Marco Antonio Barrera names his five greatest Mexican fighters

Marco Antonio Barrera has placed Julio Cesar Chavez at the top of his list of Mexico’s five greatest boxers. The three-division world champion ranked Salvador Sanchez second, Ricardo “Finito” Lopez third, Juan Manuel Marquez fourth and Canelo fifth.

Barrera did not include himself despite a career that brought world titles at featherweight and super-featherweight. He won his first 43 professional bouts before suffering two defeats by Junior Jones, results that ended his unbeaten run and cost him the WBO super-bantamweight championship.

The losses led Barrera to step away from boxing temporarily, but he returned to build the defining part of his legacy. His major victories included wins over Erik Morales and Naseem Hamed, known in boxing as “Prince” Naseem.

Chavez’s place at number one reflects a career that began with an unbeaten run across his first 90 contests. Sanchez, ranked second, is remembered as one of the sport’s greatest unfinished stories after his death at 23, when he was still viewed as a fighter with considerable room to rise.

Lopez completed his career without a defeat across 52 fights and became widely regarded as the finest minimumweight boxer in history. During the 1990s, he made 21 successive defences of the WBC world title.

Marquez was the other four-division champion on Barrera’s list. He reached his first world title in his 42nd professional fight before moving through the divisions. Canelo, another Mexican fighter to rule in four weight categories, is set to face Christian Mbilli in October as he seeks to reclaim the super-middleweight title.