Roy Jones picks Salvador Sanchez as his all time P4P # 3

Thanks Greg i have Ross at 21.I know Ross won his series v McLarnin 2 - i but the final fight was very close and i just prefer Jimmys overall career, but totally understand your point of view

 

No worries Noel. All 3 fights were close tbf. I give Ross credit as he was smaller and more consistent against other opponents imo, but I respect your opinion. Your top 10 all appearing in my top 11 suggests we agree on more than we differ. Cheers.

 

Speculative because of Sal's early death, but in a subpar performance, he did own Azumah Nelson to conclude his career and life. Sal was younger than his final conquest in the only bout where Nelson was ever halted before the final bell, sustaining three KDs in the fifteenth round at that. Nelson would not be defeated again for another eight years, and then by Whitaker at LW.

Nelson was never defeated for Sal's WBC FW Title, holding it until moving up in weight in 1988. Roy's extrapolating, but by using Nelson as a bellwether, it's an extremely rational extrapolation. Sal was getting better and maturing into heavier weight classes when he died at just age 23. Factoring in his aerobically perfect conditioning and discipline, he was going to be a champion as long as he cared to be. In his four biggest bouts, he dominated and kayoed three legends. He was at his very best against the very best the FW division had to offer, except he never got a FW unification against Pedroza, but due to Sal's greater youth, we know who had the longer career ahead.

Could Sal have beaten Arguello? That one was being speculated on and discussed when Sal died. (I think that would've been a bridge too far, but with Sal's conditioning and punch resistance, he could certainly do for 15 rounds what Vilomar Fernandez managed against Duran and Arguello.)

 

It depends on your criteria. If I'm ranking based on career greatness then Sal's gonna fall well short of guys that had hundreds of fights over decades. If I'm basing it on eye test for best boxers I've ever seen I'd have Sal very high, maybe top 3

 

Also interesting to consider that his plan was to retire at 25 and become a doctor

 

Good list

 

Probably worth mentioning Nelson was in his 14th career fight and 10 of his 13 opponents had a total of 36 fights between them all. That's an average of less that 4 fights each. Outside of that lot another guy had 6 wins, 13 losses and a draw. So that leaves just two others, one of who was 25-1 and the other 35-14-6 and coming off a KO loss to a novice.

So it's hardly as if Sanchez beat some booming version of Nelson. He beat a talented and promising novice (who did have a solid am career behind him admittedly) who was on a very rapid learning curve in the pro's. It's still quite a notable win for Sanchez but nowhere near what it would have been a few years later. It can safely be said tho that Sanchez did give him a crash course on boxing and Nelson came out the other side with immediate improvement that he built on to become an ATG himself.

 

I think Barrera had a similar plan.

 

It's a bit strong but not unreasonable.

 

You've got to respect old Fitz but you can't rate him very highly on account of his inability to set traps.

 

Yeah, just like you've got to respect Pep, but can't rate him too highly on account of easy he was to hit during his prime

 

I completely agree with ATG P4P's first place.
And I completely disagree with the second, and third place ATG P4P.
Even the list looks amateurish to me. I think Roy Jones can make a better list than that. And it seems unbelievable to me that RJJ would say such a thing.

 

That's true, he looked BATTERED against some really skinny guys who obviously were not strong at all. Must've been hit flush constantly for that to happen. Not real high on Pep.

 

For what it's worth, I read in a book once where Jones ranked Sanchez second all time behind Robinson. Sal seems to have slipped in his eyes, then......

 

Well obviously he hasn't got the resume for top 3 P4P. But for how impressive he looks on film, and the potential he had despite already having a great career at a young age. Then he surely rates very high in that regard.

I can't think of many better performances than Sanchez vs Gomez or Sanchez vs Lopez 1, regarding best performances ever at Featherweight.

Also regarding H2H Sanchez has to be top 5 of all time at Featherweight surely ?