None of which fights were on his home turf ,one was in Italy, and the other two were in the States, and all three had different officials. Thats nine bought men?
First off any time a new topic that is interesting comes up I applaud and this is a terrific one .. Pedroza was one of those guys like an Antonio Cervantes that was cagey, crafty, talented and nasty .. Sanchez's big win was over Gomez ... Danny Lopez was a terrific warrior but he was not a great fighter ... Nelson was highly inexperienced, nowhere near the monster he would become .. I have no idea who wins this fight but would not at all be surprised if Pedroza took it .. he was a real mean SOB.
we're all mean SOB's in a fight. Have u ever seen Sanchez when HE gets pissed?? I saw it in the first round of the Gomez fight. Wilfredo looked like he got mugged on the way to the ring as for Pedroza, I still cant get that image out of my head washed up Olivares putting the panamanian *****cat to sleep
I like Sanchez narrowly both historically and H2H. They both had a couple of down fights. Pedroza eeked out a couple of narrow wins later but he had been around forever by then. Sanchez, i think the better the opponent the more he rises. Sanchez bullying Gomez was one of the great moments in boxing. Gomez in turn had brutalised Zarate back in the day when he moved up.
I saw many of their bouts live at the time and always thought Pedroza had more tools and was the stronger of the two. In retrospect I still do but am more aware now of just how sharp a puncher Sanchez was. I believe Pedroza could keep up his busier pace whether it would be a 12 or 15 rounder and offset Salvador's sharp shooting for a close win.
Sanchez. He was the no.1 in his divison, and Pedroza was only arguably the no.1 after Sanchez died, and even then he didn't prove it by beating Nelson. Competition wise, if you think Pedroza beat Lockridge (I think the decision was fair) that's about as good a quality fighter as Sanchez beat, as Lockridge was all-round very skilled and a bit underrated IMO. However, Sal' deserves the nod for opposition, as schooling Lopez (one of the hardest punchers ever) and pulling it out against a green, but still very good Nelson, and winning the super fight with Gomez, are 3 important opponents right there, an validate Sanchez as a great featherweight champ. In a bout between the two, I have to favour Pedroza. Cowdell and Castillo showed that if you forced Sal' to lead he wasn't quite as comfortable and with Pedroza's brilliant jab I think he could be a nightmare for Sanchez. And yeah, Pat Ford gave Sanchez hassle whereas Pedroza smoked him, but Pedroza had difficulty with some of his challengers as well. One thing I've learned from evaluating Pedroza's career is that the McGuigan win isn't very impressive. Pedroza was in a war with past prime natural bantamweight Lujan (hard as nails admittedly) just before that and was well past his best. If we're pulling up their shaky bantamweight chins then Sanchez was also badly rocked and hurt when he was filling out. I have no doubt that a streaking Zamora would've blasted him into row Z as well.