Matthew Saad Muhammad vs Victor Galindez

Saad wins.

 

Prime for Prime, slight edge to Victor, though Saad could very well win.

 

Victor had a steel chin. Matt's best chance to stop him is to use the same strategy Mike Rossman dethroned him with. Go for the eyes.
Matt's not going to be the one making his opponent expend energy first in this one. Galindez would do what Galindez did; make his opponent use his legs first, expend his energy pounding after Victor's head, while Galindez reclines on the ropes, using them to wing off roundhouse bombs to Matt's body and head.

Going into the championship rounds, Matt will have a significant lead in all probability. He'll also be running out of steam, while Galindez is running out of blood. In this war of attrition though, the guerrilla finishes the kill.

Galindez TKO 14 Saad Muhammad

 

Great match up! Galindez would use bull tactics to keep Saad on the defensive & jump to an early lead. Both fighters would be cut & this would turn into a bloodbath. Galindez would have to try & close the show in the eighth thru tenth. If Saad survives to the championship rounds he will find a way to pull out the win by decision or a late round KO. Saad was known for taking huge amounts of punishment & coming back to somehow win the fight. A war with Galindez is just right up Saad's alley. A fight which would bring out the best in him.

 

I'd be surprised if this were the case as Galindez was generally a slow starter who came on in the later rounds. The man was extremely thickset through the chest and neck so should be able to handle Saad's best shot and once Matthew tasted a few choice left hooks to the face from Victor then I think he would be less willing to stand and trade than normal.

Let's face it Saad was generally easy to tag and Galindez would tag him aplenty. Galindez had real explosive power and good ring-smarts not to mention a propensity to "bend" the rules on occasion (see the first Yaqui Lopez fight for examples).

Don't get me wrong I'm a huge fan of Saad and he's one of my favourite fighters to watch but Galindez is an ATG at 175lb and would find a way to win this one, most likely by decision or late stoppage on cuts.

Interestingly Galindez avenged all his losses bar the last 2 to Marvin Johnson & at cruiser to Jesse burnett.

Great match-up of contrasting styles.

 

Saad is my favourite lightheavyweight ever, and Galindez is not far behind, so this makes it a very hard one to pick for me. But after thinking it over, I would have to go with Saad by late TKO in a very, very hard fight for him. First of all, in his prime it was the cuties that gave Galindez trouble, not face first brawlers who wore inviting targets on their chins.

Lets face it, Matt wouldn`t duck from a punch if his life depended on it, and Vic will be landing plenty as a result. Couple that with the fact that Saad was a slow starter, and what you have is Saad taking a beating in the early going. But, Saad took everything two huge bangers like Marvin Johnson and Eddie Mustafa could put on him, and just kept on coming. Victor doesn`t hit anywhere near as hard as those two, so he won`t be stopping Matt, no way.

In Saad, Vic will also be facing one of the few lightheavyweights of his era who was physically stronger than him. I think that by the 5th or 6th round, after having likely lost all the early rounds, Saad will start coming on strong and busting up the frail skin around Victor`s eyes with that long, hard jab of his, and hurting Galindez with big shots from long range with his powerful right.

Matt for all his defensive liability, had some of the best late rounds stamina I have ever seen from any fighter. He also had an inhuman ability to withstand punishment, and an indomitable will to win to go along with his powerful right hand. That power and stamina of his is what will eventually tilt this bout decisively his way in the middle rounds in my opinion. I will go with Saad by TKO late in the bout, but Galindez will get his pound of flesh in and then some before he gets taken out.

Galindez is often overlooked, but he was one hell of a fighter. Unfortunately most people only remember the heavily scar tissued, battle worn version of Victor, not the peak version of between `74 and `76. At one point Victor had a 43 bout unbeaten streak, and he had faced anyone and everyone there was to fight save for Conteh, and he beat them all. He had 10 title defenses overall (more than Saad) and he arguably beat the better comp as well.

He lost to Rossman and Johnson at the tail end of his career, and had already suffered one detached retina going into the Rossman bout which was more than likely a contributing factor in his loss to the Jewish bomber. But he showed in the rematch that the first bout was an abberation, and destroyed Rossman in the return. As for the Johnson bout, he was far past his prime by then.

Marvin`s style was tailor made for Galindez to counter the hell out of, and in his prime I think he would have done one brutal paintjob on Marvin. But, after hurting Marvin at the bell to end the 4th, he didn`t do much of anything until the 11th when he came storming out of the gates only to run into a left cross to the temple and it was all she wrote. In the end, all those hard fights against the very best clearly took a toll on the man. But at his peak Galindez was one heck of a fighter, maybe not an all-time great, but just a c-hair short of it in my book.

 

Great fight, I reckon Matt wins but only just. However when you consider that John Conteh pushed Matt close in the first fight Galindez who was tougher than Conteh could easily put Matt away. Great fight I wish it had happened.

 

I'd take Galindez by UD if both are at thier very bests.

 

As always, a great anaysis RB!!:good

 

I always thought Saad had too many weapons for Galindez.

I'd lean toward by late (cuts) stoppage.

 

Victor takes a razor-thin split decision over Matthew, his competition being a bit better than Matthew's.