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Xander Zayas vs Jorge Garcia: Five classic Puerto Rico vs Mexico fights revisited
Puerto Rico and Mexico are both proud fighting nations and have produced a myriad of champions throughout the history of boxing.
Along the way, a rivalry was born between the two nations - Puerto Rico vs Mexico is one of the longest-running rivalries in boxing and has produced some of the greatest matchups the sport has ever seen.
In the latest instalment in this historic and violent rivalry, Xander Zayas, the young Puerto Rican, will take on Jorge Garcia for the WBO super welterweight title tonight.
In honour of this, we take a look back at five of the best fights between Puerto Rican and Mexican fighters .
Miguel Cotto vs Antonio Margarito (2008)
Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto faced off for Cotto’s WBA welterweight title 17 years ago.
When the first bell rang, the fight began as everyone had expected, with Cotto using his much superior boxing ability to avoid the sluggish forward march of Margarito, who always started slowly.
Cotto was moving well and landing a good variation of punches, but Margarito was forcing him to work very hard to stay out of trouble, which would come back to haunt him in the later rounds.
Headed into the championship rounds, the pair had been viciously exchanging leather, and the Las Vegas crowd was on the edge of their seats. Cotto had a slim lead but seemed to be in survival mode.
Then in the penultimate round, whilst Margarito was turning the screw on an exhausted Cotto, he landed two short uppercuts, one with the left and one with the right, to force Cotto to take a knee.
Cotto had nothing left and took another knee shortly after, and his corner threw the towel in to bring an end to a modern-day classic.
(Getty Images)
Salvador Sanchez vs Wilfredo Gomez (1981)
Two young champions had a showdown that more than lived up to the billing of “The Battle of the Little Giants”
Sanchez was the underdog heading into the fight, despite Gomez being the man moving up in weight. But the Mexican did not take long to prove his quality – dropping Gomez with a left hook in the first round.
The fight was full of back and forth, with Gomez landing heavy combinations of his own when he had Sanchez backed into the corner.
But the WBC featherweight champion proved to be the more well-rounded boxer, getting the better of almost all of the exchanges.
Gomez’s face began swelling severely on both eyes. Heading into the eighth round, Gomez was narrowly behind on the scorecards, but the swelling on his eyes would not allow him to finish the fight, so he went for broke and hunted down Sanchez.
To pair traded hellacious volleys of hooks and uppercuts until Sanchez landed the decisive combination – sending Gomez reeling through the ropes and ending the fight.
Sanchez will be remembered as a great champion and one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ in boxing history, as he passed away the 1982 at 23 years old.
Julio Cesar Chavez vs Edwin Rosario (1987)
Julio Cesar Chavez proved he was the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world against a durable and skilful champion in Edwin Rosario.
There was plenty of vitriol in the build-up, and it almost boiled over at the final press conference when Rosario promised to send Chavez back to Mexico in a coffin.
Chavez would remember this insult come fight night. Despite moving up in weight, Chavez immediately imposed himself physically upon Rosario and had him backed up to the ropes – unloading heavy body shots that had a visible effect on the Puerto Rican.
The WBA champion fought as such and replied to as much as he could but was having nowhere near the effect on his opponent as he was having on him.
The exchanges were up close and personal, and Chavez was only growing into the fight, inflicting more damage on Rosario than most men could withstand.
At the end of the tenth round, Roasario’s left eye was swollen shut, and his mouth was bloodied. Things got no better in the eleventh round as Rosario was completely broken down to head and body by Chavez.
The referee was forced to step in with less than a minute left in the round.
Wilfredo Gomez vs Oscar Zarate (1978)
A clash of two of the most devastating punchers of their era for Gomez’s WBC super bantamweight title occurred in 1978.
Heading into the fight, their combined record was 73-0-1 (72) - fearsome reading.
Both men were heavily weight drained, which meant it was a slow start to the fight, but the atmosphere inside the overfilled Coliseo Roberto Clemente was at a boiling point.
It was not until the fourth round that the fight burst into life. Gomez landed a clubbing counter left-hook to the temple of Zarate, which dropped him immediately.
Gomez smelt blood in the water and went after Zarate, bludgeoning him with crashing blows until the end of the round and even knocked Zarate down after the bell had gone for the end of the fourth round. The crowd was so loud inside the venue, the referee did not hear the bell.
Unfortunately for Zarate, the minute in between rounds was not enough time, and Gomez dropped him shortly after the start of the fifth round, and the Mexican’s corner threw in the towel, bringing an end to a feverish contest in San Juan.
Oscar De La Hoya vs Felix Trinidad (1999)
Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad came together for a welterweight unification bout for WBC strap of ‘Golden Boy’ and Trinidad’s IBF title, billed “The Fight of the Millennium”.
Whilst that may not have ended up being true, it was another bloody instalment of the Puerto Rico vs Mexico story.
De La Hoya came out fast and landed cleaner, more eye-catching work throughout the early rounds and did well to make an enthusiastic Trinidad miss.
Although it may not have been one of the all-out wars fans had become used to seeing when Puerto Rico and Mexico share the ring, it was a brilliant demonstration of pugilistic excellence from two master technicians in their prime.
In the eyes of most in attendance, De La Hoya had asserted a solid lead for himself, and Trinidad would need a knockout to win.
But when De La Hoya seemed to turn on cruise control, Trinidad took his opportunity and dominated the closing stanzas, closing De La Hoya Down and applying pressure.
This would cost him the fight as Trinidad claimed a controversial majority decision to swipe the Mexican WBC title.
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