The Battle of the Z Boys was a boxing fight between Mexicans Carlos Zarate and Alfonso Zamora, who were, respectively, the WBC and WBA World Bantamweight titleholders. Held in Inglewood, California on April 23, 1977, the bout was not recognized as a unification fight by either of the sanctioning bodies without any specific reason given for withholding the sanction. As it turned out, the fight was one of the most-anticipated 10-round fights in history among boxing fans. Before the fight Alfonso Zamora was the first one of the so-called "Z boys" to become a world champion, when he knocked out Soo Hwan Hong in four rounds on March 14, 1975 in Inglewood. He defended his title three times before Zarate had his first world title shot; one of his challengers was Eusebio Pedroza, the future WBA world Featherweight champion, whom Zamora defeated by knockout in two rounds in Tijuana on April 3 of 1976. Zarate, for his part, won the WBC world title one year and two months after Zamora became WBA world champion, on May 8, 1976, when he defeated defending champion Rodolfo Martinez by a ninth round knockout in Inglewood. Zarate and Zamora were both once trained by the same man, Arturo Hernandez. But Hernandez sold Zamora's contract to his father, Alfonso Zamora Sr., and Mr. Zamora Sr. took this as a form of disrespect towards him and his son. Ever since, Zarate and Zamora's managerial teams carried on a war of words that was not missed by the Latin American sports media. Zarate had a record of 45-0 with 44 knockouts, and Zamora was 29-0, with 29 knockouts. Their combined record of 74-0 with 73 knockouts arguably made for one of the most power-punch-packed matchups in boxing history. Fans in Mexico and the rest of Latin America were captivated by the announcement of the fight. The fact that both the WBA and WBC refused to recognize it as a world championship bout did little, if anything, to cool the ardor of enthusiastic boxing fans. The fight The Los Angeles police department knew from experience, (such as the 1969 fight between Lionel Rose and Chucho Castillo, which was fought in Inglewood, and, much later on, the first bout between Riddick Bowe and Andrzej Gołota) that boxing fights can end up in riots. Because of this, they sent an anti-riot squad to the Inglewood Forum on the day of