Victor Cordoba was a Super Middleweight belt-holder from Panama who fits the body type that you described as well.
I have to say I'd never thought about this subject before but the 5 men you mentioned have fantastic styles defense and offense.
I don’t think Sanchez is the kind of fighter to avoid anyone. Had he lived I think we could have seen him face Pedroza at some point. Would have really loved to see that fight between 2 masters. I have no doubt that Pedroza would have given Sanchez fits.
Another slick Panamanian that gets overlooked: Luis Ibarra. He makes an impressive performance when he beat the champion Betulio Gonzalez in his backyard. In some ways he reminds me a bit of Erislandy Lara in his style, although obviously he was around first. Makes me wonder if the Cuban style of boxing that has produced fighters like Rigondeaux and Lara picked it up from Panama. This content is protected This content is protected
Agree. I think it would have been a hard fight to make for financial reasons — both guys are going to want to get paid for a unification but Pedroza, despite a lot of exposure in the U.S. via television, wasn’t a guy who would have been an easy sell. Sanchez vs. a puncher like Gomez was a much more appealing matchup. People saw a lot of Pedroza but wasn’t liked because of his fouling — maybe he could have worn the black hat and overtly played the villain and made it sellable.
Gómez was both a trash talker and a dirty fouler himself though, yet he still got a lot of support. I think Pedroza was more reserved personality wise but still displayed some nasty tactics, which would have been enough to be seen as a “villain”-type. Despite his great skill and craft in the ring and also being a long time champion Pedroza was always overshadowed by his fellow countryman Duran.
Yeah but Gomez was a fearsome puncher and that tends to go a long way with fans. Plus, how many of the fights that insiders look at to label him a dirty fighter were even seen by U.S. audiences back then? It wasn’t something that was played up — but Pedroza’s vs. Lockridge and others were on display for all to see … and those people who saw them were already rooting for the other guy.
Thank you so much for letting me know that!!!! Gomez always seemed to move differently I could just never figure it out until now.
His performance against Darchinyan is very impressive. Always thought he was closest to Pernell Whitaker stylistically, just a beautiful operator. He’s kind of under appreciated nowadays. He got some attention when he outboxed Vic Darchinyan easily but sort of faded to obscurity when he narrowly lost to Mares. Then he got iced by Yamanaka and Ceja. He fell off afterwards. Seems like he is still fighting right now only in Panama. His fights against Shinsuke Yamanaka are worth checking out, especially the 2nd fight.
If he was trying to get at Alexis Arguello that speaks volumes, don't think Salvador had Eusebio on his high list of priorities.
Pretty sad that we haven't seen much Panamanian champions now, especially compared to back in the 70s and 80s. It seems that they just faded ever since Duran left. The last really good fighter from Panama that still retained the stylish boxing skills is Moreno but he is no longer a relevant champ. I would have thought that Panama would be one of the Latin countries to continuously to produce great champions like Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina.