By Gerardo Granados: Back in February 29 of 1988, at the Great Western Forum, Inglewood, California, USA. The former WBC bantamweight Champion Carlos “Cañas” Zarate fought against former WBC bantamweight titlist southpaw Daniel “Raton” Zaragoza for the vacant WBC super-bantam title. For both fighters it was their chance to win a second world title in a second weight division, but their stories were diametrically different in this one. The fight was billed as the battle of the “Zetas”.
In one corner veteran Carlos Zarate was trying to regain past glory. Back in June 1979 he lost to hall of fame member Lupe Pintor by split decision, which made more than just one fight fan to not to be satisfied with the judge’s decision.
After losing to Pintor, Zarate retired for seven years since 1979 to 1986. Cañas made the comeback into the ring and got himself back into contention. Carlos received a chance to fight for the WBC super-bantamweight title at Sidney, Australia. But Zarate lost by technical decision on the fourth round to hall of fame member Jeff Fenech. The ending was odd to say the least, because the referee stopped the bout on clean cuts on Fenech. So, I believe the referee should have awarded a technical knockout win to Zarate instead of go to the score cards that were quite wide favoring Fenech.
On his next fight Carlos faced an experienced Daniel Zaragoza who was trained by Ignacio Beristain. Two years earlier Zaragoza had lost his WBC bantam title against Miguel “Happy” Lora on his first defense attempt and this was his chance to regain a world title. I am not certain but I think Zaragoza became the first World Champion trained by Beristain.
The fight between Zarate and Zaragoza was good and competitive in the first rounds, but as the fight grew older, it was evident that the 37 years old lion was no longer in his prime. Zaragoza controlled the distance and tempo of the fight landing many clean combinations on Zarate, who never stopped trying, being able to land hard punches now and then but he was not able to cut off Zaragoza who showed better speed and mobility.
On the 10 round Zaragoza hurt Zarate forcing the referee to stop the action, finishing not only the fight but also the brilliant boxing career of Carlos Zarate. Which oddly enough, it seems the history practically repeated itself 9 years later, when a 39 years old Daniel Zaragoza lost by the way of knockout in the 10 round to a 21 years old hungry young lion named Erik Morales.
Carlos Cañas Zarate is a former WBC bantamweight champion, he ended his boxing career with a total fight record of 66 wins, 63 by the way of knockout, 4 loses and no draws. Also a title fight record of 10 wins all by the way of knockout, 4 loses (two dubious in my eyes) and no draws.
Zarate´s notable wins came against WBC bantam Rodolfo Martinez; WBA bantam Alfonzo Zamora and WBC bantam Alberto Davila. Lost to WBC super-bantam – feather and WBA super feather Wilfredo Gomez; WBC bantam – super bantam Lupe Pintor; IBF bantam and WBC super-bantam – feather Jeff Fenech and to WBC bantam and three times super bantam champion Daniel Zaragoza.
Daniel Zaragoza is a former WBC bantamweight and three times WBC super-bantamweight Champion. He ended his boxing career with a fight record of 55 wins, 28 by the way of knockout, 8 loses and 3 draws. Also a title fight record of 15 wins, 5 by the way of knockout, 6 loses and 3 draws.
Zaragoza´s notable wins came against WBC bantam Carlos Zarate; WBO super bantam Valerio Nati; WBC super-bantam Paul Banke (twice); WBA bantam Chan-Yong Park, WBC super-bantam Kiyoshi Hatanaka; IBF super bantam Jose Sanabria; WBC super-bantam Hector Acero-Sanche;, two time WBC bantam Joichiro Tatsuyoshi (twice) and WBC bantam Wayne McCullough. Lost to WBC bantam Miguel Lora; IBF bantam – WBC super-bantam and feather Jeff Fenech; Paul Banke; WBC super-bantam Thierry Jacob; WBC super-bantam – IBF super feather Tracy Harris Patterson; WBC-WBO super bantam, two time WBC feather, WBC-IBF super feather and WBC light welter Erik Morales. Draw against IBF super bantam Seung-Hoon Lee; Tracy Harris Patterson and Hector Acero-Sanchez.
I doubt that any of them, be it Carlos Zarate or Daniel Zaragoza would have avoided the current real super bantamweight Champion Guillermo Rigondeaux. I hope that the winner between super bantam belt holders Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton do accept the challenge and fight against Chacal Rigondeaux next. Because, the Zarate versus Zaragoza is the type of lineage of championship fights that we the fight fans deserve to watch, and not just manufactured belt holders choosing only tailor made opponents to look good.
If the reader is interested then you could search for Zarate´s fight against Lupe Pintor and Jeff Fenech; I don’t think you would be disappointed and also could give your opinion who really won those fights.
I almost forgot about this fight between Cañas (canes) and Raton (mouse). But, what about the readers, do you remember the Carlos Zarate versus Daniel Zaragoza fight?
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