Juan Manuel Márquez made a somewhat shocking omission on his list of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time.
The head of the International Boxing Hall of Fame was asked to name his top five Mexican boxers, and he omitted one in particular.
Márquez, who has eliminated the boxer before, removed Saul Álvarez from the list, which he admits has been difficult to reassemble.
He is a world champion in four professional weight divisions and has had a paid ring career spanning more than two decades, having competed from 1993 to 2014.
But ‘Dinamita’, 48, who retired with a 56-7-1 (40 KOs) record, refuses to place some respect on ‘Canelo’ name.
In an interview with ProBox TV Español podcast on YouTube, he said:
“The history of Mexican boxing is very rich. It is very difficult to set the year”.
“I’ll say it: there are a lot of boxers who won world championships like I did and some did.”
Márquez went on to list some of the great Mexican players:
“Rubén Olivares, Carlos Zárate, Lupe Pintor, Salvador Sánchez, to name a few.”
“Because the history of boxing in Mexico is very rich: (Marco Antonio) Barrera, (Erik ‘Terrible’) Morales, Chávez. I put myself last”.
He went on to call Julio César Chávez ‘the best’, while Ricardo “Finito” López was mentioned alongside Humberto ‘La Chiquita’ González.
Considering what Canelo has accomplished in his career, it’s hard to remove him from the list entirely.
Álvarez is the current keeper of every belt in the super-middleweight division and has won world titles in the superweapon, middleweight, and light-heavyweight divisions.
But the fact that Álvarez has accomplished as much as he has in the sport has not been enough for Márquez to name him among the greats.
The 32-year-old will put the WBA Super, WBC, IBF, WBO and Ring Magazine belts in jeopardy against current WBA Super and IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
