Top 5 South American Fighters Of All Time

[Seamus]

Your picks.

1.Eder Jofre
2.Carlos Monzon
3.Pascual Perez
4.Antonio Cervantes
5.Niccolino Locche

[giacomino]

Can't argue with those picks, although if they are in order, I'd probably put Monzon ahead of Jofre (and maybe Perez)
Lots of fighters could make the next five, including:
Horacio Accavallo (almost unbeatable during the 1960s, retired a champion)
Santos Laciar (two-time fly, once jr. bantam champion)
Juan Martin Coggi (three time jr. ww champion)
Jorge Fernandez (114 wins, 81 KOs, fought and often beat the best of his era)
Julio Cesar Vasquez (twice jr. middleweight champion, 10 successful defenses)
Jorge Castro (130 wins, 90 KOs, middleweight champion whose come-from-behind KO of John David Jackson was a true Rocky moment)
Victor Galindez (twice lt. heavy champion, 10 defenses, beat many of the best lt. heavys of his era, almost always on the road)
Acelino Freitas (two division champion - jr. lightweight and lightweight)
Rodrigo Valdez (twice middleweight champion - once partial, would have dominated the division in the 1970s if not for Monzon)
Happy Lora (bantamweight champion who defended 7 times, beating, among others, future champions Wilfredo Vasquez and Alberto Davila (twice) and former fly champion Anotnio Avelar)
Arturo Godoy (fought and often beat the best of his era and gave Joe Louis trouble, losing a SD
)
Mauro Mina (tremendous record, beat many of the best light heavies of his day, including Bob Foster, but never got a title shot)
Alfredo Evangelista (fought the best heavies of the 1970s and 80s, twice lost title shots, twice won Euro heavyweight title)
Dogomar Martinez (tremendous record, 49-3, retired as South American light heavy title without getting a world title shot)

[Seamus]

Giacomino, you may be only the second guy ever on this forum, who thinks Juan Coggi was an excellent fighter. The Eder Gonzalez fight may be an embarassment. but he deserves to be remembered for his many impressive wins.

[giacomino]

You're right about the first Gonzalez fight (he knocked him out cleanly in the second), but people forget about what Coggi did before that. He went to Italy to knock out a 48-0 Patrizio Oliva to win the title the first time, knocked out a 47-1 Sang Ho Lee in his first defense, won a UD over a still-prime Harold Brazier in Italy and won a wide decision in France over former lightweight champion Jose Luis Ramirez before losing the title on a razor-thin split decision to Loreto Garza in France. After he re-won the title, I was disappointed by his opposition (including Gonzalez). He lost two out of three to Frankie Randall when Randall was hot shit, knocking Randall down in the second fight. He was going on 35 by the time he lost the title to Randall, and he was 37 by the time he lost a WBU welterweight title fight to Michele Piccirillo in Italy in his last fight. His final record of 75-5 is pretty darn good, especially considering the fact that, like many Argentine greats, he fought most of his most important fights on the road.

[Martin Sosa Cameron]

1 Eder Jofre
2 Pascual Perez
3 Nicolino Locche
4 Carlos Monzon
5 Antonio Cervantes