I always love watching PEDROZA. His wicked body punching. His PROFESSIONAL attitude. No complaining or asking the ref for help. All that mattered was walking out and returning to Panama still champion. God BLESS YOU EUSEBIO! You will always be the best featherweight champ I ever saw and my personal fav w Little Red. Can't always beat cancer but you will go down fighting I know. Adios Campion. Viva Pedroza!
The WBA judges and referees helped him out quite a bit. He was a very good fighter, but also very dirty. But, like I said, the WBA had his back.
What fights do you feel they helped him in? I always felt like Lockridge got robbed in thier first fight....but then I redid it during a FOTW and I had Pedroza winning....only got 3 cards that week...a shame decent little scrap. But 2 of the 3 scored for Pedroza....what other fights might you feel that way about?
We know that he will fight cancer down to the wire as well....with that same grim expression...and never-say-die attitude.
What I always admired about him was how he picked himself off the deck from where Al Zamora left him crumpled and turned it all around...did a 180...with grit and determination he became one of the greatest champions.
Great fighter. A really big part of my early 80's boxing experience. I was a really big fan of his. Another really unique style that I find hard to compare to anyone else.
Whilst I agree with you on pedroza being dirty at times ,i reckon that's the same for a lot of long term champ s .It's probably down to experience ,giving them a little advantage in a hard fight. Larry Holmes could be the same ,as was Holy field even Lewis .I suppose its what ever gets you through a fight to your advantage.
Start a thread....it’s a decent one that used to get done on this forum, but I don’t think it has been done for a while? Anyway I don’t mean to hijack a well deserved Pedroza thread, but I will pick Vicente Saldivar to beat both of them.
I certainly don't wish to rain on this parade, especially with Pedroza in ill health. And again, I always thought he would have beaten Sanchez -I thought his boxing style would have taken a close decision. But the one thing that bothered me was him even receiving a title shot. The only thing I knew of Pedroza back in the day was that he got KO'd by Zamora. He was definitely owing to the Panama friendly WBA for his title shot, as were many others from Panama, South Korea, Argentina, etc. The thing was at the time, the WBA had a rule in effect where if a fighter who won the title was not ranked #1, he had to make his first title defense against their #1 contender. Now I thought that was a good rule. Cecilo Lastra of Spain wins the WBA title from the equally mediocre Rafael Ortega of Panama (natch). Now, Lastra was so average he wasn't even the Euro champion. The best title he had was the Spanish featherweight title and he gets a title shot. Anyways, with the WBA rule he has to defend against the #1 contender. And that was Pedroza. Now again, how was he the #1 contender? In '76 he suffers back to back KO losses at bantam to Zamora and Oscar Arnal and 3 fights later he is the #1 contender for the featherweight title. He beats a fighter named Jose Santana who could not be regarded as anything but an 8 fight prospect. Then he beats Reynaldo hidalgo and Rodolfo Francis, both of Panama and is now #1. Hidalgo had lost 2 out of his last 3 (although the win was a nice win over Leo Cruz) so Francis must have been highly regarded by the WBA. After being stopped the previous year by a Mexican clubfighter he rattled off about 7 wins (the best win being Yambito Blanco) before losing to Pedroza. all in all, I don't know why these things always annoy me, but decisions like this (as well as bad decisions) always get me. There is always that injustice that someone got screwed out of a title shot. Regardless, in retrospect, guys like Pedroza, Lujan and Pipino Cuevas did not deserve title shots (according to the letter of the law), but they certainly proved their mettle as champs.
A true champion. Fought his way through the hard times, climbed the division and became a champion. Amazingly skilled, and amazingly good at 'bending' the rules. Though I still hate seeing his bout with Olivares.
There is no getting around that the WBA had very intimate ties with Panama. Hilario Zapata was one of my favorite fighters. But, when he was post prime he got a shot at the vacant WBA 112 lb title against a mediocre fighter he had already beaten named Alonzo "Strongbow" Gonzales. This was only months after losing to WBA Champ. Santos Laciar, who then vacated the title. Jorge Lujan got a shot at WBA 122 lb. Champion Sergio Palma while on a THREE BOUT LOSING Streak. Lujuan also got his shot at Zamora after losing 2 of his last 3 fights. Pedroza, as you said had 3 ko losses on his record when he received the shot against Lastra. Then, once he was champ he got the benefit of the doubt in several close fights. In the first Lockridge fight, Panamanian Judge Rodolfo Hill voted for Pedroza by 12 points!!!!!! in what was a very close to fight to all other observers. Then, there was the debacle against Juan Laporte where he fouled Laporte well beyond the point that disqualification could have happened. And, as you pointed out, Lujuan, Pedroza and I will add Zapata, proved their metal as Champs. But, when they were on way up and when on the decline, WBA favoritism was available to them.
