George Crowcroft’s Top 10 Puerto Rican P4P Pugilists Ever

Puerto Rico is a proud county that plenty of great fighters call home. There were guys who could’ve made this list but didn’t, that’s no insult; it’s a testimony to Puerto Rico’s legacy. So… without further ado, onto the list!

10. Edwin Rosario 47(41)-6

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A lightweight terror! The guy was a crazy accurate hard punching banger who gave a prime Camacho his hardest fight, despite losing.

A warrior with wins over Frankie Randall, Jose Luis Ramirez, Livingstone Bramble on top of being a three-time champion across two weights.

He was a very good lightweight but clearly hit his ceiling when he got his clock-cleaned by a prime Julio Cesar Chávez. The re-match defeat to Ramirez is an absolute classic and I advise everyone to watch. In spite of those losses he proved enough to show he could beat good to borderline great lightweights. For example, he was good enough in my opinion to beat guys on a level with Ray Mancini, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Jose Luis Castillo.

His bob and weave aggression, a great straight right and a devastating left hook, along with a serviceable chin and good stamina made him a menace to deal with at 135, but he could be beaten rather handedly by the best to compete at 135, as Chávez showed. To be frank, it’s probable that his head to head capability outranks his actual greatness, by a large degree, but I’m including both assets for my assessment, so he makes the list either way.

His placement is questionable due to his lack of an elite résumé, but he was a beast at 135 and I don’t think it’d be right to leave him off the list.

Hector Camacho 79(38)-6-3
Maybe the Macho Man shouldn’t have made it in, or should I say he should’ve made it in, but didn’t achieve enough despite his awesome talent.

Camacho was a rapid fire slick southpaw with otherworldly reflexes. His performances against Rafael Limon, Rafael Solis and Jose Luis Ramirez showed he had the talent and tenancy to achieved true greatness, but his career seemed to stray awry after his fight with Edwin Rosario, that left hook seemed to take something from him for good. The fact he won that fight is an indication of why he could’ve been an all-time great in my eyes.

Now please understand, this isn’t me putting Hector here based on potential alone. His wins over Limon, Ramirez and Rosario aren’t to be scoffed at. He also has a collection of wins over Roberto Durán, Ray Leonard and Ray Mancini, although all of these can be pretty much discarded given the state of their careers at the time. He was also a three-weight world champion with numerous title defenses, although he failed to capture the welterweight title upon both times of challenging for it.

I’m not ranking these guys by entertainment, popularity or things of that nature, but if I was, you’d see Hector top 3. The guy was a born showman to rival the best of them.

Camacho’s head to head capabilities were good enough to dominate borderline great fighters like Ramirez and Limon and beat Edwin Rosario. He had all the physical talent (speed, skills, reflexes etc;), the intangibles (heart, chin, fighting spirit etc;) and was a fighter through and through as far as mindset went but there always seemed to be something missing. It was almost as if he was fighting out of spite or stubbornness.

His placement could be argued, in theory, from any place between Cocoa Kid, and being missed out from the list entirely. I’ve got him here based on the factors above and a personal bias, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Macho Man, although I feel he falls short of the guys in front, even if he’d beat the ones his size.

RIP Hector, a true entertainer and a “should’ve been ATG” if there ever was one.

8. Miguel Cotto 41(33)-6

Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

Junito was a warrior and I couldn’t care less what Antonio Margarito fans have to say about it. His run at 140 is very much underrated in my opinion, and he beat some decent fighters throughout this period. Of course he has the distinction of being the only Puerto Rican four-weight champion.

Head to head he’s an underrated fighter, but at the peak of his powers he’d beat a lot of very good fighters at 140 & 147, the best of which would be Curtis Cokes, Gaspar Ortega & Frankie Randall in my view. Cotto also has a decent résumé with wins over Margarito, Shane Mosley and Sergio Martinez, although all three were past their best. His wins over Randall Bailey, (Sergio) Martinez, Zab Judah, Ricardo Torres, Ricardo Mayorga and Joshua Clottey make for a good résumé with a certain level of depth but not one that tops a win over Durán or what the top six bring.

Cotto is Manny Pacquiao’s most impressive scalp in my mind, based on the size difference and overall class of Cotto but Cotto is a guy who’s quite polarizing figure, however it’s undeniable that he’s a great Puerto Rican for sure. I can see him being placed anywhere between 7 and 10. The reason I don’t have him higher up like you’d expect is because he doesn’t have the résumé to compare to the top six, and I’ve leaned towards Esteban DeJesus for head to head at their respective best, those two are neck and neck though.

7. Esteban DeJesus 57(32)-5
Another awesome Puerto Rican 135 pounder. And let’s be honest, it doesn’t get much better than beating Roberto Durán himself. He engaged in some of the most vicious high level rounds the 135 pound division ever saw with the Hands of Stone. His win over Durán is easily the best win any man here possesses in my view.

His résumé doesn’t get much deeper than that however; he beat Ray Lampkin twice and Guts Ishimatsu as his other strongest wins.

His wicked left hook, physicality, educated pressure and huge heart along with a decent chin and right made him a hard man to deal with, and I know I keep hammering this point home but we are talking about a guy who beat a prime Roberto Durán here.

As for head to head matches, he’s a beast. He’d have beaten Rosario in my opinion, along with guys like Shane Mosley, Rocky Kansas, Battling Nelson, Vasyl Lomachenko and other assorted guys on that level. So similarly to Rosario, his ceiling is higher than he achieved and had he got in more fights around the time he would have achieved a lot more than he did, in my opinion.

Now this is a case where I’m rather heavily favoring head to head over résumé, but considering he’s awesome head to head and also has the best win on the list, I’ve allowed myself. DeJesus is a fighter who tends to be underrated due to his losses to Durán but losing to arguably the best fighter ever on his best night is not an embarrassment. He was ultra competitive in the second fight and obviously won the first. I could see DeJesus being placed anywhere between here and #10.

6. Cocoa Kid 178(48)-58-11

Cocoa Kid, also known as Herbert Lewis Hardwick was a member of the legendary Murderer’s Row, he’s primarily known for his lack of title shots, but to a more vigilant eye, they’d see he fought a split decision with Izzy Jannazzo for the welterweight title.

He also was involved in a ridiculous 13 fight series with Holman Williams in which he’d pick up eight wins over a fighter who’d make my top 10 middleweights of all-time. Not bad for a welterweight, eh? Especially considering he only lost three of the 13 fights, and two were draws, and their prime’s overlapped meaning both were pretty much around the same career stages for each fight. However, it would be fairly disingenuous to play off as though Herbert dominated the series, it should be noted that almost everyone if the fights were labeled as very close, or were split decisions.

Herbert also picked up wins against Chalky Wright and a win over former featherweight champion Kid Kaplan. His massively underrated career saw him fight between 135(ish) to 160. He wasn’t the most consistent of fighters, but whilst fighting a schedule that hectic and against such high quality opposition, I think that’s flaw that can be somewhat excused.

He was a victim of his own era, as the actively defending welterweight champion of his time refused to defend against him (and that welterweight would be Henry Armstrong…) so took on the other Murderers Row members, and whilst losing the majority of these fights, there’s no shame in that in my mind. Especially given that he’s taking on one of the best collection of fighters in history whilst past your best and considerably undersized.

5. Jose Basora 78(44)-20-6

A much underappreciated fighter who has a largely underrated résumé. He won fights against Fritzie Zivic, Jake LaMotta, Holman Williams and duked out a draw against a prime Sugar Ray Robinson. If that doesn’t tell you about him, I don’t know what will. He was quite a consistent operator, basically only losing to guys who were better than him with a few exceptions here and there. He wasn’t on a level with the top middleweights at the time however, losing via devastating Kos to Charles and Robinson, in a rematch, but given both of these are pound for pound all-time top five staples, there’s no shame in that at all.

He was too big for welterweight but quite a small middleweight, consistently weighing in around 154, that was probably the division for José. Sadly, there is little known about his life, fighting style etc; due to the footage not existing and probably because he wasn’t American nor did he become a world champion. Despite this sad reality, the wins speak for themselves and he was not bothered facing the Murderers Row and guys like Robinson, Zivic, Charles and LaMotta.

I can see him being swapped with Cocoa, but not really much else, the guy’s résumé is awesome.

4. Felix Trinidad 42(35)-3

Tito is a fan favorite, no dispute about that. His style is awesome and any boxing fan should’ve seen the Fernando Vargas fight.

Tito is a monster head to head at 147 and 154; he’s also probably top 10 all-time at 154 and top 25 at 147. His power was bone crushing at welterweight and would be used to demolish the guys around today. His chin was granite and his will was iron. He broke people down slowly and taking them out, but considering the might in his hands, he could bang them out early as well.

He’s a very dominant three-weight champ, with 15 titles defenses at 147, then moved up and beat two defending champion at 154 & won a third divisional title at 160. His résumé is nothing to scoff at either. That résumé includes: Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, Oscar Del a Hoya, William Joppy, Oba Carr, Ramon Campas & Ricardo Mayorga. The only flaw in his game is he wasn’t a longevity guy. Once he lost to Hopkins, he was done.

Tito’s a lock for 4th place in my opinion, his résumé and head to head rank is clearly better than everyone below, but clearly not as good as the top 3. So number four he is! Camacho is my personal favorite on the list, but Tito is definitely my next favorite.

3. Wilfredo Gomez 44(42)-3-1
17 world title defenses. 17 stoppages. Who? Bazooka Gomez. That’s who. The man who owns Super-Bantamweight. It’s his, and it’s not up for debate.
An insanely good fighter, who not only ruled his division with an iron fist in the real world, but in the halls of fantasy and imagination, the general consensus is that nobody under 122lbs beats him. His style was so fluid, a punch perfect stalker with excellent torque, range and balance, or a slick stylist who took apart people with counters, jabs and flawless footwork, whilst all of that is incredible anyway, it’s the slick way he switched between both that is the most impressive in my opinion.
A three-weight world champion from super-bantamweight up to super featherweight, as well as 17 title defenses, all by KO. Incredible stuff. His résumé includes Carlos Zarate, Lupe Pintor, Rocky Lockridge, Juan Laporte & Dong Kyun Yum.
Now why isn’t he the best if he was that good? One word. Résumé. In comparison to the other guys, it’s quite possibly the shallowest on the list down to DeJesus. So despite the achievements on paper, he doesn’t have the names on that ledger to move up.

2. Wilfred Benitez, 53(31)-8-1

What can I say about El Radar? Three-weight champ, champion at the age of 17. Yes, that’s right. 17… That is unbelievable and a record I’d say is never likely to be broken. His wins over Carlos Palomino, Roberto Durán & Antonio Cervantes are excellent. He wasn’t the most dominant, squeezing by his decisions against both Kid Pambele and Palomino, but he did win both. He also didn’t have crazy longevity, but he wasn’t exactly a slow burner. He just started really, really young, and is probably one of the most talented fighters of all time.

At 140 he’s one of the greatest fighters to lace them up and would beat most guys there. The problem with him at junior-welterweight is that he was pretty inexperienced and fighters with a higher ring IQ could possibly take advantage of that. At 147, Benitez is awesome, and aside from all-time greats I wouldn’t favor many over him. He’d beat guys like Tito, Curtis Cokes and Pipino Cuevas in my mind. At 154, he was still physically peak and had a lexicon of boxing knowledge that is almost unrivaled at that weight. Aside from Thomas Hearns and the obvious candidates like Mike McCallum, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard etc; I can’t see many guys beating him, he’s in all-time great company.

His defense was excellent, and given his brilliant résumé, unbelievable head to head ceiling and virtually unbreakable record, I think he’s an excellent choice for the second greatest Puerto Rican fighter of all-time.

And now before we get onto the Greatest Puerto Rican of all time… I want to list a few guys who didn’t make the list but I thought could and should get recognition. Alfredo Escalera, Sixto Escobar & Wilfredo Vazquez

1. Carlos Ortiz 61(30)-7-1

Ah, here it is. The Número Uno. The Puerto Rican GOAT. Carlos Ortiz is a lightweight legend and would make number six on my list in what is, in my opinion, unquestionably the most stacked division in history. He was also a two weight champion, being undisputed at both lightweight and junior-welterweight, whilst only having two defenses at 140, he had an abundance at lightweight which is where he made his name.

With 10 total defenses, winning the title two times and taking on all contenders at the time, you can see the type of champion he was. Given he has seven losses in 69 fights, and two of which were past his prime and the rest were all avenged, you can see the type of dominance he brought to the ring. His résumé includes the likes of: Joe Brown, Duilio Loi, Kenny Layne, Battling Torres, Ismael Laguna, Flash Elorde, Sugar Ramos & Johnny Bizzarro, and he also beat most of these guys multiple times. He wasn’t one to take easy fights…

His skill set is awesome; I can’t see him losing to many guys at 135. Benny Leonard, Roberto Durán, Henry Armstrong and Pernell Whitaker are the only fighters I’d make locks over him, and even then he has a real good chance against Durán, Whitaker and Leonard. He’d pick up wins against all of them in a series.

Straight up, I can’t see anyone else at #1. Ortiz is just as skilled, if not more so, as anyone on this list and has by far a better resume than anyone. I can’t see any sort of wriggle room either given the reasons I mentioned and my head to head opinions of him.