered the emergence of an era of excellent bantamweights which included Jose Becerra, Jose Medel, Jose “Toluco” Lopez, Ricardo “Pajarito” Moreno and German Ohm amongst others.

World championships were harder to come by in those days with only one champion per division and less weight classes so not all of these men reigned as the division was dominated from 1960-1965 by the legendary Eder Jofre of Brazil and then Japan’s greatest boxer Masahiko “Fighting” Harada. The real period of world domination for Mexico began when the charismatic Ruben Olivares dethroned Harada’s conqueror Lionel Rose in 1969. That win by Olivares started a 14-year run for Mexico in the division which was only briefly halted once for a few months by Enrique Pinder in 1972. Among these fantastic champions were Jesus “Chucho” Castillo, Rafael Herrera, Rodolfo Martinez, Romeo Anaya, Alfonso Zamora but none would dominate as much as Carlos Zarate.

Zarate, like Macias and many other Mexican greats was born in Tepito. He holds a lot of distinctions in boxing history which still stand to this day. He is one of only two boxers recorded to have two separate knockout streaks of 20 or more bouts and he has the highest knockout percentage of any boxer currently enshrined in the international boxing hall of fame yet he was far more than just a heavy handed slugger. Zarate at 5 feet 8 inches was tall for a bantamweight and possessed a calmness about him which blended superbly with the level of technical ability and confidence instilled in him by the legendary Arturo “Cuyo” Hernandez. Watching film of Zarate you will notice he seldom rushed any of his attacks or got sloppy yet the vast majority of his fights ended quickly inside the distance. He hit hard with both hands with his signature punch being his straight right hand and he is one of the most devastating punchers in boxing history. Zarate did the basics very well. He was an expert at cutting down the ring partly due to superb boxing IQ and his excellent footwork and he delivered every punch with accuracy and power.

As a youngster Zarate moved with his family from Tepito to the Ramos Milan section of the city close to the Benito Juarez International Airport. He would still travel back and forth to Tepito visiting friends and family members. As a youth, Zarate was like many in that he liked to fight at school and felt that he escaped punishment because both of his parents worked closely with the school district. It was at the age of 16 under the tutelage of Cuyo Hernandez that he started to train seriously and set his sights on earning his living in the boxing ring. “Cuyo Hernandez was a teacher. You can see how many fighters he developed from when they were young children and how many went on to become champions”, he said. Among the fighters which Zarate was a fan of when he was young were Ultiminio “Sugar” Ramos, Jose Napoles, Jose Medel and Vicente Saldivar.

After going 33-0 with 30 knockouts as an amateur Zarate turned professional on February 2nd, 1970 at the age of 18 years old. He racked up 23 straight knockout victories before the run was halted when he had to settle for a points victory against Victor Ramirez in 1974. He followed that up with six straight knockout victories before the promoters north of the border up in Southern California wanted to showcase this new knockout sensation on these shores. The big opportunity for Zarate came against the unbeaten James Martinez on the undercard of the Ruben Olivares vs. Alexis Arguello bill in Inglewood at The Great Western Forum on November 23rd of 1974. He performed well that night as he stopped Martinez and over the next 18 months went from strength to strength as he scored knockout after knockout. His victims included talented Panamanian Orlando Amores, unbeaten Joe Guevara and the vastly experienced Benicio Sosa of Argentina all at the Forum. At home in Mexico he added the scalps of Cesar DeCiga, Nestor Jimenez and Jorge Torres, brother of Flyweight world champion Efren.

World champion

This impressive run landed Zarate a shot at WBC champion and fellow Tepito native Rodolfo Martinez on May 8th, 1976 at the Forum. Despite Martinez’ impressive pedigree and reputation Zarate entered the bout as a 3-1 favorite. Both boxers fought with a decent level of respect for one another throughout the first four rounds as they looked for openings. Zarate held a slight edge during these rounds but then stepped up the tempo a little bit in the fifth round and sent Martinez down with a punishing left hook which was followed up with a quick barrage of shots which almost sent Martinez out of the ring. Zarate did not lose his composure as he was content in continuing to outbox Martinez and not take unnecessary chances. He dominated the bout in the next few rounds before ending the bout with a picture perfect knockout in the ninth round. Martinez by now was trailing and had been wobbled in the prior round succumbed to a powerful left to the body followed by a straight right hand and was counted out.

After taking a couple of stay-busy bouts in Mexico, Zarate was back in Inglewood to put his title on the line against tough Australian Paul Ferreri. Ferreri had build up an impressive record to earn a shot at the Mexican’s title and proved himself a worthy opponent as he extended the champion into the 12th round which was the furthest Zarate had ever been to at that point. While Zarate was dominant most of the way he did acknowledge that Ferreri had been a difficult opponent. “This was a very difficult fight. Ferreri was very elusive. I thought I had him many times but he was always able to escape. I did prepare for a 15 round fight and I guess going 12 was a good experience” he said after the bout. Whilst Zarate did not score any knockdowns he did hurt Ferreri on a number of occasions and opened a nasty cut which prompted referee Richard Steele to stop the bout.

Battle of the Z boys

By now a fascinating storyline had been developing between Zarate and his former stablemate and friend Alfonso Zamora. Zamora himself had run up an impressive knockout streak and was the WBA world titleholder but had fallen out with Cuyo Hernandez over a dispute between his father and Hernandez. Alfonso Senior bought out his son’s contract and what ensued was a war of words through the media between both managers. Zamora had won the title against Soo-Hwan Hong just two months prior to Zarate’s title win and impressively defended his title five times by knockout. His most notable victim was future featherweight champion Eusebio Pedroza who was knocked out in two rounds. After the Ferreri bout, Zarate registered two further title defenses against Waruinge Nakayama and Fernando Cabanela respectively before setting up the tantalizing match-up with Zamora. Although the ridiculous politics of the WBC and WBA prevented both titles from being on the line it did not diminish the enthusiasm to see this historical battle between these two knockout artists.

The bout was scheduled for 10 rounds on April 23rd at the Forum and few expected it to go that far as Zarate entered with a record of 45-0 with 44 knockouts whereas Zamaora was 29-0 with a perfect 29 knockouts. To this day the bout remains one of the biggest bouts between two Mexican nationals and arguably the biggest bantamweight fight of all-time. The action did not disappoint the mostly Mexican crowd that packed into the Forum that night as the two sluggers produced an epic bout full of fireworks. In just the first round with both boxers searching for openings a man jumped into the ring wearing what appeared to be his underpants momentarily stopping the action as he stood there in what looked like some sort of peace offering. He was quickly hurled out of the ring by the police and beaten for his transgression. The action between the two fighters heated up shortly after that with Zamora getting the better of the first round as he unloaded some big bombs on Zarate towards the close of the round. Zarate later admitted to feeling Zamora’s power, “his punches put me in the mood to attack. He hurt me twice but he did not hurt me enough”, he said. Zarate fared better in the second round as he found some success in catching the shorter Zamora as he attempted to come in close and detonate further bombs on Zarate’s chin. In the next round Zarate’s advantage strengthened as he scored the first knockdown of the bout when he put Zamora down with a short right hand after a series of hard left hand punches. The good news for Zamora was that this was near the end of the round. The bad news? Zarate had him exactly where he wanted him as he came out for the fourth round and scored two further knockdowns before the towel came flying in from Zamora’s dad. The first knockdown was the result of a number of hard left hand shots and the third and final knockdown was punctuated by a lethal right hand which left Zamora under the ropes in agony as Richard Steele acknowledge the towel and waved off the bout at 1:11 of the fourth round. Mayhem ensued after the bout as an irate Zamora Sr. tried to attack Hernandez accusing him of being a “liar and a cheat”. Zamora Jr. was far more gracious in defeat saying, “He’s a great competitor. I thought I was doing OK until the third. After that, I don’t remember too much.”

King of Mexico

Now the true king of Mexican boxing Zarate took six months out of the ring as he enjoyed his status as a national icon. He would defend his belt two more times that year as he returned to the Forum to destroy the unbeaten Brazilian contender Danilo Batista followed by a trip to Madrid, Spain where he took local hero Juan Francisco Rodriguez apart. 1977 had been a great year for Zarate as he defended his title three times by knockout and scored his biggest victory and on top of that he received recognition from The Ring magazine as their “Fighter of the year”. Boxing Illustrated ranked him atop their mythical pound for pound rankings and plans were discussed for Zarate to rise in weight to challenge WBC featherweight champion Danny Lopez at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. For the time being Zarate was still occupied defending his bantamweight championship and his first defense as the “Fighter of the year” came against the classy Alberto Davila from Pomona. Once again Zarate was back at the Forum and delivered another special performance as he turned back the challenge of the brilliant future champion. Davila was competitive and gave the champion something to think about as he threw some beautiful combinations with the Mexican bided his time, remained poise and systematically broke the local man down. An 8th round knockdown was the beginning of the end as referee Henry Elespuru quickly waved the contest off as a result of a deep cut over the challengers right eye. “It was my toughest championship fight”, Zarate said afterwards.

Defeat

In his next bout Zarate defended his title in Puerto Rico against local favorite Andres Hernandez on a 13th round knockout to run his record to 50-0 and added two further victories before he stepped up in weight to challenge Puerto Rican hero Wilfredo Gomez. Zarate travelled back to Puerto Rico for this battle of TNT knockout artists and was instilled as the pre-fight favorite. Gomez had run an impressive string of 21 knockout victories since he tied his professional debut and was already an icon on the island. This eagerly awaiting matchup of concussive punchers ended in defeat for Zarate as he was taken apart by Gomez in front of a rabid Puerto Rican audience. The bout was fought very cautiously over the first three rounds but Gomez exploded in the fourth round and floored the Mexican twice. He remained on the attack in the fifth round and scored another knockdown before Zarate’s corner threw in the towel. Gomez had fought a very rough fight and referee Harry Gibbs chose not to punish any of his fouls and Zarate had a hard time keeping up to pace with Gomez. Zarate insists he was not at his best that night in Puerto Rico and attributes a virus he caught prior to the fight for his uncharacteristically flat performance. “I got sick and wanted to postpone the fight but the promoters would not allow it”, he said. Apparently there was a clause in the deal which meant if Zarate wanted to force for a postponement he would actually be breaching the contract and would face a fine that was three times larger than the purse. “Gomez was a great boxer, a great champion. He moved really well, was great at controlling the distance and was very strong”, he said reflecting on that fight. Of all the places he fought in during his career Zarate said that the most hostile atmosphere he experienced was that night in Puerto Rico.

Controversial end to a legendary reign

No longer undefeated, Zarate moved back down to the bantamweight division to defend his title and was successful in dispatching John Mensah Kpalongo of Togo in his first bout of 1979. The next title defense was against former stablemate Lupe Pintor in what was expected to be a routine title defense as Zarate aimed for his 10th defense. The pair met on June 3rd at Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas and what resulted was one of the most controversial title bouts of the decade. After a couple of feel out rounds Zarate deposited Pintor on the canvas in the fourth round and proceeded to seemingly outbox and outmaneuver his countryman over the next few rounds. Zarate boxed a little more cautiously than normal but appeared to be putting rounds in the bank. Pintor did come out strongly towards the end of the bout and closed the distance but according to the eyes of most spectators, journalists and the majority of the television audience Zarate had done enough to defend his titles. When the decision was announced as a split decision in favor of Pintor both fighters showed surprise in the ring. Pintor was beaten up, his lips puffy and owes swollen as his mouth gaped open when he was announced as the new champion. The Association Press had Zarate as a 147-138 winner and The Ring and International Boxing also had Zarate winning by 7 and 6 points respectively. Judge Bob Martin adjudged Zarate the winner by a whopping 12 points but he was overruled by Art Lurie and Harold Buck who both edged towards Pintor by the score of 143-142.

After the bout Zarate asked for WBC president Jose Suliaman to reverse the decision and while Suliaman admitted the decision was a bad one he told Zarate that he couldn’t change the decision but would ensure he got a re-match. In the meantime Zarate admitted that he spent a lot of time partying and not entirely focusing on boxing but that he felt invigorated by the response of the fans and the public who would constantly remind him that he’d been robbed and that he was still the real champion. That response and Suilaman’s backing pushed him back into the gym but the enthusiasm was soon curbed when Pintor got into a motorcycle accident which ruled him out for an immediate re-match. Zarate, disgusted with the politics of the sport and dismayed by the delay of a possible re-match faded off into retirement.

Comeback

Seven years passed by as Zarate stayed away from the gym and enjoyed the party scene but was brought out of retirement in 1986 to appear on a boxing card arranged to help raise funds for the Mexico City earthquake of 1985. Since the Pintor fight, Zarate had not even put on a pair of gloves or trained once but was asked to be part of a show at the Forum which included bouts for former fan favorites such as Ruben Olivares, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Rafael Herrera and others. The card was topped by the Azumah Nelson vs. Marcos Villasana world title bout. The great former champion had not anticipated making a comeback but felt in good shape and enjoyed the response from the public so he stayed active.

He ran up 12 consecutive victories as he notched 10 knockouts before earning a world title shot in Australia against the formidable WBC super bantamweight champion Jeff Fenech on October 16th, 1987. Zarate, by now was 36 years old and just a shell of the great champion he had once been. He struggled to keep up to pace with Fenech who was too strong and relentless during the first few rounds. The bout was stopped in the fourth round on an accidental head butt as Fenech had a deep cut. Zarate felt that it had been a punch that opened the cut and that Fenech was being protected on his home turf. “I know I was losing the fight but I felt I could slow him down and felt I was getting into the fight. It was a punch that opened the cut not a head butt (as they said)”, he said. Shortly after the bout Fenech would move up to win a world title at featherweight leaving the WBC super bantamweight open for Zarate to face Daniel Zaragoza. Zaragoza, like Zarate was a former bantamweight world champion and Mexico City native. This would prove to be Zarate’s final bout as he was stopped in the 10th round. The great ex-champion fought brave but lacked the sharpness and energy to defeat the younger man and ran out of gas before being stopped. He promptly retired with an impressive record of 66 wins with an astonishing 63 knockouts against just four defeats.

A legendary fighter

Whilst Zarate is one of the very first names that comes to mind when one starts talking Mexican boxing legends he himself is very modest when the topic is brought up. “I am not in a position as to say who the best is or who is better. I leave that up to other people. My record speaks for itself. I don’t like to discredit other boxers or leave anybody out. I feel that at my best I could beat anybody at bantamweight but other people are the ones who determine these things”, he said. For a bit of perspective Zarate has often ranked very highly on historical lists. In 1994, The Ring ranked him as the greatest bantamweight of all-time; in 1999 the Associated Press had him tied with his countryman Ruben Olivares as the number one whereas the International Boxing Research Organization placed him at number six. In Bert Sugar and Teddy Atlas’ “Book of Boxing lists” they both had him ranked number four in divisional history. Sugar had him ranked as his third greatest Mexican boxer of all-time with Atlas placing him a spot lower in fourth. As far as his historical pound for pound placements, in 1996, The Ring released its “50 greatest fighters of the last 50 years” and put Zarate in 10th position. In 2001 the same publication placed him at 76 of the greatest boxers of the previous 80 years whereas Bert Sugar placed him in 48th place in 2006.

In the years following Zarate’s final bout there were some highs and lows. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994 alongside Michael Spinks, Joey Maxim and Jack “Kid” Berg but sadly had problems with substance abuse and depression. After a decade long struggle the great champion managed to turn his life around and beat the illness and now lives a nice, peaceful life and is an example to many young boxers. He attributes those bad decisions and that lonely time in his life to hanging around with the wrong crowd but through his belief in God and the love and strength of his family he pulled himself up for arguably his greatest victory to date. To this day he runs a gym in the Ramos Millan neighborhood of Mexico City and released a well received autobiography in 2016. He is often seen at WBC events all over the world and is always happy to meet and greet his many fans with a smile on his face and discuss his fighting days.