Nelson/Sanchez - Could A Prime Nelson...

I think a more experienced/polished version of Nelson could have beaten Sanchez. I may have even favored him.

 

"The Professor" had the tools to beat Sanchez.

The "rematch" that never happened would have been very close.

 

Just look how much a green Nelson troubled Sanchez. If the fight was a couple years later Azumah would have definately won IMO.

 

I agree with everyone here. But I am not discounting the fact that Sal's ring savvy once again wins him the rematch. He did figure Nelson out pretty well in the end, and capitalizing on it (with the left hook). The other reason of Sal's bad performance early on was that he felt complacent entering the fight, which I doubt will happen again in the rematch.

Regardless, what a fight that could have been of the rematch!

 

Take this into consideration before jumping to the conclusion that Azumah would win(though it is possible):

Sanchez was a fighter who fought to the level of his competition. Against lesser fighters he looked worse and showed more weaknesses, ones you'd expect the top guys to capitalize on, but when faced with the best, he routinely put in his best performances. He seemed to be like a younger Duran in that regard, it depended on who he was fighting to get himself motivated.

Keep in mind that against Nelson, he was fighting a replacement who had had 13 fights in Africa against nobodies, so I am not convinced he wasn't of the mind he was fighting a pushover, therefore didn't put in his best performance. The fact that he was able to adapt in the fight and finish such a game opponent late tells me a lot about Sanchez.

Both in their primes, Sanchez at his best and most motivated, against a prime Nelson, would've been somewhat of a toss-up, but I might still favor Sanchez. Then again, I could be wrong, and that may have just been a bad style matchup. But I didn't see the tenacity early on from Sanchez that I saw against Gomez and guys of higher caliber.

 

Yeah, Nelson was the Commonwealth featherweight champion before he faced Sanchez. And off the top of my head he was 15-0 at the time. His effort was pretty astonishing considering his credentials going into the fight. But looking back in hindsight his lack of experience at championship level, combined with fighting an opponent like Sanchez, shows us why he became such a special fighter.

 

I believe that a Sanchez who then knew beyond a shadow of doubt what a fantastic fighter Nelson was would have prevailed against the more experienced versions of Nelson in a tight fight.

Sanchez could really up the intensity when going into such a dangerous fight and Nelsons improvement would be offset by Sanchez's readiness, focus and ability to rise.

I won't however try to undermine a well balanced opposite view. It's close and these are two of the greatest ever to grace the division. I think Nelson is underrated on the whole.

 

I think that although Nelson got better after the Sanchez fight, his style changed in that he would be as effective against Sanchez. What caused Sanchez the difficulty was the high volume of punches, he was reduced to countering in between Nelson's flurries. As Nelson's career progressed he sat down more on his punches and picked his spots. He would do worse in the rematch IMO.

 

A very common misconception. Sanchez was ahead by 4 and 3 points on two cards and behind by 1 on the other.

 

I was going to say this, it was a very close fight, but I had Sanchez just slightly up, maybe just by a point.

 

The young Nelson gave Sanchez a good fight by taking it to him and getting under his chin.

As Nelson became more experienced, he became less unrelenting; however, he was never going to be as good a long range boxer as Sanchez.

Nelson's more conserved approach, coupled with Sanchez' new found respect for his opponent, would mean the fight would be won more convincingly than the first.

 

I would pick Nelson in a rematch.

 

Good (great question) but Sanchez was quite young too.
How good was he going to get?