Could Azumah Nelson ever have beaten Whitaker or Sanchez?

That's true, but we can't imagine what a 25-year-old Sanchez fights like anyway.
We know what a prime Nelson was, and we have the 22 ad 23-year-old Sanchez to match him against.

 

Idk if you're overrating Nelson or Underrating Sanchez. Sanchez was only 23. The fact that he had that many fights and title defenses at that age is amazing. And in no way does it mean he wouldn't improve and was a finished product. Sanchez could have been a top ten fighter of all ime. He was special. Sanchez was winning the fight clearly btw. It was competitive but there was no mystery who was winning.

 

Sanchez may or may not have improved had he not died, it's too hypothetical.

Take the best Sanchez that ever existed in real life, match him against the best version of Nelson that we saw, and I'd give Nelson the edge.

 

Which Nelson fight do you think he was at his best?

 

Maybe the Cabrera fight.