Salvador Sanchez TKO 15 Azumah Nelson

Ya. Well put. What I would say to people who say Sanchez was overrated because Professor was only 13 fights in is watch the fight and then get back to me.

 

The fight from which my avatar was taken. Terrific, amazing fight. The Gomez fight gets more ink, but this one might be better.

 

It's an incredible fight. Where it ranks in pure list terms is obviously subjective but it was an all-time great fight when it happened and it's comfortably inside the 50 best there have ever been imo.

What's crazy about it though is that it's (highly) arguably only the fourth best fight of 1982! I and many others put Arguello-Pryor inside the top 10 fights in history. The other two all-time great fights of that year (Gomez-Pintor and Chacon-Limon IV) are easily top 20-30 as well. I'd say that Sanchez-Nelson is on the cusp of top 30 all-time and could easily rate higher. But if you think Sanchez-Nelson is actually better than the other three, I wouldn't strongly argue against you either! It really is that good.

The only other thing I have to say is that 15 round fights were just more special than 12 round fights. You discovered things about fighters over those last 3 rounds that we no longer get to see in the 12 round era. How many fights were decided in the early 1980s in those final three rounds? The four I've mentioned already all were decided late on plus Saad-Lopez, Leonard-Hearns and Mancini-Kim - which helped put an end to that era when Kim died - but that's what made them extra special. They just don't make 'em like that anymore!

 

Great thread & posts here.

 

One thing that amazes me about Sanchez is that his win list includes victories over the next three WBC featherweight belt holders (LaPorte, Gomez, and Nelson) and two other WBC title challengers (Castillo and Cowdell). That's 11 title fights in the five years following Sanchez' death, all featuring Sanchez victims. In a way Sanchez ruled the division (or the WBC portion, anyway) from 1980 until Fenech won the vacant belt in March 1988.

 

Thank You.

In other words we don't separate the men from the boys anymore. 12 rounds isn't enough. The magic is gone.

 

What's the absolute greatest that the posters of classic believe Sanchez could have been with an, again, optimal career?

 

Top 20 P4P. He already had a nice resume. I don't know if the tall of retiring to become a doctor were serious or not.

 

Undisputed Featherweight champion beating Pedroza (no sure thing) and then winning two more divisional titles at junior lightweight and lightweight. But I think featherweight was his optimum weight class.

 

I don't really rank fighters like "Oh, he's top 20" or anything like that, but just generally speaking I tend to doubt he had TOO much left. Maybe another couple years at the top. In spite of his conditioning and brilliance, it's a lot to assume that anyone can have that many extended efforts over that many years and manage to maintain that razor edge indefinitely. That's just not how it works. How many in boxing history have done that? Particularly with Sanchez's style of...………….I don't know how to describe it, undermining his opponents rather than overwhelming them. He had too many close fights (Cowdell, Ford, Nelson) for me to think he'd simply run the tables on anyone and everyone he met. He'd stub his toe eventually. They all do.

 

He could lose fights if he goes on. All those great fighters have loses. It would depend on who he lost to, how he lost, what he did after.

 

I've no doubt there was more to come from him whether he would have beaten everyone we just don't know.