Carlos Zarate Serna (born May 23, 1951 in Tepito, a borough of Mexico City) is a retired Mexican boxer. He has the distinction of being the first professional boxer in history to put together two streaks of 20 or more knockout wins in a row (a feat later repeated by Edwin Valero, Ali Raymi and Deontay Wilder).

Zarate was ranked #21 in The Ring's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time, and voted as the #1 bantamweight (along with Ruben Olivares) of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1999. He is also the father of undefeated Light Welterweight prospect, Carlos Zarate Jr.

Personal life

Carlos Zarate has family members who have followed him into boxing. His son Carlos, now retired fought in the Light welterweight division and his nephew, Joel Luna Zarate, is the former WBO Latino Super Flyweight champion.

Amateur career

Zarate, considered along with rival Wilfredo Gomez to be among the better punchers of the lighter divisions, had an amateur record of 33 wins and 3 losses, with 30 knockout wins, and he won the Mexican Golden Gloves, or Guantes de Oro, in 1969.

Professional career

In 1970, Carlos made his professional debut with a 2 round knockout win over Luis Castaneda in Cuernavaca. That marked the beginning of a 23 fight knockout winning streak. The only boxers to get past the third round during that streak were Al Torres and Antonio Castaneda, who lasted 5 and 9 rounds respectively, both at Tijuana. Victor Ramirez became the first boxer to last the distance with Zarate when Zarate beat him on points in January 1974 in Mexico City over ten rounds. Next began his second 20 plus knockout wins in a row streak, when none of his next 28 opponents heard the final bell on their feet.

WBC Bantamweight championship

After knocking out former world title challenger Nestor Jimenez in two rounds at Mexicali to end 1975, the WBC made Zarate their number one challenger at the Bantamweight division. So, after beating Cesar Desiga by a knockout in four on March 29, 1976 in Monterrey, Zarate was faced on the night of May 8 of that year with defending WBC Bantamweight Champion Rodolfo Martinez in Los Angeles. Zarate became a world Bantamweight champion by knocking his countryman out in the eighth round. Zarate next won two fights by a knockout in the second and then defended it against Paul Ferreri, who lost by knockout in 12 in Los Angeles too. He finished 1976 with a four round knockout over Waruinge Nakayama in a title defense held at Culiacan.

WBA Bantamweight championship

After beginning 1977 with a third round knockout win over Colombia's Fernando Cabanela in Mexico City, Mexican boxing fans started talking about a possible unification bout between him and fellow Mexican Alfonso Zamora, the WBA's world Bantamweight champion. Nicknamed by the American boxing press as the Z Boys, the two did square off, but not before much hassle and hurdle putting by both the WBC and WBA, who wanted both boxers to pay a large amount of money before sanctioning the bout. So, the California state boxing commission decided to sanction it as a ten round, non title bout instead. Fans did not seem to care that no world title belt would be involved that afternoon, and they packed the fight venue when Zarate and Zamora met in the LA suburb of Inglewood, California, at the Fabulous Forum on April 23 of 1977. Zarate made the tactical mistake of going toe to toe with a shorter but harder hitting puncher. Zarate got tagged repeatedly and then a man wearing gray hooded sweat shirt and sweat pants entered the ring. The fight was stopped and thereafter, Zarate managed to stay away from Zamora. After a first round, Zarate the better boxer, with a reach advantage stayed away and outboxed Zamora wearing him down then knocking him out in four to gain recognition by most boxing fans as the undisputed world champion of the Bantamweights. Then, he retained the WBC title with a knockout in six over Danilo Batista.