When the bell rang on that April evening, the crowd was rabid with anticipation. They could not see the fight going the distance and were afraid to blink and miss the turning point in this battle of knockout virtuosos. Just a minute or so into the first round, however, the fight took its first strange turn as a man seemingly in his underwear leapt into the ring and seemed to want to convince the boxers not to fight.
Fortunately this cretin was soon ejected roughly through the ropes and the bout resumed. Zarate pushed forward, in the lowest stance we had ever seen from him, as he looked to get in on Zamora’s liver. Each time Zarate tapped in a punch, he would be clouted by Zamora’s glove or forearm.
As Zarate started to get the timing down on Zamora’s hooks, he was bobbing and landing some blows to the body. Zarate backed Zamora on the ropes and pressed in close to dig with shots to the midriff, but Zamora clipped Zarate with a forearm over the back of the head which sent Zarate stumbling onto the ropes. Zarate looked in a daze as the round came to an end and he walked back to his corner.
In the second round Zarate got right back to the inside. This time he found the mark with a couple of short, pool cue right straight which wobbled Zamora. As Zamora looked to be in trouble for the first time in the fight he swung a couple of hooks which turned Zarate’s head around.
As the third round started there was an explosion in the crowd. A fan had set off a firework and set the crowd to panic, but the boxers never broke their gaze on each other. Now Zarate was starting to show his understanding of Zamora’s timing. He knew that the two hooks or the uppercut were coming back each time and each time he dipped down to the side after he punched in hopes of making Zamora miss.
Near the end of the third, Zarate was able to land a left hook as Zamora was hooking – a very dangerous time to get hit. This sent Zamora reeling on to the ropes and Zarate rushed in to land his uppercuts. Finally, another short right straight put Zamora down for the first knockdown of the fight.
The bell rang to end the round and Zamora received a brief respite from the punishment. As the bell sounded for round four, Zarate was already on top of Zamora. He didn’t care for avoiding the punches any more, he just wanted to put Zamora away. He quickly knocked Zamora down and as Zamora returned to the fight, Zarate was able to land another one of those right straights, followed by a left hook and put Zamora down a third time.
Before Zamora could begin to rise the towel had come in and landed across his face, as one would cover the face of a cadaver before he was taken to the morgue.
The bout was over but the fight was not. Alfonso Zamora senior, Zamora’s manager, immediately leapt up to the ring apron and ran to take a swing at Zarate’s manager. Security intervened and after some time had passed, the referee was able to get the boxers to the centre of the ring and provide the official result.
Alfonso Zamora, following his first taste of defeat, fought just eight more times. Going 4-4 in those, he retired in 1980. He still had the power, but something of the man was gone – his confidence had been shaken and he just didn’t throw those wound up headache makers with the reckless abandon that he used to.
Carlos Zarate fought on until 1988 and went up in weight to super bantamweight – though he was never able to take that title. Zarate and Zamora both secured high ranks in The Ring magazine’s 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time – Zamora coming in at 47, and Zarate at 21. Zarate was elected by the associated press as the greatest bantamweight in boxing history, and in 1977 he was nominated The Ring magazine’s Fighter of the Year – and not for lack of competition, he was preceded by a surging George Foreman in 1976, and succeeded by a returning Muhammad Ali in 1978. Vice Fightland online article Jack Slack
46) Alfonso Zamora TKO4: US Fight Commentary TV -
v Alfonso Zamora 23 April 1977 California: [r1] … A showdown: two world champions … A left hook seemed to rock Zarate … A good right hand by Zamora … Zamora a little rocky … [r2] … Zarate landing again … height and reach advantage … a left to the chin … Zamora battles back … scoring again … [r3] … A double [left hook] by Zarate to the chin … Rocked into the ropes, Zamora hurt again … left hook … A short right [Zamora knocked down] … [r4] … Knockdown number two … What an accurate puncher Zarate is … and he [Zamora] is down again … The fight is over. US fight commentary
[8.7] MANUEL ORTIZ 130-99(53)-28-3 [Lightweight & Featherweight & Bantamweight]: Cyber Boxing Zone online - The New York Times online -
Ortiz was a great fighter. He could box or punch and was clever, quick and game. Manuel won the Bantamweight championship of the world on two occasions and engaged in 23 world title bouts during his career.
He defeated such men as Harold Dade, Lou Salica, Lauro Salas, Carlos Chavez, Benny Goldberg, Tony Olivera, Enrique Bolanos, Luis Castillo, Larry Bolvin, Jackie Jurich, Salvador ‘Dado’ Marino, Jackie Paterson, Theo Medina, Buddy Jacklich, Little Pancho, David Kui Kong Young, Joey Dolan and Jackie McCoy.
Herb Goldman ranked Ortiz as the #5 all-time bantamweight. Manuel was inducted into The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1975 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996. Cyber Boxing Zone online
San Diego, June 1 (AP) – Manuel Ortiz, former world bantamweight boxing champion, died yesterday of cirrhosis of the liver at San Diego Naval Hospital. He was 53 years old.
Ortiz won 92 bouts, 45 by knockout, lost 27 and fought three draws in his 18‐year ring career, which ended December 10 1955.
He captured the 118‐pound crown by outpointing Lou Salica in a 12‐round contest on August 7 1942.
He defended his title eight times in 1943, four times in 1944 and, after his discharge from the Army, three times in 1946.
He lost the crown to Harold Dade in a 15‐round bout on January 6 1947 but regained it March 11 with a 15‐round decision. He lost it for good on May 31, 1950, to Vic Toweel in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Willie Pep, former featherweight champion, called Ortiz ‘a real two‐fisted puncher.’
They fought a non-title bout July 17 1944 with Pep winning by a decision. ‘He put on a few pounds so we were both at 127. I couldn’t have taken his title, but he could have declared himself the featherweight champion too.’ The New York Times online article 2 June 1970, ‘Manuel Ortiz Dead; Ex-Boxing Champion’
[8.7] KID WILLIAMS 210-156(57)-26-16-8: Boxing Monthly online -
‘Williams, a sawed-off Hercules, was a ferocious little fighter – a hard hitter and a terrific slugger’.
So wrote Ed Hughes in 1928 for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The reverent tone sounds like an account of a fighter from the early days of gloved boxing, a call-back to a long-lost champion. They wrote about John L Sullivan the same way.
But when these words were penned, Kid Williams was still slugging. Despite not really holding the bantam title in over a decade, the Dane born John Gutenko was proving himself a rare breed; a little man with longevity. Fifteen of his 19 official losses might have come in the roaring 20s but he still won more than he lost, and was still clawing off scalps worthy of an all-time great.
But it’s the prime years we are really interested in, and from 1912 to 1915 Kid Williams went unbeaten within the bantamweight limit. When he finally saw a tick in the loss column it was a close six-round decision against a man he had already beaten and would beat again.
He won 44 out of 46 in this timespan, a couple of tight newspaper draws the only hiccups and of no concern to us when evaluating his quality. He stopped 18 of these men, and battered everyone who dared last the distance with him. He earns the nickname ‘Wolf Boy’ such is his savagery. Boxing Monthly online article Kyle McLachlan 10th December 2018
[8.6] PETE KID HARMAN 142-100-21-29-13: The Sweet Science online -
Pete ‘Kid’ Herman was The Don of the second deepest bantamweight division in history, the boss of the best division in boxing in that era, atop a pile of fighters so deep and wide that even Ruben Olivares or Eder Jofre would have had their hands full.
Even Herman, who ruled in two spells, first between 1917 and 1920 and then briefly once more in 1921, couldn’t sit atop such a pile unmolested, and he seems to have come off worse in a trilogy with Frankie Burns, for example. But his superb body punching and a skill at infighting which may have been unparalleled at the poundage, worked concurrently to help him negotiate one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the sport’s history with great success. Kid Williams came off worse. So did the great champion Johnny Coulon as did Herman’s polar opposite in style, Joe Lynch, who was edged out in the course of an epic five-fight series.
Herman’s beginning in boxing was inauspicious, as he struggle desperately to overcome local New Orleans rival Johnny Fisse; it took him three years and seven attempts to get it right. After learning a last lesson from the deadly lightweight Lew Tendler in 1916, Herman was ready for the title, prizing it from the grasp of no less a figure than Kid Williams and holding it until Joe Lynch separated him from it in 1920. Herman was well beaten in that fight, seemingly nervous and struggling for the majority of the rounds to find a way in, so his victory in their 1921 rematch is perhaps my favorite Herman performance. Lynch won one round according to the Morning Oregonian, a great bantamweight totally and utterly outclassed by one of genius.
There is competition for the slot of best Pete Herman performance, however. The seventeenth round knockout of the immortal Jimmy Wilde? His almost unbelievable three round dispatch of the wonderful Johnny Coulon? His title winning victory Kid Williams?
Few careers can boast such treasure. The Sweet Science online article