BoxRec

I don't know too much about him and have only seen a couple of his fights, so to those who know a bit more about him, how good was he? What was his best performance? Where does he rank all time amongst bantamweights?

I was Lora's matchmaker in the United States when promoter Tuto Zabala took him to the title.

He was a very good boxer, extremely elusive in slipping and weaving, not a great puncher but had good aim in placing his shots. I found him likeable and soft spoken.

Comparing him to all time greats is difficult. I don't think he would have beaten Eder Joffre, Johnny Coulon, Manuel Ortiz or Fighting Harada. I don't see him as a top ten all time great bantam but I believe that he was a solid champion and the best there was at the time he fought.

Thanks for that enrique, I must say from what little I have seen from him he looks very tidy with his ability.

enrique wrote:I was Lora's matchmaker in the United States when promoter Tuto Zabala took him to the title.

He was a very good boxer, extremely elusive in slipping and weaving, not a great puncher but had good aim in placing his shots. I found him likeable and soft spoken.

Comparing him to all time greats is difficult. I don't think he would have beaten Eder Joffre, Johnny Coulon, Manuel Ortiz or Fighting Harada. I don't see him as a top ten all time great bantam but I believe that he was a solid champion and the best there was at the time he fought.

I agree with you 100% Enrique. He was a formidable champion. A complete fighter in my view. Do you think that Happy Lora is HOF material? He has a couple of great wins in his resume.

banjo wrote:I don't know too much about him and have only seen a couple of his fights, so to those who know a bit more about him, how good was he? What was his best performance? Where does he rank all time amongst bantamweights?

Well, he was very, very good. Close of being an all-time great. I don't know if he ranks with the top 20 greatest bantamweights of all-time, because that weight class is one of the most prolific when it comes to great champions. The bantamweight division to me, is as much as competitive like the middleweight division greats, in which ANY of the top 5, could be the greatest bantam ever ( Eder Jofre, Panama Al Brown, Carlos Zarate, Manuel Ortiz and Ruben Olivares, etc.)...It's a very deep talented bunch of bantam greats.

His best performance was in Miami, FL when he beat future Hall of Famer Wilfredo Vazquez of Puerto Rico. It was a great slugfest with high level skill. I would never forget that fight. I know Enrique was there, for sure. Do you remember that fight Enrique? I know you saw it live.

Thanks for the reply elmersalsa.

Just from watching a few fights of his and a few clips on youtube he looked like a nightmare to go up against.

Lora deserves the Hall of Fame. He was a solid champion who fought the best of his time and ended his career with a solid record. Won 37 out of 40.

The Lora-Vazquez fight was a nightmare. After the weigh in all we had was a title fight. The undercard unraveled at the weigh in. One scheduled fighter was in jail, another came in 8 pounds overweight, another had high blood pressure. In six hours Tuto Zabala and I came up with four undercard fights that saved the show. We even took equipment and stood by the door as the crowd was filing in, asking fighters if they would like to be on the card. If a fighter said he had no trunks or cup, we had extra ones on hand.

Vazquez fought in our cards many times. The best of his brawls was a tough slambang affair with Antonio Avelar in which both were on the canvas and groggy in the same round. Avelar won. Incidentally, this fight had to be postponed twice because Avelar kept getting caught crossing the US-Mexican border. He finally made it, won the fight and returned to Mexico in a commercial flight.