Hugo Cazares held world titles at junior flyweight and junior bantamweight during a productive career.

Cazares, who was one of three children, was born and raised in a middleclass family in Los Mochis, Mexico, on March 24, 1978.

"My dad worked at a bank, he also worked for a liquor company, we were pretty good," Cazares told The Ring. "My mom was more of a housewife, but she did work, she was a nurse at one time, she also dabbled in hairdressing.

His first introduction to fighting came at school but it wasn't until he was 18, that he became interested in boxing.

"People would look to challenge me,” he said. “It was one of those things I couldn't let myself be bullied because if you let yourself be bullied, you'll be bullied forever."

Cazares had a brief and modest amateur career, going 2-5, before he made 400 pesos, around $36, for his debut, in his hometown in February 1997.

After going 10-4-1, Cazares was convinced by his trainer, Nacho Huizar, to drop from 115 pounds down to 108.

"They saw the talent, but it didn't carry the same effectiveness at that weight class,” he recalled. "I dropped to 108 and started to have success."

He won three fights and claimed the Mexican national title before his career was put on ice for 19 months because of an ACL injury on his right knee.

"I did it during training and the next day I went to go run and couldn't run,” he explained. “I didn't have to have surgery; it was all rehab but that's why it took so long."

When he returned, he won several fights before heading to Puerto Rico fight WBO 108-pound titlist Nelson Dieppa in April 2005.

"Dieppa had beaten many Mexicans in the past, even knocked some of them out - this night was completely different," said Cazares, who won a 10th Round technical decision after the defending champion had suffered two cuts.

The Mexican went on to make five title defenses including two in Puerto Rico, which became something of a home away from home, where he stopped Alex Sanchez (RTD 8) and Dieppa (TKO 10) in a rematch, which also earnt him the vacant Ring championship.

"The people in Puerto Rico really embraced me, I liked it there," he said. "Puerto Rico was a great memory for me."

However, he ultimately lost his crown there against Ivan Calderon in controversial circumstances.

"The first couple of rounds very difficult, tough rounds, hard fought, in the fourth round I started getting a little confidence and the tide started turning in the fight," said Cazares, who dropped a razor thin 12-round split decision. "[The referee] called it a slip [when he went down] and another time the ref was very slow on the count.”

After one comeback win, he returned to Puerto Rico a year later for the rematch.

"Calderon caused an intentional headbutt and the judges took advantage of that to stop the fight and decide it on the scorecards in favor of Calderon [after seven rounds]," he said.

Cazares didn’t feel he would get an opportunity to fight for the flyweight title, so decided to leap-frog the weight class completely and go back up to junior bantamweight.

He headed to Japan to face WBA incumbent Nobuo Nashiro in September 2009.

"I remember that Nashiro was a very brave and physically strong fighter,” he said. "It was very close, I wanted the title at all costs and Nashiro did not want to give it up, it was a very intense fight."

Ultimately the officials couldn't separate them, and the fight was a draw.

Unperturbed, he successfully attended the annual WBA convention to particion for a rematch.

Cazares and Nashiro fought in Osaka, Japan, in May 2010 and engaged in another hard-fought contest.

"The fight was very similar to the first fight," he said. "In the last round, I stood in the middle of the ring to throw blows face-to-face against Nashiro and noticed that he retreated a little.

"When we were waiting for the judges' verdict, I felt disconcerted, thinking that they could take away my victory. I didn't understand what [the announcer] was saying. A Mexican friend, who lives in Japan and was with us started jumping and shouting, 'We won, we won.' And that's when we started celebrating."

"El Incredible" returned home and made two defenses in Mexico before returning to Japan where he successfully bested Hiroyuki Kudaka (UD 12) and made a career high $135,000. He then made one more defense before losing against Tomonobu Shimizu (SD 12) in August 2011.

He hoped to face WBA bantamweight ruler Koki Kameda, but when they didn’t happen, he moved up to 122 pounds and lost to Carl Frampton in two rounds.

A knee injury sidelined the Mexican and when he returned, he was 38 and at featherweight, past his prime and lost to Andrew Cancio (KO 3) in March 2016.

Cazares (40-9-2, 27 knockouts), who had studied at high school and then university as a Physical Education teacher, decided it was time to retire from boxing.

"Boxing helped me become someone in life," he said proudly. "I achieved goals I had never thought of achieving. I also met many great people in different parts of the world."

Cazares, 47, is married, has four children and still lives in Los Mochis. He works a day job as a PE teacher and also helps train young people to box.

He graciously took time to speak to The Ring about the best he fought in 10 key categories.

Francisco Garcia: "He had a lot of reach; his jab was like a spear."

Ivan Calderon: "He was very short in stature and very elusive, his height allowed him to slip easily."

Calderon: "[He] had [the best] hand speed."

Calderon: "Calderon was very skilled. He knew how to move laterally and step backwards to be far from opponents and was a southpaw."

Calderon: "He knew that when he was in danger, he used to tie up the other fighters to neutralize them."

Nobuo Nashiro: "He was physically strong, he did not retreat from the blows, he always went forward."

Nashiro: "He had a lot of physical resistance to blows."

Garcia: "Garcia had a very strong straight right, the punch felt like he was hitting you with a pipe. I didn't go down because I bounced off the ropes."

Calderon: "For his footwork, handspeed and defense."

Calderon: "He moved laterally very well; he knew how to counterpunch and get out of the danger area. He would be the highest quality opponent I faced."