The overall more skilled fighter: Whitaker or Sanchez?

[Bokaj]

The Pea - Duran thread made me think of this. Sanchez and Whitaker were more stylistically similar and faced one common opponent (Azumah Nelson), so I thought this comparison could perhaps be even more interesting, despite Sanchez having his career, and life, cut tragically short.

[Bokaj]

Jesus. No takers at all?

[PowerPuncher]

Not close B, Sanchez is much more hittable, he also slapped a bit

[sugarsean]

There both amazing, But gotta go with Whitaker

[natonic]

If Sanchez didn't want to be hit, such as against Lopez twice, he could be unhittable. It's close. I'll recuse myself, as I'm obviously biased.

[Bokaj]

Originally Posted by PowerPuncher

Not close B, Sanchez is much more hittable, he also slapped a bit

Perhaps this is the general opinon and why so few have answered.

Whitaker did do clearly better against Nelson, but I don't think anyone is far ahead of Sanchez in overall skill. Extremely complete fighter.

Not quite as elusive as Whitaker (even thoough he had Lopez hitting nothing but air in the first fight), but he also was more ready to engage, confident his skill and power would let him get the better of his opponent, as it did against Gomez. Love how he would let the other guy get him in the corner and then open up.

From what I've seen of him he hardly was a slapper, though. Very precise punches to the body and head. His jab wasn't quite as good as Whitaker's but very good. His straight right and left hook were his best weapons. Also that short chopping right.

[natonic]

I have nothing against Whitaker and certainly rate him top 25 all time, but it kills me that the Nelson fight is propped up as some kind of monumental achievement. Nelson was a featherweight who filled out a bit and was effective at 130. He was in no way shape or form a lightweight. I gave him no chance against Whitaker.
I'm sure many people on here have been in a ring and understand the difficulty of fighting larger men. Whitaker-Nelson is perplexing to me.

[KuRuPT]

^^^ It's not like size was a factor in the fight though.... It's not like Whitaker boss'd Nelson around the ring with his size... If anything they looked very comparable. It was the way the completly dominated and neutralized Nelson with such ease.

[Bokaj]

Doesn't really relate to the thread, but the one thing I like most with Sanchez is how very, very cool and smart he was in the ring despite his young age. Always thinking and often changing tactics in the middle of the fight.

[Bokaj]

Originally Posted by KuRuPT

^^^ It's not like size was a factor in the fight though.... It's not like Whitaker boss'd Nelson around the ring with his size... If anything they looked very comparable. It was the way the completly dominated and neutralized Nelson with such ease.

That was how I remembered the fight, but I saw that the cards were quite close.

Sanchez never settled for just outboxing Nelson, though, but wanted to put some hurt on. He had a surprisingly hard time controlling him from a distance tbf.

[natonic]

Originally Posted by Bokaj

That was how I remembered the fight, but I saw that the cards were quite close.

Sanchez never settled for just outboxing Nelson, though, but wanted to put some hurt on. He had a surprisingly hard time controlling him from a distance tbf.

It's really hard to go against Whitaker as his flaws are few if any. But I do give credit to guys such as Duran and Sanchez who could be brilliant defensively WHILE coming forward and looking to inflict some hurt.

[the cobra]

Whitaker was frequently rather aggressive for a defensive wiz. He wasn't much of a puncher, but he was amazing on offense just like everything else. Some of the best bodypunching I've ever seen and maybe the best jab I've ever seen.

As for the thread, Sanchez was really, really brilliant. A special fighter, no doubt, but I'm in agreement with most it would seem. It's a fairly easy call. Pea was simply as good as it can possibly get.

[red cobra]

Whitaker.

[WhataRock]

Pea.

[ThinBlack]

Whitaker was faster, Sanchez had better power, and could deal easily with the 15 round distance.Close one, but Pernell takes this over Salvador.