Take a look below for our list of 10 of the best Argentine boxers of all time.
1. Carlos Monzon
Carlos Roque Monzón (7 August 1942 – 8 January 1995), nicknamed Escopeta (Shotgun in Spanish), was an Argentine professional boxer who held the undisputed world middleweight championship for 7 years. He successfully defended his title 14 times against 11 different fighters and is widely regarded as not only one of the best middleweights in history but also one of the greatest boxers of all time pound-for-pound. Known for his speed, punching power and relentless work rate, Monzon ended his career with a record of 87-3-9-1 with 59 knockouts, each one of his losses were early in his career and were avenged.
Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, he was chosen by The Ring magazine in 2002 as the 11th greatest fighter of the last 80 years and voted him as the best middleweight title holder of the last 50 years in 2011. As of January 2018, Monzón holds the 2nd longest unified championship reign in middleweight history at 9 consecutive defenses. Monzón spent several years in prison for killing his wife Alicia throwing her out of a balcony, he admitted that he hit every single woman he had dated.
2. Nicolino Locche
Nicolino Locche (September 2, 1939 – September 7, 2005) was an Argentine boxer from Tunuyán, Mendoza who held the World Junior Welterweight title from 1968 to 1972. Locche is often cited as one of the finest defensive boxers of all time and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.
3. Pascual Perez
Pascual Nicolás Pérez (May 4, 1926 – January 22, 1977) was an Argentine flyweight boxer. Pérez was born in Tupungato in the Mendoza Province of Argentina, he went on to make history by becoming Argentina’s first world boxing champion.
Pérez usually did poor at the ticket gates in Argentina after he became world champion, forcing him to defend his world title on the road many times and to become known as a world-traveling champion. His first international success was a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in United Kingdom.
4. Victor Galindez
Víctor Emilio Galíndez (2 November 1948 in Vedia – 25 October 1980 in Veinticinco de Mayo, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine boxer who was the third Latin American to win the world Light Heavyweight championship, after Puerto Rico’s José Torres and Venezuela’s Vicente Rondon.
Galíndez was born in Vedia in the Leandro N. Alem Partido of the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina in 1948. He aspired to become both a boxer and a stock car pilot since an early age, but he was more interested in boxing. As an amateur, he compiled a winning record and participated in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where he lost in a preliminary round bout to Aldo Bentini of Italy. A year earlier he claimed the silver medal at the 1967 Pan American Games.
5. Sergio Martinez
Sergio Gabriel Martínez (born 21 February 1975) is an Argentine professional boxer. He has held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBC super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010; and the unified WBC, WBO, Ring magazine and lineal middleweight titles between 2010 and 2014. With six successful defenses of the Ring and lineal middleweight titles, Martínez’s 50-month reign as champion ranks as one of the longest in the history of that weight class.
6. Horacio Accavallo
Horacio Enrique Accavallo (born October 14, 1934) is an Argentine retired flyweight boxer and the former WBA and WBC world flyweight champion. He fought from 1956 until 1967. He retired with a record of 75 wins (34 KOs), 2 losses and 6 draws.
7. Oscar Bonavena
Oscar Natalio “Ringo” Bonavena (September 25, 1942 – May 22, 1976) was an Argentine heavyweight professional boxer with a career record of 58 wins, 9 losses and 1 draw. A rugged, wild-swinging puncher, he was nicknamed “Ringo” because of his Beatles haircut, and enjoyed professional success in both Argentina and the United States. He is remembered for giving Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali hard fought bouts.
8. Santos Laciar
Santos Benigno Laciar (born January 31, 1959), known familiarly as Santos Laciar and nicknamed Falucho, is an Argentine who was boxing’s world flyweight and super flyweight champion.
9. Justo Suarez
Justo Suárez (January 5, 1909 – August 10, 1938), nicknamed “El Torito de Mataderos” (“The Little Bull of Mataderos)”, was a popular Argentine light weight boxer. His huge popularity was widely greater than his professional achievements as a fighter.
10. Luis Angel Firpo
Luis Ángel Firpo (October 11, 1894 – August 7, 1960) was an Argentine boxer. Born in Junín, Argentina, he was nicknamed The Wild Bull of the Pampas.
