These are two of the very best ever at FW imo. Both have struggled in big fights but both have destroyed prime great fighters in Gomez and Barrera respectively. Forget how you rank these as great FW, forgot arguments about resume, lineage and historical relevance. This is simply a fight between two greats, would Sanchez be too clever for Pacquiao and be able to box and counter him the way Marquez did (minus the triple knockdown) Or would Pac be able to out speed Sanchez, spam his straight left and ultimately overwhelm him with his buzzsaw like style? I go back and forth on this myself quite often, usually depending on who's fights I've watched most recently. Obviously logic says Pacquaio won't overwhelm every fighter as we saw him struggle greatly with Marquez likewise Sanchez won't be able to counter on the front foot against every fighter as we saw him struggle with Cowdell and Ford. Who's your pic over 12 rounds? I'm conservatively saying Sanchez takes a contested decision.
Tbh l haven't watched any Sanchez fights recently but he's definitely an elite fighter. However if memory serves me correctly (and that's rarely the case anymore) it seems to me Pac has faster hands. If true l would pick him to beat Sanchez because if he can land, he can hurt.
Do you think Sanchez could time Pac the way JMM did? And if so that means Sal can find a home for that over hand right which will land consistently and score enough damaging points to take home the W.
Could he have done it in one fight, when it took Marquez four and very likely the addition of PED's? I wouldn't say that it's likely, as great as Sanchez was. For my part, I think this is very tough to call. Sanchez could probably hang tough and decision Pacquiao like Morales did.
I don't think Sanchez had the power to hurt Pacquiao at 126. He'd have to rely on boxing a perfectly disciplined fight.
What made Barrera so tailor made for Pacquiao? You don't often see a prime ATG like that getting blown up. Honestly when was the last time we saw a fighter as great as Barrera get absolutely destroyed like that? And did Sanchez have any similarities to Barrera that could have been exploited by Pacquiao.
Chava by decision for me. Manny's hand speed is a bit better and he hits harder, but Sal's granite chin and technical advantages are the differences.
Manny probably doesn't have a granite chin. But at 122-130 it was a very underrated chin. I don't see Sanchez hurting Pacquiao. And I don't think Sanchez could afford to take a flush bomb to the body or the face without either going down or feeling the lingering effects for at least the rest of the round. But I still give Sanchez a good shot.
Agreed, but it's about power to chin ratio. Pacquiao is packing so much power at 126 that I think he's more likely to have the more damaging shots in this fight if he was to land flush.
I don't see past Sanchez outboxing him for most of the rounds and slugging it out when Pac does land a big shot. In my mind it goes like the first Pac v Marquez fight without the first round.
I would look to the Morales fight though to see if Sanchez could decision Pacquiao. Morales was a technically skilled, long and granite chinned boxer-puncher-brawler. He used this to his advantage, but even he was almost knocked down in the first round. I can see Sanchez employing a similar tactic to neutralize Pacquiao's assault. The only thing that worries me that he couldn't is Morales was the bigger man. Pacquiao had a tougher time imposing his will on the big 130 pound Morales than he did on the smaller Barrera and Marquez.