He was 66-4 in his career and 63 of the wins were by knockout. A noted brawler, two of Zarate's four losses also were by knockout so in a 19-year career, only five of his fights went to a decision.
Zarate was 7-4 in title fights, winning his first seven, but then losing his final four. A couple of quirks ended up costing him significant points and a higher place in the top 100.
In 1977, Zarate, the WBC bantamweight champion, squared off against undefeated WBA bantamweight champion Alfonso Zamora in what was supposed to be a unification bout. The fighters, though, couldn't come to agreements on sanctioning fees with either the WBA or WBC, and the fight was changed to a 10-round non-title fight. Zarate ended up winning by TKO, but instead of this being worth 250 points (100 points for a unified title and 50 points for Zamora being in one boxing hall of fame), it ended up being worth 160 points.
Zarate had three more title defenses after the Zamora fight and instead of earning 100 points for unified defenses in all three, he gets 60 for each.
In 1978, Zarate moved up to super bantamweight to take on Wilfredo Gomez and he suffered his first loss. Eight months later, back as a bantamweight, he took on Lupe Pintor and lost a split decision that most felt was unjust.
Upset with the decision, Zarate retired until coming back in 1986. Always a warrior, Zarate ran off nine straight wins to earn title shots against hall of famers Jeff Fenech and Daniel Zaragoza, losing both to end his career.
Zarate was just 1-4 against Hall of Fame boxers, but you had to be great to beat him. He was 58-0 with 55 KOs in non-title fights.
| Carlos Zarate | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Significant Fights | |||||||
| Opponent | Result | Fight Points |
Title Points |
HOF Points |
Total | x Win Pct. |
Final Total |
| Rodolfo Martinez | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 93.3% | 149.3 | |
| Paul Ferreri | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 94.3% | 150.9 | |
| Waruinge Nakayama | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 72.2% | 115.6 | |
| Fernando Cabanela | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 68.6% | 109.7 | |
| Alfonso Zamora | KO | 100 | 50 | 150 | 100% | 150.0 | |
| Danilo Batista | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 100% | 160.0 | |
| Alberto Davila | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 86.7% | 138.7 | |
| Andres Hernandez | KO | 100 | 60 | 160 | 88.2% | 141.2 | |
| Wilfredo Gomez | KO'd | -25 | -25 | -25 | |||
| Lupe Pintor | SD-L | 25 | 15 | 25 | 65 | 90.5% | 58.8 |
| Jeff Fenech | UD-L | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Daniel Zaragoza | KO'd | -25 | -25 | 0 | |||
| Total (8-4-0, 8 KOs) | 1124.2 | ||||||
| Record in non-signifcant fights | |||||||
| 58-0-0, 55 KOs | 5,770 | ||||||
| Pct. of fights toward 50 (65.5%) | 3779.35 | 71.6% | 2707.1 | ||||
| PEAK 5 Fights | |||||||
| Danilo Batista | 160.0 | ||||||
| Paul Ferreri | 150.9 | ||||||
| Alfonso Zamora | 150.0 | ||||||
| Rodolfo Martinez | 149.3 | ||||||
| Andres Hernandez | 141.2 | ||||||
| PEAK 5 Total | 751.5 | 751.5 | |||||
| Final totals (significant, non-significant, PEAK 5) | 4582.8 | ||||||
| Boxing's 100 Countdown | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Fighter | Significant Fights |
Non-Significant Fights |
Peak 5 | Final Total |
| 100. | Carlos Zarate | 1,124.2 | 2,707.1 | 751.5 | 4,582.8 |
